Author Archives: Mirror Storage

3 steps you can take to protect your data in the Cloud

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3 steps you can take to protect your data in the Cloud

Moving to the Cloud offers tremendous benefits for SMBs that range from lower IT costs to any-time access to data and certainly more reliability in terms of uptime. But, data in the Cloud is also vulnerable to security threats just like the data stored on physical servers. This blog discusses 3 things you can do to protect your data in the Cloud

Secure access: The first step would be to secure access to your data in the Cloud. So, how do you go about it? Safeguard your login credentials-your User IDs and passwords-from prying eye. Set strong password policies that are practiced across the board and educate your employees about good password hygiene. Also, do you have employees using their own devices to access their work-related applications and documents? Do you have staff working from home? Then, you also need to formulate strong BYOD (Bring-your-own-device) policies, so these devices don’t end up as the entry point to cybercriminals.

Educate your employees: What’s the first thing that pops into your head when someone talks about cybercrime? You probably picture some unknown person, a tech-whiz sitting behind a computer in a dark room, trying to steal your data. But, surprising as it may seem, the first and probably the biggest threat to your data and IT security in general, comes from your employees! Malicious employees may do you harm on purpose by stealing or destroying your data, but oftentimes, employees unwittingly become accomplices to cybercrime. For example, forwarding an email with an attachment that contains a virus, or clicking on a phishing link unknowingly and entering sensitive information therein or compromising on security when they share passwords or connect to an unsecured or open WiFi at public places such as the mall or the airport with a view to “get things done”, but, without realizing how disastrous the implications of such actions can be.

Choosing the right Cloud service provider: If you are putting your data in the Cloud, you need to make sure that it is in safe hands. As such, it is your Cloud service provider’s responsibility to ensure your data is secure and, accessible, always. But, are they doing all that is needed to ensure this happens? It is very important to choose a trustworthy Cloud service provider because you are essentially handing over all your data to them. So, apart from strengthening your defenses, you need to check how well-prepared they are to avert the threats posed by cybercriminals.

Complete Cloud security is a blend of all these plus internal policies, best practices, and regulations related to IT security, and of course, the MSP you choose to be your Cloud security provider plays a key role in all this.

Is the Cloud really risk-free?

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Is the Cloud really risk-free?

The Cloud presents plenty of benefits that make it a very attractive choice, especially for SMBs who don’t want to be burdened with higher in-house IT costs, putting your data in the Cloud is not risk-free. Just as storing data on physical servers has its security threats, the Cloud presents certain security concerns as well. These include

  • Data breach: A data breach is when your data is accessed by someone who is not authorized to do so.
  • Data loss: A data loss is a situation where your data in the Cloud is destroyed due to certain circumstances such as technological failure or neglect during any stage of data processing or storage.
  • Account hijacking: Like traditional servers, data in the Cloud could be stolen through account hijacking as well. In fact, Cloud account hijacking is predominantly deployed in cybercrimes that require entail identity thefts and wrongful impersonation
  • Service traffic hijacking: In a service traffic hijacking, your attacker first gains access to your credentials, uses it to understand the online activities that happen in your domain and then uses the information to mislead your users or domain visitors to malicious sites.
  • Insecure application program interfaces (APIs): Sometimes, Cloud APIs, when opened up to third parties, can be a huge security threat. If the API keys are not properly secured, it can serve as an entry point for cybercriminals and malicious elements.
  • Poor choice of Cloud storage providers: A security lapse from the Cloud storage provider’s end is a huge security concern for businesses. It is very important to choose a trusted and experienced Cloud service provider who knows what they are doing.

Apart from the above, there are some common threats that apply to both the Cloud and traditional data storage environments such as a DDoS attack, or a malware attack where your data in the Cloud becomes susceptible because it is being shared with others and at other places.

Some Cloud security mechanisms that SMBs can invest in to keep their data safe

Cloud firewalls: Much like the firewalls you deploy for your local IT network, Cloud firewalls work to prevent unauthorized Cloud network access.

Penetration testing: Penetration testing is a sort of a Cloud security check where IT experts try hacking into the Cloud network to figure out if there are any security lapses or vulnerabilities that could serve cybercriminals.

Obfuscation: In obfuscation, the data or program code is obscured on purpose such that the system delivers unclear code to anyone other than the original programmer, thus mitigating any malicious activity.

Tokenization: Tokenization is the process of replacing sensitive data with unique identification symbols that retain all the essential information about the data without compromising its security.1

Virtual Private Networks (VPN): Another, more commonly used mechanism is the VPN. VPN creates a safe passage for data over the Cloud through end-to-end encryption methodology.

Investing in a good Cloud security system is a must, but, in the end, you also need to remember that Cloud security is not only about antivirus software, firewalls, and other anti-malware tools. You need to pick the right MSP and work closely with them to implement a Cloud security solution that works for you.

