For a short period last week headlines were dominated by the news that several female celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, had been the victims of a hack which stole compromising pictures from their iCloud accounts and published them online. So what can businesses learn from this incident?
Avoid consumer Cloud services
Most consumer Cloud services are perfectly secure when used correctly. However you should always choose a business service for corporate data storage because they tend to be backed by service level agreements and legal recourse in the event of a hacking attempt.
Use advanced account protection tools
By default most Cloud systems use a single password to restrict access to content. If a cybercriminal can crack that password, they have instant access to all your files. Good Cloud systems should offer you the choice of “two factor authentication” that adds an additional layer of security. Using two factor authentication, you are first asked for a password as normal. You will then be asked for a second sign-on code that is sent to your email address or mobile phone. Without this second, auto-generated passcode, you (and a hacker) will be unable to access the data in your account.
Two factor authentication is often an optional extra (Apple iCloud does support this technology), so you must choose to enable it on your Cloud accounts.
These two simple tips will dramatically increase your data security and help your business avoid embarrassing and costly data theft. And neither is too hard to implement either.
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