Are data clouds safe?

Data storage in the so-called The cloud, i.e. on external servers, may be less secure than we think, experts have been alarming since the incident with private photos of American actresses a few years ago. The photos were stolen from Apple's iCloud cloud and made available on 4chan. It was one of the loudest leaks of its kind.

Despite these mishaps, cloud computing is still largely vulnerable to attacks. Little knowledge about them among customers seems to be a bigger problem for the providers of this type of services. Fear of the unknown paralyzes many IT managers from taking systems outside of their businesses. And the protection of information stored and processed in the cloud remains one of the main factors influencing the decision to implement the cloud platform.

The cloud provides easy access to data. This is important as companies are becoming less and less tied to their headquarters. Sales representatives, mobile workers and managers today require access to applications and information from anywhere in the world. Where IT systems are physically located is losing importance, and companies are forced to create secure connections between headquarters, branches and the data center anyway.

Of course, the cloud requires stable and relatively fast internet connections. In company locations, it is worth ensuring that the Internet is provided by at least two independent routes, e.g. with high-speed optical fiber and radio, with BGP traffic routing, so that in the event of a temporary unavailability of the basic link, you can still have access to the network.

You can safely assume that building your own, well-equipped server room will cost over a million zlotys. Therefore, fewer and fewer companies decide to take a similar step, since they can rent space for their servers in an external data center (colocation) or use cloud services. If only because there are many more arguments for taking your systems outside.

The data center ensures the proper environmental parameters of the operation of network devices and servers. We are talking about interiors and buildings adapted for this purpose, equipped with power generators and power backup systems (UPS), as well as air conditioning systems, ensuring the appropriate level of temperature, humidity and air purity in the rooms. All of this is carefully designed, implemented and maintained by data center specialists.

In the layer of physical security, multi-level access control systems are used. Only authorized persons are allowed to enter the data center premises - and only after authentication with a PIN code, proximity card, fingerprint or iris scan. Other mandatory security features include an intruder alarm system that detects unauthorized entrances to the server room, and video surveillance that records everything that happens in the data center premises.

Find more information here: Cloud Security