The cloud has been a great thing for small business owners struggling through tough economic times. Rather than purchasing expensive enterprise software, business owners can save their dollars by accessing powerful computing programs in the cloud, from high-end word processors and project-management tools to spreadsheets and Photoshop alternatives. But, the cloud isn’t perfect, especially when it comes to security issues. Entrepreneurs need to be aware that their documents, presentations, and marketing materials can be damaged when they’re stored in the cloud.

Password issues

The greatest security issue that company owners face with regards to cloud computing happens to also be the biggest security issue that users also face with regards to computing: passwords which are either too easy to guess or shared too freely.

You must always carefully select passwords to your projects stored in the cloud. The more complex your passwords are the more difficult they are to guess. One way to accomplish this is to use a combination of numbers and letters in your passwords. Also, you should not share these passwords with lots of people.

Hacker alert

Hackers, malware, and spyware are issues for anybody who owns a computer. Likewise, they are significant issues for cloud environments. As a user of a third party cloud storage service, you do not have control over the security of the cloud which can be very frightening for business owners. Large companies must create their own security for the data that is stored in the cloud.

Common sense protection

Protecting yourself from theft in the cloud can be as simple as applying some common sense practices.

First, think about the type of information you would be storing in the cloud. Whatever is incredibly sensitive may not be the best to store in the cloud. It could be safer to back up this information on a personal system and find a more secure way to store it.

Secondly, be careful about who is allowed access to the data stored in the cloud. It seems obvious that business owners protect their laptops and desktops with passwords. The same should be applied to the cloud.