How to Secure Your Cloud Storage

Backing up your data in the cloud has become a habit in a decade. No need to worry about losing our information if our mobile, laptop or PC stops working, storage on a cloud platform makes information accessible anywhere and backs it up in real time. And as the largest institutions are compromised almost every week, information security has become a priority issue in all sectors, even among the general public. Cloud storage is no exception, so we wanted to remind you how to protect your data when it is no longer on-premises.

When offered to businesses, a hosted storage service will encrypt customer information with an individual encryption key. The files are therefore unreadable without this key. But who owns it? Most of the time, it is the companies that offer these infrastructures. This allows them to personalize their Iaas(Infrastructure as a service) services by accessing user data to facilitate indexing and searchability of their files. The key is unlocked using the password entered when connecting to the platform. However, this solution leaves your space vulnerable since a third party has the encryption key, which opens the door to misuse of your data. A cloud storage service can also be compromised by an attack where those who initiated it can gain access to users' encryption keys and therefore their data.


Keep the encryption key to yourself
However, it is possible to use a solution in hosted mode where you can keep your own encryption key. Thus, only the customer has access to his information and he has the possibility of encrypting his files himself. All security is in his hands. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Because if you lose your security key, you cannot reset it and therefore recover everything stored in your space ... The additional features provided by the cloud storage providers mentioned above will also no longer be available. Which can degrade the user experience.

Two choices are therefore possible. The easiest: go through a cloud storage provider. They take security in general very seriously and ensure the integrity of your data. For the more anxious who need additional control, storage solutions offering client-side encryption are available. Like the service offered by SpiderOak for example, which was highly recommended by Edward Snowden to avoid using Dropbox. However, if cloud storage is more for personal use (backing up photos, etc.), the self-encryption option may not be worth it.

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