How safe is the cloud?

 

The storage of data in a cloud has become common place for many today. The likes of Dropbox, Google Drive etc make it easy to upload data, so it’s always available on your PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone. This eliminates the storage of data on local and external hard drives, USB sticks, CDs or printed documents.

A cloud can be compared to a “virtual” hard drive that can be accessed via Internet-enabled devices. However, the Internet hard drive is not a sky “cloud” in the true sense, but consists of a network of fixed-installed servers, so-called server farms or data centres. On these servers, you can store and share images, documents, data, and more in cloud storage. The digital age is forcing collaboration within the cloud as multiple users can access and work on these files simultaneously. The server networks are mostly managed by large corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon, which rent the resulting IT capacity. This allows innovative companies to rent these capacities.

Data security is about protecting the uploaded data from theft, manipulation, and loss. When choosing cloud solutions, it’s essential to choose a company that provides a high level of security. In the case of the accounting and billing platform Reviso, sensitive corporate data is stored in the cloud, the protection of which is given top priority.

According to recent studies, the majority of cloud users believe that Internet solutions are even more secure than traditional (local) IT systems on your home or business computer. That’s because highly trained security professionals work with the latest security technologies every day to increase data security for cloud providers.

High security server building

The data centre local server buildings are specially secured and have the most advanced burglar protection, fire protection, and alarm systems. Furthermore, the data is typically stored on multiple servers simultaneously, which prevents data loss if a server fails. In addition, daily backups are stored, so that the cloud providers can reliably access the required data in case of failure.

Latest security technologies

Today, the security requirements are constantly changing, which makes it particularly challenging for SMEs, the self-employed and freelancers to keep their IT up-to-date. When using cloud systems, the provider takes over the operation and maintenance of the server technology and thus customers can rely on the protection of the data.

EU General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO / GDPR)

Cloud providers operating their servers in the EU are also subject to the EU Data Protection Directive. Reviso – based in Europe – uses only servers within the EU, so that the European data protection regulation takes effect.

System failure

An IT system failure can seriously affect work in companies. That’s why it’s important that the cloud solutions provide reliable systems so that businesses can work without any problems. At http://status.reviso.com/ you can always analyse the system status of Reviso.

Encoding

Hacker attacks have significantly improved cryptographic technologies in recent years, so that sensitive content is only passed on in encrypted form. Thus, the encrypted data, which are tapped by hackers or third parties without the required access key would not be visible. Many cloud providers rely on the SSL encryption, so that the sent data can only be decrypted by the specific recipient.

Security Policies

The biggest security risk for data security is man. Because insecure passwords, lack of security training and lack of security policies in the company can endanger the security of the cloud. In most cases, companies use a combination of multiple cloud providers. Companies should therefore strive for an appropriate and consistent security concept with clear guidelines for dealing with cloud solutions and a well-developed security policy.