What is cloud security?

Cloud security is the set of policies, technology, software and apps that protect your personal and professional data stored online. Cloud data protection applies the rigor of on-premises data centres, securing your cloud infrastructure without the hardware maintenance costs.

Cloud computing simplifies IT management with software and apps to remotely control and monitor data in the cloud environment. Plus, the right cloud provider also makes it easy for teams and organisations to securely store data and scale quickly.

How secure cloud storage works

Cloud providers and cloud storage services use a network of connected secure data centers to store and process your online data. Every cloud solution – whether it’s SaaS, PaaS, IaaS – employ models that can be customised to user needs. The three cloud types commonly used are:

Public clouds – Cloud resources such as hardware, storage and network devices are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider and delivered through the web. Public clouds are the most common, and are often used for email, office apps and online storage.
Private clouds –The resources for cloud computing are used exclusively by one organisation. Private clouds can be physically located in an on-premises data centre or hosted by a third-party cloud service provider, but the cloud infrastructure is maintained on a private network with dedicated hardware and software.
Hybrid clouds – As the name implies, this cloud solution combines a private cloud with a public cloud. In a hybrid cloud, data and applications can move between private and public clouds for greater flexibility and more deployment options.

Is Dropbox safe?

Dropbox makes cloud data protection its top priority – we use multiple layers of protection across a distributed, reliable cloud infrastructure. So whether you’re an individual or team, our cloud security solutions provide the same standard of protection to all your online data.

This means individuals can confidently use our secure cloud to store files, share documents and request access. Additionally, organisations can feel secure that our enterprise-grade encrypted cloud storage supports our customer’s compliance requirements and follows data security policies of business and international regulations, such as the GDPR and HIPAA.

Dropbox cloud data protection

Millions of people and organisations trust Dropbox with their work. The customer data of every Dropbox account – from Dropbox Basic to our largest Enterprise subscribers – is protected with the same high standard of cloud security measures.

Learn more about Dropbox security

Cloud security measures for data protection

Dropbox cloud security protects:

Files

We provide more than your traditional encryption, protecting sensitive data from security threats in transit and at rest. Any third-party access from developers and apps complies with our strict guidelines, and users must approve any content access by these apps.

Privacy

We’ll always clearly describe when and why we’re collecting your information, as well as the steps we take to protect it. We won’t sell your information to advertisers or third parties.

Account

We use two-factor authentication to limit unauthorised access and give you best-in-class admin security and access controls to monitor account activity.