1https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/tokenization

Things to consider before switching to the Cloud

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Things to consider before switching to the Cloud

More and more businesses are switching to the Cloud to store their data and rightly so. The Cloud offers numerous benefits over the traditional, physical on site server. For example,

  • Anytime, anywhere access to your data: Information in the Cloud can be accessed from anywhere using an internet connection, unlike in the case of traditional servers, where you need a physical connection to the servers
  • Significant cost savings: You cut hardware costs, because the Cloud follows a ‘pay-as-you-use’ approach to data storage
  • SaaS compatibility and support: The Cloud allows the use of Software-as-a-Service since the software can be hosted in the Cloud
  • Scalability: The Cloud lets you scale up and down as your business needs change
  • 24/7 monitoring, support, and greater access reliability: When your data is in the Cloud, the Cloud service provider is responsible for keeping it safe and ensuring it is securely accessible at all times. They monitor the Cloud’s performance and in the event of any performance issues, they provide immediate tech support to resolve the problem

Your big Cloud move: What to consider

If you are considering moving to the Cloud, you will find it helpful to sign-up with an MSP who is well-versed with the Cloud. They can advise you on the benefits and risks of the Cloud and also offer the Cloud solution that’s right for you. In any case, before you migrate to the Cloud, make sure you are dealing with a reputed Cloud service provider who has strong data security measures in place. You can even explicitly ask them what security mechanisms they have invested in to manage data access and security.

Yes, moving to the Cloud has it benefits, but it also has its challenges including security risks. Learn more in our next blog, “Is the Cloud really risk-free?”

7 Tips for creating a great privacy policy

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7 Tips for creating a great privacy policy

A privacy policy is not just a legal requirement, it is a tool to help earn your customers’ trust and to protect yourself. In many ways, it sets the stage for the next steps such as data security, sharing and storage. In this blog, we share 7 tips that will help you when drafting your privacy policy.

    1. Update your privacy policy if there’s a change in any process or procedures related to any of the 5 key elements of the privacy policy (data procuring, storage, security, sharing and customer rights) and notify your customers of the update. Even a simple pop-up on the website, telling them you have made some updates to the existing privacy policy and they need to ‘accept’/ authorize the new one, will do.
    1. You need to make sure the privacy policy is a part of your website’s sitemap or clearly visible in the footer. The goal is to ensure it is easily accessible to your website visitors, in case they wish to read it. With the same goal in mind, we recommend that you keep it simple. There’s no need to use fancy words and jargon in your privacy policy. Just ensure it covers and conveys everything.
    1. Give a link to the privacy policy wherever it can come into play. For example, before filling a form (for demo/appointment/asset download), before check out (at the time of a purchase) or even just as they enter your website.
    1. Don’t forget the cookies! If your site uses cookies to store visitors’ preferences with the goal to offer a more personalized browsing experience, you need to let your visitors know of that. A pop-up on your site during their first time visit is a good way to do this.
    1. There are many websites online that you can use to get a template or a framework for your privacy policy. A great resource to get started with is the Better Business Bureau’s privacy policy template. They have privacy policy templates customized as per the state you operate in. Here’s a link to one of them- https://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/for-businesses/toolkits1/sample-privacy-policy/
    1. Make sure your privacy policy mirrors the standards for the industry you are in. For example, a privacy policy for a business that sells products may differ from that for a service- oriented firm. An accounting firm or a healthcare service provider may have to cover more ground in their privacy policy owing to other regulatory requirements than a simple ecommerce based product seller.
  1. Stay abreast with developments that may affect your privacy policy. The GDPR is one of them. If you are afraid you won’t be able to keep tabs on such news, ask your MSP and legal counsel.

If you are too busy to draft a privacy policy that suits your business or are just not sure if you have covered everything that you need to, it may be a good idea to sit with your Managed Service Provider and have them review your existing policy or create a new one for your business.

  • NOTE: This blog is for informational purposes only and designed solely to encourage awareness of this complex topic. To learn more, contact legal and technical professionals for advice.

What is a privacy policy and why do you need one

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What is a privacy policy and why do you need one

Your business is privy to a lot of data. A lot of information flows in from clients, vendors and even your employees. This includes Personally Identifiable Information (PII)–data that can help identify an individual and perhaps even get in touch with them. A privacy policy tells others how your business will be using all the PII.

You may not realize it, but you are collecting PII everyday! Instances where your business is collecting PII is when you have a form on your website asking for details such as name, phone number, address or city, etc. that visitors have to fill out to schedule a demo or an appointment with you, to download a whitepaper, or a form that they need to fill online at the time of purchasing your product or service–even something as simple as making an online payment on your site entails sharing their PII with you. As a business, before you gather PII from anyone, as a business, it is your legal responsibility to have a privacy policy in place. The U.S., as such, doesn’t have a federal law that makes a privacy policy compulsory, but many states in the U.S. do, which pretty much makes it a must-have, no matter how big or small a business you are. Other than that, here are a few reasons why you need a privacy policy.

