Apart from the issues and challenges with cloud computing, here are cloud computing security benefits.
Examples of Cloud Computing Security Benefits
1. It protects you from DDoS.
A leading cloud computing security solution focuses on steps to stop massive quantities of traffic aimed at a company’s cloud servers, as distributed denial of service attacks are on the rise. To reduce risk, this requires monitoring, absorbing, and spreading DDoS attacks.
2. Enhances data security in your network.
While security measures are in place, like firewalls, intrusion prevention, anti-virus software, and secure passwords, these methods can be costly. You can improve security by implementing cloud computing security measures that are cost-effective and efficient.
3. Protects against stealing and losing of data.
Cloud computing security solutions help against lost or stealing of data. With the cloud computing approach, the main storage of data will remain at a remote location. So it is out of reach by potential thieves or hackers.
4. Avoids financial loss due to malware infection.
Cloud computing security solutions can prevent malware infections. So there is no need to worry about financial loss due to unexpected malware infections.
5. Provides high availability of applications and services.
One of the benefits of the cloud computing approach is that it provides higher availability for network infrastructure and applications that are on it. With cloud computing, your company can avoid costly downtime due to server failures. Perhaps because the servers are coming from a vendor’s data center.
Security Risks
It’s still necessary to take precautions because there are still security risks involved with this technology including the following:
There are concerns about online privacy issues which are prevalent with an increasing number of customers using cloud solutions for data storage and sharing platforms for collaboration purposes.
The concern arises because customers’ data could be accessed by unauthorized parties due to inadequate encryption methods used by companies who provide such solutions (e.g., Google).
Customers also need to be aware of how their information is used to avoid potential problems such as identity theft and cyber-bullying, especially when they use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Customers need to keep their personal information private to protect themselves from identity theft and misuse of their information.
How to Avoid Security Risks
- Use strong passwords that are hard to guess and change them frequently.
- Only visit trustworthy sites when you access the internet and avoid sites that offer online services such as online banking.
- Don’t respond to text messages and emails from unknown senders and never click on links in such messages because these could be used by hackers in their attacks against your network.
- Delete any messages from unknown senders immediately without opening them.
- Avoid downloading files, especially those with unfamiliar file extensions, from websites you aren’t familiar with because they could contain malware.
- Install an antivirus program on your computer or mobile device to protect it from malware infection.
- Regularly update your antivirus software so it can identify threats more efficiently.