“`html

A Glossary of Key Terms in Cloud Storage & Data Security

In today’s fast-paced business environment, especially within HR and recruiting, understanding the nuances of cloud storage and data security is paramount. As organizations increasingly leverage automation and AI to streamline operations, the volume of sensitive data—from candidate resumes to employee records—grows exponentially. This glossary defines essential concepts to help HR leaders, COOs, and recruitment directors navigate the digital landscape, ensuring robust data practices that protect privacy, maintain compliance, and underpin scalable, automated workflows.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage refers to a model of computer data storage in which digital data is stored in logical pools, with the physical storage spanning multiple servers, and the physical environment typically owned and managed by a third-party hosting company. For HR and recruiting professionals, this often means storing candidate applications, employee onboarding documents, performance reviews, and sensitive personal information on platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, or dedicated HRIS systems. Leveraging cloud storage effectively through automation, such as syncing parsed resume data directly into a CRM like Keap or a document management system, ensures centralized, accessible, and secure data management, eliminating manual file handling and reducing the risk of data silos or loss inherent in local storage.

Data Security

Data security encompasses the protective measures taken to prevent unauthorized access, manipulation, disclosure, disruption, modification, inspection, recording, or destruction of information. For HR and recruiting, this is critical due to the highly sensitive nature of personal data, including social security numbers, medical information, and financial details. Robust data security protocols are non-negotiable for maintaining trust and regulatory compliance. Implementing automation to manage user permissions, monitor access logs, and automatically redact sensitive information before storing or sharing can significantly enhance an organization’s security posture, protecting both the company and its valuable human capital data from breaches.

Encryption

Encryption is the process of encoding information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it and those who are not authorized cannot. It converts data into a secret code called ciphertext, which can only be deciphered back into readable plaintext with a specific key. In the context of HR and recruiting, encryption is vital for protecting sensitive candidate and employee data, both when it’s at rest (e.g., stored in a cloud database) and in transit (e.g., when an applicant submits information through a web form). Automating encryption at various touchpoints, such as before uploading documents to cloud storage or during data transfers between different HR platforms, provides an essential layer of defense against cyber threats and helps ensure compliance with data protection regulations.

Access Control

Access control refers to security techniques that regulate who or what can view or use resources in a computing environment. It involves authentication (verifying identity) and authorization (granting specific permissions based on identity). For HR and recruiting teams, implementing granular access control is crucial for safeguarding sensitive employee and candidate information. This means ensuring that only authorized personnel can view specific data sets, such as compensation details, performance reviews, or medical records. Automation can facilitate the management of access controls by automatically assigning or revoking permissions based on an employee’s role, department, or tenure, ensuring compliance with internal policies and external regulations like GDPR without constant manual oversight, reducing the risk of insider threats.

Compliance (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)

Data compliance refers to adhering to regulations and laws governing data protection and privacy, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States. These laws dictate how personal data must be collected, stored, processed, and managed. For HR and recruiting professionals, compliance is a complex but non-negotiable aspect of their operations, as they handle vast amounts of personally identifiable information. Automation plays a transformative role by helping manage data retention policies, execute data subject access requests, and ensure consent management is meticulously tracked. Integrating automation with compliance frameworks helps reduce legal risks, avoid hefty fines, and build trust with employees and candidates by demonstrating a commitment to data privacy.

Data Governance

Data governance is the overall management of the availability, usability, integrity, and security of data in an enterprise. It includes establishing policies, procedures, and standards for data handling and is often a framework for establishing data strategy, data quality, and data security. For HR and recruiting, robust data governance ensures consistency and reliability across all talent-related data, from applicant tracking systems to payroll. This means defining who is responsible for data, how it should be categorized, and how long it should be kept. Automation supports data governance by enforcing data entry standards, flagging inconsistencies, and automating data cleansing processes, ensuring that HR data is always accurate, compliant, and ready for strategic analysis, ultimately improving decision-making and operational efficiency.

Data Backup & Recovery

Data backup is the process of creating copies of data to restore in case the original data is lost or corrupted. Data recovery refers to the process of restoring that lost or corrupted data from the backups. This concept is fundamentally critical for any organization, but particularly for HR and recruiting teams whose operations rely heavily on the availability of accurate candidate and employee records. Imagine losing all your applicant data or employee files – the operational disruption and compliance nightmares would be immense. Implementing automated daily or weekly backups of your CRM (like Keap) and HRIS systems to secure cloud storage, along with a clearly defined recovery plan, ensures business continuity. Automation here is key, eliminating manual errors and guaranteeing that vital data can be quickly restored, minimizing downtime and protecting your most valuable assets.

Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a documented process or set of procedures to recover and protect a business IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. It’s a subset of business continuity planning, focusing specifically on IT systems. For HR and recruiting, a DRP is essential to ensure that critical systems like applicant tracking systems (ATS), HRIS, and payroll software can be restored rapidly following incidents such as cyberattacks, natural disasters, or significant hardware failures. A well-constructed DRP for an HR department might include automated system backups, off-site data replication, and predefined steps for bringing essential recruiting and HR automation workflows back online. This proactive planning minimizes service disruption, protects sensitive employee data, and ensures the continuous operation of essential talent management functions, safeguarding organizational stability.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a security measure that requires two different methods of verification to confirm a user’s identity before granting access to an account or system. This typically involves something the user knows (like a password) and something the user has (like a code sent to their phone or generated by an authenticator app). For HR and recruiting professionals, 2FA is a simple yet powerful tool to protect access to sensitive platforms such as HRIS, payroll systems, and CRM databases (e.g., Keap). Implementing 2FA across all critical HR applications significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access due to stolen or weak passwords, making it far more difficult for malicious actors to compromise accounts and access confidential employee or candidate data, thereby enhancing overall data security.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication scheme that allows a user to log in with a single ID and password to gain access to multiple related, yet independent, software systems. Instead of remembering and managing separate credentials for each application, users authenticate once and are granted access to all authorized resources. For HR and recruiting, SSO streamlines the user experience for employees and recruiters who often use numerous applications daily—from ATS and HRIS to performance management and learning platforms. Beyond convenience, SSO enhances security by reducing password fatigue, minimizing the use of weak passwords, and centralizing authentication, making it easier for IT to manage access and implement robust security policies. Automating the provisioning and de-provisioning of user access through SSO integrates seamlessly with onboarding and offboarding processes.

Data Minimization

Data minimization is a principle of data protection that states organizations should only collect, process, and store the minimum amount of personal data necessary to achieve a specific purpose. This concept is fundamental to modern privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. For HR and recruiting, data minimization means critically evaluating what information is truly required from candidates and employees. Instead of asking for every possible piece of data upfront, it advocates for collecting only essential details at each stage of the recruitment or employment lifecycle. Automation can support data minimization by configuring forms and workflows to only request specific fields, automatically redacting irrelevant information, and ensuring that integrated systems only transfer necessary data, thereby reducing the risk of data breaches and simplifying compliance efforts.

Data Retention Policy

A data retention policy is a company’s established guideline for how long certain types of data must be kept and how they should be disposed of once their retention period expires. These policies are driven by legal, regulatory, and business requirements. For HR and recruiting, defining and adhering to a robust data retention policy is crucial due to the extensive personal data handled, ranging from job applications and interview notes to employee contracts and payroll records. Automating the enforcement of these policies ensures that data is neither kept indefinitely (creating unnecessary risk) nor deleted prematurely (leading to compliance issues). Integrating such policies into HRIS and CRM systems can automate data archiving or deletion processes, ensuring legal compliance and reducing the storage footprint while protecting privacy.

Vulnerability Management

Vulnerability management is the cyclical practice of identifying, classifying, remediating, and mitigating vulnerabilities in IT systems and software. It’s a continuous process designed to reduce an organization’s exposure to cyber threats by proactively addressing security weaknesses. For HR and recruiting, this means regularly assessing the security of their applicant tracking systems, HR information systems, cloud storage solutions, and any custom automation platforms (like those built with Make.com). Automation can play a role by integrating security scanning tools into development pipelines for custom solutions or by monitoring third-party HR tech for known vulnerabilities. Proactive vulnerability management helps protect sensitive employee and candidate data from exploitation, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of crucial HR operations and maintaining trust.

Phishing

Phishing is a type of cyberattack where attackers attempt to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, often by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. These attacks can come through email, text messages (smishing), or phone calls (vishing). For HR and recruiting, phishing is a significant threat because these departments often deal with sensitive employee data and are frequently targeted by attackers seeking access to internal systems. Automated email filtering and employee training are crucial defenses. Educating HR and recruiting teams to recognize and report phishing attempts is paramount, as a single successful phishing attack can lead to severe data breaches, compromising employee privacy and company security.

Incident Response Plan

An Incident Response Plan (IRP) is a documented set of procedures for detecting, responding to, and recovering from cyber security incidents. It outlines the steps an organization will take from the moment an incident is identified until it is fully resolved and normal operations resume. For HR and recruiting teams, a well-defined IRP is critical for managing data breaches involving sensitive employee or candidate information. This includes steps for isolating affected systems, assessing the impact of the breach, notifying affected individuals (where legally required), and restoring compromised data from backups. Automation can assist by triggering alerts for suspicious activity, initiating data lockdown procedures, or automating communication with key stakeholders during an incident, ensuring a swift and coordinated response that minimizes damage and maintains compliance.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Mastering Keap CRM Data Recovery: Avoid Mistakes & Ensure Business Continuity

“`