Secure Cloud with Future Networking
As a company, Future Networking focuses on Cybersecurity. All our services are centered around fundamental security principals, especially concerning the cloud. Essentially, we provide best practices for secure cloud transformation and migration. Even with the most secure dedicated cloud, connectivity to and from it leaves open potential security risks. We keep tight controls over storage activity and network connectivity. We set up compliance templates (CMMC / NIST, HIPAA, etc.) as needed in addition to using secure hosting facilities (including FedRAMP certified). As with on-premises servers (non-cloud), and hybrid solutions (on-prem + cloud), through our Security Operations Center we can monitor activity and mitigate against security threats as they occur.
Understanding 'The Cloud'
We’re often asked, “Is the Cloud secure?” The simple answer is, “Usually, but not always.”
A little background… The history of the cloud goes back farther than one might think. The cloud icon representing a computer network has been around since the late-1970s. The word “cloud” for distributed computing was first used in the mid-1990s. But commercial cloud computing didn’t really take off until 2006 when Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
Since EC2 launched, cloud services have matured well into their second decade. Such a proliferation of remote data storage makes reliance on the maturing cloud necessary. Access to information in all its varied forms “right now” has become a part of life for almost everyone.
This means the mass of communication is of an incredible scale. The complexity from so many people exchanging information, accessing a multitude of applications through personal computers, mobile devices, and network servers, with their data housed in all those different places and in different ways, is only transformed from total chaos into precise software and data tools by strict protocols put in place when the Internet began.
One might say, even with safeguards in place since the beginning of the cloud, this unimaginably vast symphony of networks, data and applications naturally creates unpredicted and unexpected security gaps… Gaps criminals work very hard to exploit.
Breach Prevention in The Cloud
Cloud breaches can be disastrous. For example: in 2019 Presbyterian Health Services in New Mexico had over a quarter million of their patient healthcare records breached, all stored on the cloud; also, in 2019 the state of Texas had 22 of its municipalities ransomed which directly affected the lives of both workers as well as the population of those communities.
These are just two of the thousands of breaches across the country that happen every day. But the unreported breaches to smaller institutions or single individuals are just as damaging once it happens to them. Changing passwords, replacing bank cards, and updating other personal access information can be a significant nuisance once a breach is discovered. But identity theft, or corporate data theft, resulting in being locked out of bank accounts and not able to pay or get paid, damage to one’s credit score, sensitive designs or business information being taken, or sensitive health information made public and possibly used against you, is the nightmare that some unfortunate people are forced to face if victim of a breach.
It is critically important to take cybersecurity seriously up front, before a breach or other catastrophe happens. We work with organizations to assess the level of risk that they are comfortable with and build a best practices solution around that comfort level. By choosing to make cybersecurity a priority from the start, organizations can take advantage of all the efficiencies and improvements that the cloud has to offer – while maintaining a security posture that is equal to or greater than what they had before.