It can protect you in the court of law

A privacy policy is more than just a legal requirement. Not just a legal requirement, having a privacy policy can safeguard you from potential lawsuits. Having someone accept your privacy policy can protect you as long as the information and the way in which you used/shared/stored it was covered in the privacy policy and authorized by the party in question.

It enhances your brand image and helps build trust

By having a privacy policy in place, you will be perceived as someone who takes data and information security of your clients seriously. This naturally enhances your brand image and helps build trust.

In short, a privacy policy is indispensable if you run a business. If you are too busy to look into drafting one, get in touch with a MSP to help you with the nuances of creating a privacy policy.

  • NOTE: This blog is for informational purposes only and designed solely to encourage awareness of this complex topic. To learn more, contact legal and technical professionals for advice.

3 ways Office 365 helps cut down your IT costs

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3 ways Office 365 helps cut down your IT costs

Want to switch to Office 365, but are not sure if it is cost effective? In this blog, we discuss three ways in which Office 365 can help bring down your IT costs.

You don’t have to pay upfront

When you subscribe to Office 365, you can pay the licensing fee on a monthly basis. It is more of a pay-as-you-go format. In the traditional Office set-up, you had to pay for the number of licenses you bought and they were yours to keep–but, at the same time, they were tied to the device you bought them for, meaning legally, you could install them only on the device you bought them for.

You are paying only for what you use

In the traditional set-up, you are paying for installing and using the software program on individual devices. That means, if you cut down on staff or use seasonal staff, or staff working remotely from home or other locations, they won’t have access to the programs. With Office 365, you are paying per license, irrespective of the device you are using it in. That means anyone can access it, from anywhere, using their credentials. This flexible approach to Office also makes it easy when you scale up or down in terms of staff.

Great admin tools

Office 365 offers IT administrators tools that provide a lot of control and visibility over activities related to Office. Here’s what administrators can do with the new Office 365

  • Create and delete users
  • Manage users by creating user groups based on user roles and requirements and set different access and permission levels for each user group
  • Manage the security of data in Office 365 by setting access restrictions, password expiry, etc.,

Using the admin control tools, administrators can generate reports that tell them usage patterns, draw attention to bugs, or program downtimes. The reports also provide usage patterns which can help you streamline subscription costs.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to make the switch to the more powerful, efficient and cost-effective version of Office. Talk to a Microsoft licensed MSP today!

Your guide to Office 365: Part-II

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Your guide to Office 365: Part-II

Last week, we provided a brief introduction of what Office 365 is, and touched on some of the benefits it offers. This week we look at a few more pros of Office 365.

More efficient

Office 365, being the recent version of Office, is one of the most efficient versions. It can boost your productivity better than traditional Office.

Offers a good number of support tools

Office 365 is more than Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It offers plenty of other support tools that make collaboration easier and can help boost the overall productivity of your team. Examples include-Sharepoint, Skype for business, OneNote, etc.,

Mobile compatibility and real-time synchronization

Office 365 is mobile compatible and has its own app that you can download on your phone and use to access and edit your Office files anytime from anywhere. Plus, since the files are in the cloud and can be shared with others, it also lets multiple people work on the files simultaneously.

Upgrades are much easier

Since Office 365 is online, you don’t have to do software updates or version upgrades the old-fashioned way, for each device. Updates and revisions can be both expensive and cumbersome, so businesses tend to stick with the older version, rather than paying for and installing a new one. This can create security issues. In Office 365, you get automated updates and version upgrades and these can be applied across all your accounts at once.

If you are already well versed with the traditional office, you don’t have to worry about Office 365 being any different. Microsoft has not made any significant changes in the cloud version of the Office that will cause confusion for users that are used to the desktop version. But, No matter how easy a software suite is to install and use, ensuring it is updated regularly so that the security patches are in place and the tool is in compliance with industry regulations and standards can be time-consuming–especially when you have a business to run and customers to attend to. Consider getting assistance from a Managed Services Provider (MSP) who is authorized by Microsoft to provide Office 365 services for you. Office 365 also has multiple versions of it–each suitable for different business sizes/uses. Your MSP will be able to guide you well as to which version suits your needs best based on your business and industry.

Your guide to Office 365: Part 1

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Your guide to Office 365: Part 1

Are you considering investing in Microsoft Office 365? Whether you already use the Microsoft Office Suite and are now thinking of switching, or considering whether to opt for this Microsoft product as your first Office tool, this blog will help you understand Microsoft Office 365 better. Learn what Office 365 is all about in our 2-part blog series.

What is Office 365?

