Recently a colleague of mine was in a desperate situation. In running his business, he went to the Cloud almost exclusively. Using the very convenient and cost effective services offered by Google, he had important business files stored exclusively on his Google accounts. He used G-Mail for his email services. He used their on-line applications and other service to do practically everything he has needed to do for his business for years.
Proponents of Cloud Computing Solutions often discuss the silver linings and ignore the potential for a storm...
His situation became desperate when his Google account had been hacked, hijacked and all of his data was lost.
Lost-lost.
He couldn’t even access his account until reaching out to Google to have his account credentials reset, but once was able to access his account again he found empty folders, an empty in-box and I’m sure a very empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. After weeks, literally weeks of going around Google’s security procedures and contacting Google directly, providing them information to prove he was the account owner, he was able to retrieve all of his files and get everything back to where he needed it to be. But how do you measure the cost in lost time and opportunity while dealing with this issue? The bottom line answer for most small businesses is, you can’t.
This is the equivalent of a business production server having a disk failure and not being able to perform any disaster recovery because the server doesn’t trust the new disk drive is the one it should give the data to. If a disaster recovery solution took weeks to implement an get a business back up and running, would you not fire the IT manager that implemented such a solution?
I know I would.
This is one of the problems with going to an exclusively Cloud Environment in business. Sure it is convenient and cost effective for many businesses, but does it offer the level of flexibility and security that you want if something does go wrong? And what happens if you’re cut off from your data? Maybe not even a security breech or other account failure – what happens if you or your Cloud Provider is cut off from the Cloud for some reason? What then? What is the back-up plan?
For every benefit of Cloud computing, there is at least one significant drawback as well. Most have to do with connectivity, access and security. While normally a provider like Google is very reliable providing backups and redundant systems, if you don’t keep all of your security informational ducks in a row, you could find yourself in a situation like my colleague did.
The first thing – no matter what you are doing with social media, if it is a part of your business or not, any business type cloud services through providers like Google, Yahoo or MSN, should be kept separate and never touch your social media. So many people unwittingly compromise their own security installing rogue Facebook apps designed to steal account passwords, or by clicking short-links in Twitter, while using their primary G-Mail, Yahoo or Hotmail account as their login name or primary email for the social media accounts. All too often, not only do people use the same email addresses, but they use the same logon passwords for their email and their social media. That is our number two no-no. All email, Cloud Services and Social Media passwords
should be significantly unique and individualized. Any similarities, although they help you remember, they make the passwords easier to crack if one is obtained. Created different passwords and keep a paper log and an encrypted or password secured file of what your passwords.
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A good rule of thumb is to have at least 2 email accounts: one for your primary business services and one for creating and identifying social media and other online service accounts.
Many web hosting service providers allow you unlimited email and message filtering from the server. We are a huge proponent of using your business’s custom domain as your primary business email. Services like G-Mail will usually allow you to link the two, and for marketing purposes you always want your domain front and center with your clients. But in addition to that, having control over your own mail server gives you the option of creating email accounts for use exclusively online, thereby sheltering your primary accounts from the additional dangers and exposure.
Point number three is don’t depend on JUST Cloud services for your essential business data. Most providers allow you to create client email connections such as Outlook to retrieve email. These client connections can be set to both leave messages on the mail server of your provider as well as saving a copy locally on your PC. Having your own record of these emails can save you if your connection to email is disrupted or if an error causes your server copy email to be deleted. Important files should also have a local home in your office. Products such as the Buffalo Networking Linkstation can be employed as a secure network storage device to keep a password protected copy of important business files locally, again in the event of a connection disruption or a loss of data with your provider.
And always – ALWAYS – use common sense and discretion when using social media. If you’re on Facebook for business, ask yourself, “Do I really need to give this game/media application access to my single sign-on credentials?” Think about the links and responses you click carefully. Even today I received a Facebook message from an
account called Fącebooƙ Șecuriƫy telling me my account was out of compliance and I needed to follow a link and answer questions about my account. Aside from the obvious character substitution which someone else may or may not notice, I asked myself, “Would Facebook really be sending me a message on Facebook about security, or would they email me?” I’m 99.99% sure they would email it, since that is the way I get all Facebook notifications. Message deleted, link not followed. However I can see a lot of less experience users following that link for fear their account will be deleted.
These are some of the things that users need to be aware of though when using Cloud Computing Services and Social Media together.
For more information please email us at questions@aspiretechnet.com.
