Skip to main content
SolarWinds MSP
  • Login
  • Support
  • Partnerships
    • Partnerships Overview
    • Solution Provider Program
    • Technology Alliance Program
    • Distributor Program
SolarWinds MSP
  • Products
    • SolarWinds N-central Automate what you need. Tackle complex networks. Try this remote monitoring and management solution built to help maximize efficiency and scale.
    • SolarWinds RMM Start fast. Grow at your own pace. Try this powerful but simple remote monitoring and management solution.
    • SolarWinds EDR Defend against ransomware, zero-day attacks, and evolving online threats with Endpoint Detection and Response
    • SolarWinds Backup Manage data protection for servers, workstations applications, documents and Microsoft 365 from one SaaS dashboard.
    • Mail Protection & Archiving Protect users from email threats and downtime.
    • Password Management Easily adopt and demonstrate best practice password and documentation management workflows.
      • Passportal Demo
    • PSA & Ticketing Manage ticketing, reporting, and billing to increase helpdesk efficiency.
    • Remote Support Help support customers and their devices with remote support tools designed to be fast and powerful.
  • Solutions

    I'm looking for...

    • Security Solutions
    • Monitoring Solutions
    • Efficiency Solutions
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Webcasts & Events
    • Ask the N-central Experts
    • Daily Live Demos
    • RMM Foundations Training
    • Upcoming Events
    • Upcoming Webcasts
    • Resource Center
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • Resource Library
      • Case Studies
      • Product Information
      • eBooks
      • White Papers
      • Infographics
    • SolarWinds MSP Free Tools
    • GDPR Resource Center
    • Security Resource Center
    • MSP Institute Webinar Series
    • MSP Advice Project
  • About
    • Contact
    • Customer Success
    • Worldwide sales and support
    • Careers
    • Awards and Recognition
    • Get A Quote
    • Newsroom
      • Press Releases
      • In The News
      • Media Contacts
      • COVID-19 Response
    • Leadership Team
    • Legal
      • Cookie Policy
      • Privacy Notice
      • Software Services Agreement
      • Terms of Use
      • Backup Fair Use Policy
    • Security
      • SolarWinds Security Statement
      • Vendor Data Protection Requirements
    • Support
  • IT Departments
  • Contact Sales
    • Get A Quote
    • General Inquiry
  • TRY NOW
    • SolarWinds RMM
    • SolarWinds Backup
    • MSP Manager
    • SolarWinds Passportal
    • SolarWinds N-central
    • SolarWinds Mail Assure
    • SolarWinds Risk Intelligence
    • SolarWinds Take Control
  • Request a Quote
  • Try Now
    • SolarWinds RMM
    • SolarWinds N-central
    • SolarWinds Backup
    • MSP Manager
    • SolarWinds Mail Assure
    • SolarWinds Passportal
    • SolarWinds Risk Intelligence
    • SolarWinds Take Control
Request quote
Filter Blogs
  • Filter by:
  • MSP Business
    • Automation
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • Security-series
    • Best Practices
    • Business
    • Business Growth
    • Business Risk
    • Cloud Computing
    • Customer Service
    • Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity Awareness Month
    • Data
    • GDPR
    • Internet of Things
    • IT Support
    • ITSM
    • LOGICcards
    • Machine Learning
    • Mail
    • Managed Services
    • Marketing
    • Mobile
    • Networking
    • Operations
    • Podcast
    • Product
    • PSA
    • Remote Management
    • Research & Trends
    • Risk Intelligence
    • Security
    • Security Vlog
    • Service Desk
    • Services & Support
    • The Head Nerds
    • Tips & Advice
    • Training
Home Blog MSP Business Cloud Computing Google Drive Security Best Practices
Cloud Computing

Google Drive Security Best Practices

By SolarWinds MSP
20 February, 2019

While people tend to compare file storage service Google Drive to its biggest competitor, Dropbox, there’s a good argument to be made that the two platforms serve fundamentally different markets. Google Drive has tons of special appeal to enterprise clients: It’s great for collaboration, offers 15 GB of free storage, and allows access to the entire G Suite ecosystem of apps. But none of Google Drive’s features will do much good if enterprises aren’t able to secure what they store on it.

