Cloud Privacy Protection software is fundamentally about protecting your data and logins in the cloud. The recently disclosed Heartbleed SSL vulnerability affected hundreds of thousands of websites, allowing attackers to gain access to user passwords on those sites.
As web site providers have patched their servers, removing the heartbleed vulnerability, affected users could safely change their password. This prevented further use if the password was compromised.
How Cloud Privacy Protection Helps
Although heartbleed was unique in its reach, bugs and vulnerabilities in authentication processes, worms, and viruses have a lengthy history. It’s reasonable to expect that further compromises may happen in the future. However, there are some steps that you can take to protect your private cloud data today.
A fully implemented Cloud Privacy Protection system shields data loss, protects against wide spread login loss, and mitigates the resolution if an exposure does occur.
Protect the Data
First, data should be protected by keys and passwords that are distinct from user login credentials. This ensures that data at rest (stored in the cloud) and data in transit (while being sent to the cloud or to your local devices) cannot be accessed simply through compromise of your login credentials. By utilizing a zero knowledge system, file encryption keys are never transmitted or stored on the cloud provider. This prevents file data from disclosure even if the cloud storage provider is fully compromised.
Limit the Exposure
Second, use individual passwords for each web site. This guarantees that a security compromise like heartbleed, that allowed retrieval of user credentials on an affected website, is limited to only that website. If the same password is reused for multiple websites, then a successful breach of one can be turned into a breach of all.
Ease the Pain
Finally, using a Cloud Privacy Protection system, once the initial exposure has passed, reissue passwords – while keeping them strong and unique to each website. This ensures that potential future login breaches are prevented.
Ohanae Can Help
Ohanae’s flagship offering provides full cloud privacy protection in a zero knowledge, multi-factor local authentication system. Ohanae encrypts data files (for storage or sharing) using keys which are never transmitted to other servers. Additionally, Ohanae provides strong password management with unique passwords for each application and website. Access to these passwords is through Ohanae’s patent-pending, local, multi-factor authentication system.
