Securing customer data

Keep your IoT data secure, use access controls, and encrypt data files. IoT data can be used to infer things about your customers, so take special care with it. You are the guardian of their information. You could be unintentionally exposing your company to legal risk by not properly securing customer data.

Encryption can be enabled in two ways, in transit and at rest. In transit refers to network transmission such as SSL or TLS. Most cloud services require their use. Make sure all the network communication in support of your analytic processes is encrypted in transit.

Encryption at rest refers to data storage. This could be data files on a server or data inside a database. Cloud providers can encrypt your data and make it transparent to you if you are using public/private key pairs to secure it.

Use this when data could be accessed by a wide set of users, such as all employees of your company. If the data is only accessible by a few people due to tight access controls and it is in a private subnet, you can be a little less strict - it is unlikely to get out. In general, if encryption is seamless, use it. If your data is accessible through the public internet, definitely use it.

Cloud providers were born operating inside the public internet. Security is built in at every level. Take advantage of it and use public/private keys, private subnets, access control, and encryption to secure your valuable data.