The cloud has been a blessing for small business owners battling through tough economic times. Instead of purchasing expensive enterprise software, business owners can save their dollars by accessing powerful computing programs in the cloud, everything from high-end word processors and project-management tools to spreadsheets and Photoshop alternatives. But, the cloud isn’t perfect, especially when it comes to security issues. Business owners need to be aware that their documents, presentations, and marketing materials can be damaged when they are stored in the cloud.
Password issues
One of the biggest security issues when dealing with the cloud is password protection. This is also one of the primary security issues outside of the cloud.
You should always carefully select passwords to your projects stored in the cloud. The more complex your passwords are the harder they are to guess. A great way to achieve this is to use a mixture of numbers and letters in your passwords. Also, you should not share these passwords with many people.
Hacker alert
A few serious problems that will not soon disappear for everyone who uses a computer are hackers, malware, and spyware. As business owners have little control over how secure the cloud is this part of security can be very frightening indeed. Companies like Microsoft and Google must create their own security measures to protect the data stored in the cloud.
Common sense protection
There are a couple common-sense practices that will help protect small business owners who choose to store information in the cloud.
First, think about the type of information you’d be storing in the cloud. Whatever is incredibly sensitive may not be the best to store in the cloud. It might be safer to back up this information on a personal system and find a more secure way to store it.
Secondly, business owners must stay vigilant about who they allow access to their cloud-stored data, documents, and reports. Owners are careful about whom they allow to access the files on their desktops and laptops and they should be equally careful when it comes to granting others access to their cloud-hosted information.
