More and more small- to mid-sized businesses are turning to Windows virtual server hosting solutions to meet their IT needs and goals. The role of security with their cloud service provider becomes therefore a very important topic. Here are some easy steps companies can take to secure their data and applications in the cloud:
The most obvious measure is to ensure password security in the cloud. That means companies must create passwords that are extremely difficult to crack (minimum of eight characters, a combination of numbers, special characters and upper and lower case letters). Passwords should be changed every 90 days and be given to a minimal level of permissions.
In regards to patching, this should not be overlooked and should be performed every four weeks to reduce vulnerability to potentially catastrophic bugs. Tuesday are the best days, when Microsoft usually releases its security patches. In addition to that we recommend to monitor other vendor specific patches.
Small- and Medium Businesses should always leverage the free Windows Firewall Service. It supports the creation of inbound and outbound firewall and connection security rules on Windows cloud servers. Organizations can filter, protect and manage network traffic. The tool allows companies to configure their firewalls the limit opening of ports and allowing access only to necessary services on their servers.
