How is your data kept secure in the cloud?
This information
summarises Cloudserve's security policies with regard to how
we protect your data and keep it safe. Cloud computing offers
numerous advantages compared to storing data locally in an office.
Many of these revolve around physical and electronic security, as
well as backup and disaster recovery.
Physical Security
Cloudserve utilises Tier 4 data
centres. Data centres are chosen both for network peering but also
for physical security and redundancy options.Cloudserve only uses
data centre vendors with ISO 27001 certification for physical
security. Access must be restricted and controlled, typically with
proximity card or biometrics.
Data Resilience
Cloudserve uses purely diskless processing engines, which
ensures all data is centrally stored on a Storage Area Network
(SAN). Storage Area Networks offer much greater resilience than
traditional hard drives because they store (stripe) data access
multiple drives in a SAN self for resilience and also speed.
Typically, the SANs used by Cloudserve have between 20 and 240
live drives. Centralised storage is also much easier to secure and
protect.
As a policy, Cloudserve also
copies (replicates) its Storage Area Network data to an alternate
data centre in the same country. This equates to having an offsite
and real time copy of any data stored in the primary site. In the
case of a total failure of a data centre or Storage Area Network -
which is very unlikely - Cloudserve can quickly recover data
and provide it to customers, or restore to alternative systems
(default policy).
Electronic Access to Services
All of Cloudserve's
access points to services are encrypted through the use of
SSL (secure socket layer) at least 128-bit encryptions. This
provides encryption for all data which is being sent to and from
Cloudserve's network, such as email, desktop data and passwords
etc. For desktops a connection broker is used to provide encryption
through RSA RC4 for key strokes and screen data. Customers may also
request VPN (virtual private network) access to a collection of
services such as Hosted Desktops. This is a cost option, but can be
provided with PPTP or Cisco VPN with a permanent point to point
tunnel or dial-up VPN.
Electronic Intrusion Detection and Logging
To protect data and
security, Cloudserve uses a TripWire intrusion detection
system (IDS). IDS is used to log and look for unusual network and
user behaviour within the Cloudserve internal network. IDS is
deployed on both internal and external networks and has a number of
automatic triggers to alert engineers to unusual behaviour and to
isolate potential problems. Cloudserve employs a policy to log
user access to any of the services.
Data Ownership
Cloudserve ensures security
and privacy of your data by being accredited with the Data
Protection Agency registration number Z1864393. We comply with the
principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and
Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. The
eight principles relating to the processing of personal information
are:
•Fairly and lawfully processed
•Processed for a limited time
•Adequate, relevant & not excessive
•Accurate
•Not kept longer than necessary
•Processed in accordance with your rights
•Secure
•Not transferred to countries without adequate protection
Your privacy and security is of
utmost importance to us. We will always follow these principles and
ask you how you would like us (or our partners) to communicate with
you. The Information Commissioner regulates compliance with the
Data Protection Act. The information may also be provided to
security or credit checking companies, public authorities if
required by them, or as required by law.
Customer Data
You can be confident that your data
is safe and will always be available to you and only you, reducing
business risk. Our managed service protects you from the ever
changing threat of viruses and loss of data. We take full
responsibility for ensuring that proper security measures are in
place to protect your data. Customers have access to their own
private data at any time, with which they can copy, backup and
store copies themselves if required. None of the data is stored in
proprietary format.
Data Ownership
At all times the data stored
within Cloudserve's services is the property of the
Customer In the case of service termination the data can be
provided to the Customer on DVD or other Portable Digital Media
subject to a Chargeable Support Service fee. This data will only be
kept for a maximum of 7 days while it is filtered out of the backup
archives.