How Secure is My QuickBooks Hosting Data?

Are you looking for a better alternative to using locally-hosted QuickBooks software? If yes, what are the reasons behind this lookout? Do your employees face hurdles when accessing local-hosted QuickBooks desktop software?

Have you lost crucial business data hosted on a local computer because of hardware failure? Has your business ever been a victim of internal data theft?

Considering the sensitive data you hold for your business or clients, you might have thought your local-hosted QuickBooks data is already in a safe environment.

If that is so, you wouldn’t have started searching for a local-hosted QB alternative in reference to security in the first place.

While a majority of QuickBooks users are now switching to cloud-based alternatives, you might want to rest assured before you take the plunge.

At this stage, it is essential to recognize that cloud migration isn’t just a guessing game where you just assume it to work better and make the decision.

Simply going with peer recommendations hastily and selecting the very first QuickBooks hosting plan you find online may not be your way of handling business needs.

Instead, you must dig deeper and research what truly makes your QB data safe when it is hosted on a cloud server. Starting from scratch might be time-consuming for you, which is why we have done the hard work to compile information about cloud security.

Sounds great? Let’s find out more.

The Underlying Infrastructure to Host QuickBooks on Cloud

Cloud technology is something that has started to take place in almost everything you do.

Particularly when it comes to handling business activities, your website data, customer data, customer queries, etc. - everything is hosted on the cloud. Here’s what actually happens when you choose to switch to cloud hosting -

The licensed QuickBooks desktop software version - Pro, Premier, Enterprise, or Accountant, that has been installed on a local computer needs to change its host.

It means that the software files you have installed on an office-based, non-mobile computer are to be migrated to a cloud server.

Now that you do not need to buy your own server, you hire one of the top-rated QuickBooks hosting providers and use their servers that are located in secure data centers.

Wondering how you will access the software when the software files are taken to a third-party server? Well, you will get secure access credentials to work on cloud-hosted QuickBooks and data that becomes accessible from any Internet-connected smart device.

In other words, your licensed QB will then be accessible from anywhere by making a third-party cloud server their host.

You can also authorize some of your team members and provide them with restricted cloud access based on their work responsibilities.

The security-oriented research does not end with knowing how QuickBooks hosting works. You might also want to know how these third-party QuickBooks hosting solution providers ensure data security at the cloud level.

How Do QuickBooks Hosting Providers Ensure Cloud Security?

• 256-bit data encryption

Let’s start with the basics -

When data files are encrypted, it basically means that the unencrypted data, also known as plaintext, is put under an algorithmic function to create a piece of encrypted ciphertext.

Here, the value of the encryption key has to be kept as a secret and it is the only way to decrypt a ciphertext. As long as a user holds the decryption key, he can benefit from accessing the data.

If you want to know how secure 256-bit encryption is, let’s look at the technical meaning of the 265-bit key.

In technical terms, this key will have 2256 combinations, which means 2x2x2x(256 times). To get to the right key, a hacker must try most of these combinations and it would take an incredibly long time to do so.

Your QuickBooks data on the cloud is mostly secured with this level of encryption. Make sure you check the encryption type while selecting a QuickBooks hosting provider.

• Firewalls

The next level of data security is based on cloud firewalls, which are security products that work similarly to a traditional firewall.

They form a virtual barrier around cloud-hosted applications and data just as traditional firewalls work around an organizational network. This helps filter out malicious traffic and security breach attempts.

What would happen if there is no firewall around your cloud-hosted QB data? This simply means a higher risk of losing access to business-critical data to an unauthorized user.

A better analogy of firewalls on the cloud is a bank’s security cameras and a security guard.

Within the cloud environment, the local bank security camera and guards are replaced by a global security center that monitors data security 24x7 and has a centralized staff and security camera feeds from all the cloud servers.

This way, malicious web traffic is blocked and does not require updates or maintenance at your end. The cloud solution provider will take care of it.

• Intrusion detection system

Can you stay active all the time to keep a check on any suspicious activity around your local-hosted IT environment?

For any business having an on-premise IT setup, this is unfeasible. This can be considered why you want to switch to the cloud in the first place.

But how will the QuickBooks hosting providers handle the same requirement? This is where an Intrusion Detection and Prevention System, commonly known as IDPS plays a crucial role.

At the cloud level, it works as a monitoring system that aims to detect any suspicious activity around the cloud environment and generates alerts to SOC analysts or incident responders to investigate the issue.

This is yet another way to take appropriate actions and remediate the threat.

• Antimalware

If you are like most business owners who know less about technical security terms, the chances are you might not know about malware either.

Malware, a short form for malicious software, is designed by hackers to damage computer systems and data.

It has the potential to disrupt operations, collect sensitive data, and even gain access to private computer systems.

Owing to their nature and impact, you might have witnessed local IT environments being attacked by different malware quite frequently.

Antimalware is software that can protect your data and IT systems from malware.

It works by scanning your systems, detecting any potential threat, and removing the malware if found. The best part is that it also forms a crucial element in the arsenal of a cloud service provider.

• Data backups

Irrespective of the extent to which you prepare your IT systems against security conflicts, some unexpected ailments can still arise.

What if the same holds true for cloud-hosted QuickBooks data and software? What if you lose data saved on a cloud server?

Along with the preventive security measures, most QuickBooks hosting providers like Ace Cloud Hosting also invest in remediation in terms of data recovery.

They can benefit you with their 45-day rolling backup solution included with their application hosting plans. All the data hosted on the cloud is replicated periodically on multiple servers installed in different data centers.

The process continues to ensure timely data recovery in case any specific server fails. The next one where the data is already copied can be taken into use for continued business operations.

All these details about security related to QuickBooks cloud hosting are hard to find in one place. Now that you have found it, it’s time to get started with selecting a suitable cloud hosting plan.