Let’s start with what Office 365 is. Office 365 is a suite of Microsoft Office programs that includes email client, spreadsheet, presentation, document, calendar/reminder, collaboration and chat tools.

How is it different from the regular Office package?

Unlike the regular Office package, Office 365 is web-based. That means all your data is stored in the cloud and retrieved from there every time you need to access it. It is not necessary to store the software on your computer, though you have the option to install it if you wish.

What are the benefits of Office 365?

Web-based

The regular Office package stores your data locally, on a computer. When you store your data locally, there are chances of downtime and data loss if the hard disk becomes corrupted or fails. Also, you cannot access it unless you have access to the specific computer or hard disk it is stored on. Office 365, on the other hand, is web-based and can be accessed from anywhere, as the data is not stored on any particular hard disk.

Standard data security is taken care of

Office 365 uses encryption, so, in general, your data is safer than it would be on the desktop version of the Office. Plus, it is HIPPA and FERPA compliant, which makes it easier if you are operating in the healthcare or education sector. Plus, the security in cloud-based storage is generally stronger than what you get when storing at the local level.

More storage

Office 365 offers more storage space compared to the traditional version of Office. In the traditional version, when you use Outlook email client, the emails are stored on your hard drive, slowing down your system and eventually making you run out of space, forcing you to delete a lot of those older emails. Often we see that clients don’t want to lose old emails. Maybe they find them all too important to let go of, or they just don’t want to spend time browsing through hundreds of them deciding which ones to delete. In any case, Office 365 comes with 50GB of storage space for emails, so you don’t have to worry about this issue anymore.

Stay tuned for part two of our blog, Your Guide to Office 365-II.

Internal threats: A new angle to email security

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You know how important your email system is to your business. Not only is email your core communication tool, but also bears a lot of weight from the legal perspective and must be accessible at all times. You have a good email security system and also ensure your emails are always backed up, archived and stored safely. But what about keeping your email system safe from threats within your organization?

When it comes to email security, an oft-ignored, yet interesting angle to look into is–how to protect your email system from internal threats, like malicious intent of your own employees. There is the possibility that somebody who works for you could choose to corrupt your email system on purpose. You can avoid such instances from happening by constantly monitoring your employee’s IT behavior. You can do this by installing software programs that work to track employee access and activities related to access and sends alerts in case of unusual IT behavior. Examples of unusual IT behavior includes employees logging into work email at a time or day they are not expected to, sending attachments to email addresses that are outside of your organizational network, etc. Also invest in CCTV cameras and biometric access if you can. That will also serve as a deterrent to malicious employees.

Email is the most critical communication tool for your business, but it also has the potential to serve as an easy, backdoor entry for cybercriminals into your organization’s IT systems. When it comes to cybercrime, email is also one of the most commonly targeted elements. An email hack has the potential to translate into data leak, compromise sensitive vendor and client data leaving you vulnerable to lawsuits or install malware that can paralyze your business functions entirely.

If you don’t have the time to look into the security of your email system, consider seeking assistance from a MSP. They will be able to review your business requirement and suggest the right email security tool for you. They can also help you draft a sound IT policy if you don’t already have one and also conduct employee training and drills from the security perspective.

What to look for an email security solution

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What to look for an email security solution

An important aspect to email security is, of course, deploying a good email security solution. But, with so many available in the market, what should you be looking for when opting for an email security tool? Here are some key features you would want in your email security solution.

  • Encryption: Let’s start with the worst-case scenario. Your corporate email server is hacked. By opting for an email security solution that offers data encryption, you can ensure that the thieves are never able to read the data they stole. Data encryption is basically coding of data in a different format when it is sent and decoding it once it reaches the recipient. Without decryption keys, no one in the middle will be able to make sense of the data they access.

  • Ditch the server-based email system: In server based email systems–the kind supported by most older versions of email software (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc), the emails are stored on servers and transmitted every time the email software establishes connection with them.The newer, web-based systems offer additional security.

  • Strong filters: Make sure your email security tool has strong filtering capabilities to keep spam and malicious emails out of your inbox. Training employees to identify spam and fraudulent emails is good, but getting an email security software that keeps most of them away is even better!

  • Intelligence: When looking for an email security software, consider its artificial intelligence. According to Biztech, a leading business technology news magazine, newer anti-malware rely less on signatures of known malicious content and instead uses threat intelligence, reputation services and other near-real-time sources to pinpoint the location of threats — domains and IP and email addresses, for example to alert IT teams. Cybercriminals are getting smarter by the day, and always innovating, looking for ways to get around the anti-malwares existing in the market. You need an email security solution that can keep up with them.

The critical role played by email in your business environment and its vulnerability make it imperative that you deploy strong security solutions for your email. Reach out to a credible MSP to learn more about how you can keep your email system clean and safe.