It’s unnerving to trust an outsider with your data; it’s completely understandable that you have doubts about it, especially if your data is confidential or highly privileged. While having your data backed up in the cloud is practically an essential element of business these days, it’s perfectly understandable to have concerns about who has access to your data. Here are a few things you should know about the security and anonymity of your data when you’re backing up to the cloud.
Passcodes
After everything is initially backed up, your provider should work with you to create a certain number of passcodes, or encryption keys that only a few people in your business have access to. Your provider should not have access to these codes unless you give them to them. Your cloud service provider will be able to ensure none of your data is damaged, but will not be able to read it. In the case that a disaster is declared, you may want to give the passcode to the provider in order to take care of business and get everything back in its proper working order. After that, change the passcodes and carry on.
Access to Monitor
Your backup provider’s job is to keep your files safe. Part of this is monitoring incoming data to make sure files are not corrupted or infected with viruses. Your provider should never have to look into the documents and should provide you with good security without opening any files or documents. They should be able to tell if a file is corrupt without having to open it up individually. So, there shouldn’t be any worry that your provider is snooping through your files.
Building Trust
Yes, you should probably feel a little uncomfortable about trusting your data with an outsider. After all, it’s important enough to protect, right? But cloud backup providers are in the business of providing data security. In other words, they are worried about making sure that your data is kept to your company alone. And that means initiating protocols that only grant them a certain low level of access to the actual documents. If you already have a backup provider, check in to make sure that your data is kept private to your company alone and to make sure that no one else has access, not even them.