How to safely use the cloud at work

Contrary to what many people think, cloud computing is far from a new concept: the beginnings of this type of decentralized, on-demand computing architecture date back to at least the 1990s.

Since then, cloud popularity has skyrocketed. In the personal sphere, free file storage and synchronization services began to appear on the market. In the corporate world, it became easy and cheap to build computing architecture on decentralized servers. 

Flexibility and scalability have always been the most attention-grabbing attributes. With the accelerated digital transformation of the last few years, the cloud has become a must-have for every organization.

You may not even realize it, but it is quite likely that you use the cloud in your daily work routine. Maybe it's behind a team communication or collaboration platform. Or, even more commonly, the cloud is used to store documents and share them with co-workers. 

There’s no doubt that technology greatly facilitates our daily lives, but it is essential to take certain care measures so that this dream doesn’t turn into a nightmare.

It's sweet, but it's not easy...

Unfortunately, due to a lack of technical expertise regarding this technology, some employees may end up making mistakes that jeopardize the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive information. 

For example, many people don't realize that users are responsible for security and privacy settings in the cloud! The provider, on the other hand, is only obliged to keep the service running smoothly. This is what we call "shared responsibility".

Let's imagine, for example, that your company uses a service to store and share files in the cloud. Have you made sure that important documents are only accessible to those authorized to view them? It’s more common than you might think for employees who set up records as publicly accessible so that anyone with the link can access them. 

In some cases – common on project management platforms – it is even possible to find confidential information by entering a few keywords into Google – a real boon for cybercriminals! This is what we call Google Dorking: with specific commands and parameters typed into the search engine, you can find cloud environments that were mistakenly configured as public, making them easier to find...

So be very careful when setting the privacy settings not only for the cloud, but for all the services you use for work.

Additionally, don't store work-related documents in your personal cloud, as it may not feature the same security as the one set up by your company's security team. 

When in doubt, ask for help!

It is natural to stumble across certain difficulties when using cloud computing services. Don't be afraid to call on your company's information security team or IT department if you feel you need training on the correct configuration.