Businesses are responsible not only for their organization’s data, but for that of their employees and customers. That means that your clients should understand Google Drive security best practices inside and out if they’re going to make use of the platform’s considerable advantages. In this blog post, we’ll go over some common G Suite security concerns and explain what you can do to make your clients’ data less vulnerable.

What are some email security issues?

Some of the most widespread and financially damaging forms of cybercrime today take place over email, underlining the importance of G Suite email security. Phishing and pharming are two of the more common types of email scams that businesses have to be on the lookout for. While they are fairly similar, it’s helpful to understand the difference so you know what to look for when seeking out potential threats to the security of your Gmail account. Unlike other hacking approaches, phishing and pharming can typically be warded off through reliance on basic security best practices.

Phishing is the use of deceptive tactics to get an email recipient to reveal sensitive information to a hacker. An employee might receive an email that appears to come from your HR department. The email provides a link to what it says is your company’s new vacation policy. When the employee clicks on the link, they are asked to enter their G Suite credentials in order to see the document. But once they do, the employee reaches a dead end—the page they signed into was a “spoofed” page designed by a hacker to look just like Google’s sign-in page, allowing the hacker to phish your employee’s credentials and gain access to all the files in your Drive.

Pharming, by contrast, doesn’t depend on someone clicking on a deceptive link that directs to a spoofed page. It involves the hijacking of legitimate domains so that you’re redirected to web pages fabricated by the hacker, even if you typed in the URL to the legitimate domain. These attacks can only be stopped with careful attention to detail—users must always be on the lookout for websites that look suspiciously different than they did during previous visits. In the case of phishing attacks, you can identify potential threats by noting modified URLs or watching for strange language or requests coming from entities you’d otherwise trust. 

Is Google Drive data encrypted?

In some cases, it’s not enough to simply take special care when entering sensitive information online—and many threats require strong data encryption to ward off these attacks. Luckily, Google Drive does offer 256-bit SSL/TLS encryption for files in motion and 128-bit AES keys for everything else, as well as two-step verification.

That said, Google Drive has seen its share of security vulnerabilities exploited. Hackers have taken advantage of weak servers that don’t support Google’s version of encryption, and security experts note that a man-in-the-cloud attack could be used to bypass encryption altogether by stealing a user’s synchronization code. 

All this goes to show that while Google’s encryption is important, it’s best to add your own layer of third-party encryption to strengthen your defenses against clever attacks like these.

    CTA Image

    SolarWinds Threat Monitor Contact Sales

    Contact A SolarWinds Threat Monitor Solution Specialist today.

    Contact Sales

    Is my email server secure?

    As part of G Suite security best practices, Gmail servers are protected by data encryption and by two-factor verification. But that’s not all you can do to make sure an enterprise’s email systems aren’t compromised. If you have Google Drive security concerns, implementing some or all of the following measures can make the difference in safeguarding an organization’s sensitive information:

    • Access control: You can control user permissions so that employees only get access to the files they absolutely need in order to do their jobs. The less accessible data is to employees, the less accessible it is to hackers trying to steal it from them. 
    • Firewall: A strong firewall will help ensure that only authorized users gain access to the network and prevent outside parties from gaining access to systems that contain protected data. 
    • Intrusion detection: Enterprises have access to plenty of tools—such as unified threat management solutions—that can alert them in the event that a system is compromised, making it far more likely that the damage can be contained.
    • Antivirus software: Every device on an enterprise network should have some kind of antivirus running to detect potentially harmful websites and prevent malware from being downloaded.
    • Limit connections to your server: To avoid Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, try to keep the number of devices that can connect to your SMTP server to a minimum.
    • Activate Reverse DNS: Reverse DNS Lookup verifies the IP address of every email’s sender, effectively blocking any emails that come from people looking to hide or spoof their identity. 

