Hybrid Cloud Security

Written on August 13, 2019. Posted in Blog, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security. Leave a Comment

Security is of utmost importance for businesses. It’s crucial that you have proper technologies and practices put in place to protect your business from many things that can be detrimental to your productivity and success, such as downtime, cyber threats, and loss of data. This is particularly important when using a Hybrid Cloud as it uses a combination of on-premises, private and third-party cloud services. While there are many advantages to using a Hybrid Cloud, in order to maximize the benefits, it’s imperative to ensure proper security is put in place to avoid a breach.

What is Hybrid Cloud Security?

Hybrid Cloud Security can be defined as security measures that have been designed specifically for hybrid infrastructures. It offers protection of your applications, data and infrastructures across all aspects of a hybrid cloud – both the physical, virtual and cloud, as well as public and private clouds being used.

Why Is Hybrid Cloud Security Important?

Premium protection of data, applications, and infrastructure is imperative for all businesses using any type of cloud. For hybrid clouds, in particular, your environments are separate items that are connected to private and public clouds. As such, there are some unique challenges that come with hybrid clouds, such as:

Data Protection
Vendor Security

While your data is a separate entity, migrating between the different environments that make up a hybrid cloud means that you are still connected to other environments in some ways. As such, it’s crucial to limit data exposure through encryption, which can be done with hybrid cloud security.

Vendor security is also another challenge with hybrid clouds as such environments often include software and products from several vendors. The way such vendors test and manage their software and products can pose a risk if hybrid cloud security is not implemented.

Is Your Hybrid Cloud Strategy Secure?

There are many ways you can check to see if your hybrid cloud strategy is secure. The first is to determine whether or not your business has a detailed plan on how data will be transitioned to the cloud securely. If there is no plan, this is problem number one. It is vital to develop a plan that foresees the details of transitioning to a hybrid cloud so any discrepancies and concerns can be addressed before they impact your business.

If your organization does have a hybrid cloud strategy put in place, take time to analyze it. A superior hybrid cloud strategy must determine and have a plan for the following information:

Which applications can be moved directly to cloud-based servers
Which applications require customization or changes prior to migrating to the cloud
Which applications must be rewritten or migrated to a different cloud that is compatible
The destination for each asset
Risk assessment schedule

Additionally, you’ll want to analyze the hybrid cloud services you’re using. You must ensure the policies and compliance of your private cloud, public cloud and both cloud as one entity comply with your policies and requirements. It is also crucial to determine if your intellectual property on the hybrid cloud is protected.

Security tool compatibility is also a key component for a secure hybrid cloud strategy, as it enables the use of imperative security tools, such as antivirus software, IPS devices and firewalls.

Hybrid Cloud Security can be complicated to understand but it is mandatory to ensure the protection of your data, applications and infrastructures. Zycom is building out a hybrid cloud workshop that will provide you with valuable information about maintaining optimal security when using a hybrid cloud.

Everything You Need To Know About Disaster Recovery

Written on December 23, 2017. Posted in Cyber Security.

Every company is at risk for disaster. Storms can dismantle cities leaving your business powerless (both literally and figuratively) until recovery crews fix the damage. Cyber terrorists can attack your organization and steal confidential data. However, you don’t have to be vulnerable. Disaster recovery is something every company needs to ensure that should something go terribly wrong, it can be fixed without sacrificing your company’s work and tarnishing its reputation.

What Is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster recovery (DR) is set of procedures that aim to recover a business’ IT infrastructure in the event of a natural or technical disaster. Natural disasters are defined as bad weather that wipes out power and leaves your company unable to function. Man-made disasters encompass everything from cyber terrorism to human error. For instance, an employee pressing the wrong key and accidentally deletes entire programs containing valuable information.

Can You Prevent A Disaster From Occuring?

Of course, you cannot prevent a natural disaster from occuring. If inclement weather is going to wipe out power lines and cut off internet access, the only thing you can do is implement your DR plan (more on that below) and wait for city crews to clear up the damage and restore power. However, you can put security measures in place that will make it harder for cyber terrorists to penetrate your network, disable your systems and steal your data; and prevent human error. Cloud based IT solutions like Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) are more secure than traditional systems since data and information is stored on one server, instead of individual work stations/devices. With cloud based IT solutions you can also limit access and decide who is allowed to view and work on certain data and when.

Your DR plan

Disaster recovery requires a plan. Should anything happen to your organization, putting a back-up plan in place will allow you to move forward without missing a beat. Your plan should include:

Contact information for the individual (or individuals) in charge of the DR efforts.
A diagram of your network and recovery site.
A detailed list of the software and systems that will be used in the recovery process.
Sample documents and templates you can present to clients to let them know what will be used in DR (should they ask), this includes any cloud based IT solutions.
A policy statement that describes the DR plan and any financial, legal and insurance actions that need to be taken.
If you run a large enterprise that will be covered by the media, your plan should include information about your company’s PR department (or the public relations firm you’ve hired) with their contact information.

Six Cyber Security Vulnerabilities

Written on October 4, 2017. Posted in Cyber Security.

If your system isn’t protected, you may be vulnerable to cyber security risks. Cyber security attacks can come from inside and outside of the control system’s network and it can be hard to know what to look for. There are six cyber security vulnerabilities in particular that you should put on your radar.

Phishing:
Most people know not to open a random email or click on every link that they’re sent. In order for hackers to get you to click on something, they need to get creative. They want your sensitive information so they can use it to attack your network. They’ll use tactics like sending an email from your company’s IT department, a shareholder, or even another company that you do business with. These emails will appear authentic when in fact they’re anything but.
SQL injection attack:
Structured query language (SQL) is programming language that allows communication with databases. Servers store important data for your company’s website. This type of attack uses malicious code to target the server directly and prompt it to reveal information it normally would not. SQL injection attacks can divulge everything from usernames and passwords to credit card info.
Malware:
This is a technique in which hackers pose as antivirus alerts. When you click on the link, you are exposing your system to adverse software, viruses and ransomware (where the hacker asks for money to give you your own system back).
Denial of Service:
During a DoS attack, hackers flood your website with more traffic than it can handle so as to shut it down. There are times when this happens organically because the traffic is genuine and not caused by hackers. In severe cases of DoS attacks, hackers use multiple IP addresses and computers making it harder for your network administrators to overcome the problem.
Session hijacking:
Also known as man-in-the-middle attacks, this threat to cyber security occurs when hackers insert themselves between your server and your client’s computer. To do this, the hacker steals the unique session ID that is meant to stay private between your server and your client’s computer so that they can get access to sensitive information.
Cross-site scripting:
Also referred to as XSS, cross-site scripting involves hackers injecting damaging code into the user’s system so that it in turn can attack your system. Hackers do this by putting this destructive code into a comment or script that would automatically be run, for instance on a user’s blog. Then, the hackers are able to gather sensitive information about the user that they can use to attack your website.

You may not realize when a cyber attack has occurred. Please contact us for more information regarding the safety of your system.