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Infographic: Ransomware Beginners Guide

In this infographic, you'll get to know what ransomware is, facts and figures about ransomware, how it works, and how you can prevent it. Also, know what to do if you are a victim of ransomware.

An investor can end up losing money weather they are experienced or new to the industry. Making a good investment can be tricky one should know the market trend and must aware of vital factors.

With careful planning, patience, and knowing the market, even newcomers can make suitable investments.

Top Technology Trends For Accounting Professional [Infographic]

With the advancement in technology, different professions also have experienced their share of impact. And accounting is no exception.

To keep up with these advancements, accounting professionals are also becoming more tech-savvy.

You can see the massive transformation of accounting firms from paper-based accounting to completely digital methods - they have moved from manual data entry to automated processes.

Data is something that needs a robust security model for perfect management. Even a minor breach in the cloud storage system will badly affect a company’s reputation and have disastrous financial effects.

When a business uses a cloud infrastructure, it is most likely to include a data center for storage. The data center is a dedicated storage space housing computers and networking components to gather, store, backup, and process data remotely.

Data Center Physical Security - A Priority or Compulsion

As most of you would have guessed, cloud hosting companies have to ensure the best data center physical security to avoid security breaches. Any suspicious person getting access to the data center means the entire operation is stalled, and the reputation of the company is at stake.

Just think how severe it would be the consequences if someone is having unauthorized access to a data center with a server of an accounting or legal firm.

What is Data Center Physical Security?

Physical security is always considered a key aspect of data center security. Since the data center is accountable for making available the services, a cloud hosting provider often has to come up with different ways to add to its physical security.

The data center’s physical security is the set of rules/practices followed within the data center building in order to avoid any physical harm to the systems keeping the data.

Those practices must be carefully designed to deal with everything starting from industrial espionage and cyberattacks (such as Ransomware) to environmental disasters.

Data Center Physical Security - There is no Escape

Cloud infrastructure comes with data centers that are always under the threat of physical attacks. Physical invasion can happen anytime under the disguise of a technician or cleaning staff. Employee deceit or mistakes are too common. Environmental disasters can cause debacle; so can heat/cooling-related problems.

Cloud hosting providers must secure their data centers from a wide variety of physical risks, and ensure that their IT managed service providers do it effectively.

This is very crucial, with business data getting expanded more and more, putting pressure on the cloud. This data is physically stored in a data center establishment. Those in charge of securing the data center facility should evaluate the risk of physical attacks from within and outside. There are certain areas where they need to deploy high-security measures.

1. Data storage facility

2. Server/computer room

3. Networking unit

Data Center Physical Security - Multiple Layers

Cloud infrastructure has simply contributed to the urge for data centers to offer a 100 percent uptime and safe trade operations. Since the data center faces the most unexpected risks in the form of theft, sabotage, and unauthorized access to data, protecting its physical resources become more crucial.

The most tactical way to attain optimal physical security in the data center is to plan and control it layer-wise. Layering adds value to the data center’s physical protection arrangement, making the entire system unaffected even with the collapse of one or more elements.

These layers are also implemented to put off nasty or even accidental data breaches by in-house employees.

The four layers of data center physical security are:

1. Perimeter security

2. Facility controls

3. Computer room access controls

4. Cabinet access controls

Covering all these layers means complete and included protection starting from the data center’s perimeter to its cabinets.

Data Center Physical Security - Applicable Standards

While planning the data center’s physical security or working on the enhancement of existing locations, there are many standards and legal necessities applicable to protect crucial or confidential data on the cloud. In many cases, there could be fines charged for nonconformity, so the 3rd party provider must follow the most common data center security standards.

Here is a list of some relevant standards and legal obligations.

1. SSAE 18 (SOC1/SOC2) - It is the latest standard that has superseded SSAE16 and applies to SOC 1. The SOC 1 is a Type 1 audit report focused on a cloud hosting service provider’s controls and processes that could affect the client’s ICFAR (internal control over their financial reporting). The SOC 2 or Type 2 is a separate audit report that checks on controls at a cloud service provider about security, accessibility, processing reliability, confidentiality, and safety of a system.

2. SSAE 16 - It is a familiar auditing report or standard created by the AICPA that has replaced the SAS70 standard. SSAE 16 shows how adequate and effective are internal controls for hosting or processing data of customers.

3. ANSI/TIA-942 - It recommends how to protect data center belongings with improved physical security (video surveillance, access control, fire prevention) and monitoring of people's activities/actions.

4. Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS - These are additional standards and legislations in favor of certain access controls for data center locations.

Top Measures for Data Center’s Physical Security

Data infrastructure security continues to be a big concern for businesses all over the world, and with a shift to the cloud platform, customers have now started to give it a high priority.

To minimize the possibility of physical attacks on data centers, the following measures could be considered:

CCTV recordings and entry logs: locations & all access points with a minimum of 3 months of video preservation.

24×7 video surveillance

On-premise security guards

NOC (Network operations center) monitoring services and team on deployment

Anti-pass-back/ Anti-tailgating feature in turnstile system. Permitting only one person to enter after authentication.

Single access point for employees into a co-location data center facility.

Control traffic through custom managed data halls, cages, and suites.

Added access control and security like fencing around private cages

Three-factor authentication (3FA) with passwords, access cards, and PINs

SSAE 18/16 standard compliance

Check on energy issues (heating/cooling effect, power grid failure)

Checking the hardware design and provenance in a cloud

Lowering insider attacks by monitoring authorized users’ activities and safely keep their work credentials

Fire prevention protocol/training with the use of dry-pipe sprinkler in the danger zone

Natural disaster-free or risk-free locations for data center

Conclusion

More businesses are now moving their ever-growing data workloads to cloud-hosted servers and infrastructure. There is always the danger of data centers undergoing physical attacks. Matching the service providers with all the measures mentioned above is very necessary.

Best Collaboration Tools For Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is one of the best communication-centric platforms that helps users to work efficiently in teams. With the wide variety of tools and application integration access for team collaboration and communication, it boosts one's performance.

Security-as-a-service is one of the cloud delivery models, in which the service-provider looks after the security of your company. With the help of this service, your local IT team is freed from the ongoing IT security tasks like installing the antivirus, firewall, software updates, and maintaining security infrastructure.