Many businesses struggle to right-size their cybersecurity. They don’t know what a robust secure cloud hosting solution entails and worry they’re exposed. Or they underestimate the threat and don’t put enough protections in place.
You shouldn’t play guessing games with cybersecurity – you should know your business is safe. As a leading provider of secure cloud hosting and data center services, we know what it takes to keep modern businesses safe in the cloud.
Businesses routinely come to us after experiencing a ransomware security incident to help them recover data and move services into our cloud. To help you evaluate your cloud security, we’re sharing 7 essential ways in which we protect our clients and keep them cybersecure through cloud server security.
Is your cloud security in tip-top shape or do you need to revamp your secure cloud hosting environment? Let’s find out.
Your 7-Step Secure Cloud Hosting Checklist
1. Protect against ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that infiltrates an organization’s network and holds its data and files hostage until a ransom is paid.
The average ransom requested in the business sector in 2022 was $13.2 million
That’s a staggering 57% increase from 2021. Expect costs to continue skyrocketing as criminals exploit businesses and cyber insurance policies.
Air-gapping protects your money and data
Hackers increasingly go after your backups. Air-gapped immutable cloud backups prevent our clients from losing their data and backups. Air-gapped means the backup is offline and cannot be accessed over an internet connection. No access, no hack.
We bake data protection into our solutions
Our hosted customers automatically receive 30 days of backups. It’s included in your solution, not an additional fee. Data protection is critical, and we don’t let anyone miss out on this essential service.
2. Turn on Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
Cybercriminals can buy your passwords on the Dark Web for as little as 97 cents. Thankfully it’s just as easy and inexpensive for you to keep hackers out of your accounts – even if they have your log-in credentials. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA).
How MFA works
With MFA, the user is required to provide at least two verification factors prior to entry (typically a username and password, plus an additional piece of authentication, such as a PIN that is texted to your phone, or the response to a pre-determined personal security question).
MFA stops virtually all attacks
Microsoft reports that it prevents 99.9% of attacks. Zimcom uses MFA throughout their cloud infrastructure management platform as a best practice, as well as offering Duo MFA to help protect your cloud and on-premise environment against unauthorized access.
3. Get endpoint detection and response
Preventative security isn’t enough. A robust solution from a leading provider of secure cloud hosting will include active threat hunting and endpoint detection and response. Aggressive tactics are necessary because hackers know how to slip past defenses, infiltrate networks and then hide there. You don’t notice their presence and they are free to come and go at will.
Endpoint detection and response shines a light on criminal activity
Endpoint detection and response is the solution for stopping these hackers in their tracks before a breach occurs. Real-time visibility gives insights to these cybercriminals in action and stops their criminal activity immediately while also integrating threat intelligence to obtain information on the attack itself.
Effective endpoint detection and response will thwart even the most sophisticated attack attempts and will allow your organization to promptly resume operations without interruption or downtime.
You’ll spend 9+ months recovering from an attack
According to Nationwide Insurance, it took the average business 279 days to recover from an attack. That’s more than 9 months. We know you have better ways to spend your time. With our proactive cybersecurity measures and data protection services, you mitigate the risk of an attack and lengthy recovery process.
What Does Proactive Cybersecurity Entail?
Find Out Here
4. Proactively prevent DDoS attacks
You’re prepared for malware or phishing scams, but do you have a plan to stop DDoS attacks?
DDoS stands for distributed denial-of-service. During an attack, hackers overwhelm your site or phone system with traffic. Legitimate requests cannot get through and your systems could crash. It’s a cheap, effective way for criminals to shut down your operations.
By using cloud-based monitoring and mitigation services Zimcom is able to proactively thwart these types of DDoS attacks on behalf of our clients.
5. Strengthen your first line of defense
You use a firewall to secure your local area network. But in the days of work-from-anywhere and bring-your-own-device, this isn’t enough. You need solutions for your web applications and servers. Enter web application firewalls.
Web application firewalls set policies to filter and monitor traffic between your web applications and the internet. They keep malicious traffic and bots out. With Zimcom’s Enhanced Site Protection, you’re protected against cyber villains and site performance is improved as well.
6. Encrypt everything
You don’t want files you store in the cloud to be an open book for criminals to read and steal. Use encryption. By scrambling your data with encryption, you protect emails, disks, and files so that only the intended parties can decipher it.
Encryption is built into our services and solutions
All production storage data is encrypted using FIPS 140-2-certified AES256 encryption. Both FIPS and AES are used by the federal government and contractors to safeguard sensitive data.
7. Combine your compliance and cybersecurity strategies
Regulated industries face extra cybersecurity scrutiny. Instead of working on compliance and cybersecurity in silos, integrate your efforts into one, cohesive strategy.
Your cloud hosting provider should make compliance easy
First, your data center and all cloud solutions should be compliant by design. You also want a provider like Zimcom that has disciplined controls and audit assessment processes in place. We regularly help customers achieve various regulatory compliance requirements including:
- SSAE SOC 1 and SOC 2
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH)
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- Payment Card Industry (PCI)
You Can’t Afford Bad Cloud Cybersecurity
IBM’s data shows that the average cost of a data breach hit an all-time high of $4.35 million in 2022 and the average cost of a ransomware attack hit $4.54 million – and this doesn’t even include the cost of the ransom itself. It can be enough to make an organization simply throw in the towel.
Secure cloud hosting done right
Zimcom’s CloudSurge provides transparent and no-fluff billing, making moving to the cloud easier and more cost-effective than with the “Big 3” (Google, Amazon Web Services, and Azure) public cloud providers. More cost-effective to the tune of up to 50% in savings, thanks to expensive hidden and unnecessary costs. Furthermore, aging infrastructure can lead to increasing maintenance and repair costs, potentially hurting productivity, efficiency, and the overall bottom line.
In addition to significant cost savings, CloudSurge also provides the following:
- Enhanced protection from cyberattacks and increased security posture
- Better data protection
- Customized disaster recovery solutions
- Highly scalable services designed to accommodate for growth and changing needs
- Expert support is available for migration, optimization, and ongoing assistance
Zimcom’s three-step implementation process involves assessing your organization’s current cloud strategy, identifying cloud solutions to address any gaps, and then creation of an action plan to optimize your cloud experience.
Remove cyber stress from your life with managed cloud services
You shouldn’t stress out about cybersecurity. By partnering with the leading provider of secure cloud hosting services provider, one who takes a proactive approach to cybersecurity, your organization can experience true cybersecurity peace of mind.
