Keeping personal documents secure in an online environment is difficult if proper measures are not taken. This becomes mandatory especially for enterprise users who use the cloud to save sensitive and critical documents like quotes etc. People generally think that a strong password or encrypting a document will serve the purpose. While that is true most of the time, there are times when even these measures can fail.
Extra security becomes essential especially when using applications like MS Office 2010 or Office 365. Microsoft is very particular about this and has their own constructs for meeting the security and privacy expectations of its users. Security also has to be a dynamic process which means that it needs to be constantly updated and upgraded.
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Small Things to Keep In Mind When Using Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is the best thing that could have happened to small business and enterprise users who need to store a lot of documents. But before going in for cloud storage, some things have to be kept in mind like:
Encryption: Encrypting your data can only be considered safe if the cloud service chosen allows the user to select their own encryption key.
Cloud storage location: It is very important to know the data storage location or the cloud storage location. This is because different regions of the world have different privacy laws which might be a cause of concern at times.
Security of the storage facility: The security of the cloud service provider should also be taken into consideration. Care should also be taken that the service provider mans the storage centres 24/7 all the year round with no lapse at all.
Disaster management: Cloud storage is also prone to physical disasters like fire, earthquakes etc. Hence the user should make sure that the cloud service provider has proper solutions in place should such an event happen so that your data does not get lost.
Ways to protect electronic data
Some ways in which documents and files which are stored or shared online using applications like the Office 365, can be protected are:
Use of many levels of security: Data files containing documents can be kept safe by setting permissions on them. This is especially true for online data which can be protected by setting share permissions so that not many people have access to them. File level permissions can also be set individually on these files so as to allow different levels of access like read-only, full control etc.
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Password: Every document should be password protected and the password used should be a strong one so that it cannot be easily hacked.
Public key Infrastructure or PKI: This is a system used for managing pairs of public and private keys and digital certificates issued by trusted third parties. Data which is to be shared and stored online should be encrypted using the public key of the recipient. This again will need its corresponding private key to open it making the data secure from hackers.
Using IP security: Internet Protocol or IP security uses a protocol known as ESP or encapsulating security payload to confidentially encrypt data before sending it through the internet or storing it on the cloud.
Even though it is the job of the cloud service provider to keep data secure online, doing it yourself adds another layer of security to it thereby making it more secure.