    Google Drive and Gmail have clear advantages for enterprise users—now, armed with the right information, you can enjoy these benefits secure in the knowledge that your intellectual property, as well as the personal data of your employees and customers, is safe from outside threats.

     

    Security basics: Do you really practice what you preach?
    Cloud security worries? 'No more excuses'
    4 Steps to Using Email Security to Help Increase Revenue 

    Additional reading:

    You might also like...
    Cloud Computing

    The Key Differences Between On-Premises and Cloud Security

    Cloud Computing

    VM Cloning Overview

    Cloud Computing

    Multi-Tenancy in the Cloud

    Cloud Computing

    How to Create a Virtual Drive

    Cloud Computing

    What’s the Difference Between OneDrive and SharePoint

    Cloud Computing

    How Secure Are Cloud Networks in 2018?

    Want to stay up to date?

    Get the latest MSP tips, tricks, and ideas sent to your inbox each week.

    Loading form....

    If the form does not load in a few seconds, it is probably because your browser is using Tracking Protection. This is either an Ad Blocker plug-in or your browser is in private mode. Please allow tracking on this page to request a subscription.

    Note: Firefox users may see a shield icon to the left of the URL in the address bar. Click on this to disable tracking protection for this session/site

    Recent Posts
    • What the Head Nerds Were Up to in 2020
    • RMM and PSA Tools: How to Make the Most of Both
    • How to Empower an IT Help Desk Team for Success
    • Six Tips That Will Make Managing Your MSP Company Easier
    • January 2021 Patch Tuesday: One Actively Exploited Vulnerability and a Few Likely to Be
    Categories:
    • Security (230)
    • Tips & Advice (122)
    • Best Practices (94)
    • Managed Services (86)
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery (83)
    • The Head Nerds (75)
    • Business Growth (75)
    • IT Support (42)
    • Business (39)
    • Automation (37)
    • Cybersecurity (37)
    • Operations (34)
    • Mail (33)
    • Remote Management (28)
    • ITSM (25)
    • Cloud Computing (21)
    • Networking (21)
    • Data (21)
    • Marketing (14)
    • Product (11)
    • PSA (11)
    • Service Desk (5)
    • Services & Support (5)
    • Mobile (4)
    • Risk Intelligence (4)
    • Internet of Things (3)
    • Customer Service (3)
    • Research & Trends (2)
    • Training (2)
    • GDPR (2)
    • Business Risk (1)
    • LOGICcards (1)
    Show moreless
    SolarWinds MSP

    Products
    • SolarWinds RMM
    • SolarWinds N-central
    • SolarWinds Backup
    • SolarWinds EDR
    • SolarWinds MSP Manager
    • SolarWinds Mail Assure
    • SolarWinds Risk Intelligence
    • SolarWinds Take Control
    • SolarWinds Passportal
    • All Products Use Cases
    Solutions
    • Security Solutions
    • Monitoring Solutions
    • Efficiency Solutions
    • Identify which RMM solution is right for me
    • Drive Efficiency with Automation
    • Manage my MSP Business More Efficiently
    • Manage my IT Department More Efficiently
    • Layered Security
    • Cross-Platform Support
    • Data-Driven Insights
    About
    • About Us
    • Careers
    • Newsroom
    • Leadership Team
    • Upcoming Events
    • Subscription Preferences
    • SolarWinds
    • SolarWinds Trust Center
    • COVID-19 Response
    Support
    • SolarWinds RMM
    • Solarwinds N-central
    • SolarWinds Backup
    • SolarWinds Mail Assure
    • SolarWinds Take Control
    • SolarWinds MSP Manager
    • Solarwinds Risk Intelligence
    • Solarwinds Threat Monitor
    • SolarWinds Passportal
    • SolarWinds Take Control Downloads
    • Backup & Recovery Downloads
    • Service Status

    Footer 2

    • Legal Documents
    • Privacy
    • California Privacy Rights
    • Security Information
    • Sitemap

    © SolarWinds MSP Canada ULC and SolarWinds MSP UK Ltd.
    All Rights Reserved.