Monday 21 October 2013

Security and Vulnerability Issues of Cloud Hosting

In recent years, the level of web hosting has been raised to a whole new level with the introduction of cloud hosting services. Thousands of firms have been impressed by the idea of cloud hosting and many of them avail the service to experience the benefits. It has been widely accepted by online businesses as well as other website owners and has become popular all over the world. But, with the increasing popularity, cloud hosting is exposed to various security and vulnerability issues. Although people used to think that the idea of cloud computing is flawless, several threats have caused a huge risk to the users of cloud hosting services and hence people’s mindset is on the verge of change. 


·     (a)      Data Loss: Individuals assume that cloud is the best platform to keep important data safe. But, it is important to know that the risk of data loss is involved while it's updated. When certain data are updated in the cloud, it passes through various sources and servers. Data can be lost in the processing stage due to the occurrence of some failures or corruption. Therefore, it is very crucial to update important data through a secured channel. 


·   (b)        Account Hacking: Over the years, amount of underground hacking groups have grown tremendously. Today, present in different parts of the world is tons of talented hackers who can access a company’s account in the cloud and therefore play with the firm’s future. As Internet-connected machines can be accessed virtually, the hackers practice this technique of hacking illegally to steal the account of various website owners who use cloud hosting


·    (c)     Alteration of data: Data in the cloud can be accessed by the professionals working in a website owner’s company. These professionals can use the company’s cloud account to add, remove and change the data available in it. Hence, if the data is modified maliciously by a professional of the firm, entire data can get distorted. This can prove to be disastrous at times. Therefore, user accounts should be kept private and confidential in order to prevent the hindrance of data modification. 


·    (d)      Temporary Service Denial: It is not necessary that the cloud will provide consistent service for the whole year. Due to certain problems or corruption, cloud server might get temporarily down causing network failure. A client cannot access his website during this time so it can cause tension if he needs to update data urgently. Therefore, cloud is vulnerable to connection failure temporarily and this risk cannot be avoided easily.


Although there are several security and vulnerability issues in cloud hosting, thousands of website owners don’t mind to use it; mainly because of its incomparable benefits. To prevent various security-related issues, companies follow certain guidelines. Using a confidential password or going beyond the password level by opting for 2-level authentication technique can prevent a couple of harmful issues. Security firewall is another important stuff that should never be ignored by the users of cloud hosting service because firewall protects data and network from various malicious factors. Therefore, a company should be aware of various security issues of cloud hosting and take suitable precautions before enjoying the merits of cloud computing.


CtrlS cloud server hosting company  offers  Secure cloud server hosting, automated cloud solutions, cloud computing   and cloud performance  testing services.