Video Storage for Businesses: How to Ensure Your Company's Video Assets are Protected

Videos have become the favourite type of content of consumers as they’re more engaging and attention-grabbing than text-based content. That’s why most businesses consider videos an essential part of their marketing strategy.

According to recent statistics, 86% of businesses use videos as a marketing tool and 84% of marketers believe that video marketing helps them increase their website traffic.

However, creating, managing, and most importantly securing your videos can be a hassle, especially if you don’t know how to perform this task the right way. That’s where this guide comes into place as it contains everything you need to know about storing videos securely.

Why Do You Need to Store Videos Securely?

It is important to consider the security of videos whether they are being created for video marketing or any other purpose. It helps you protect your video content against unauthorized access, data loss, and other risks and maintains the credibility and reliability of data.

Here are some reasons that explain the importance of storing videos securely.

Protection of Sensitive Information

Videos can contain sensitive or confidential information, and it is important to protect this information from unauthorized access. This could include personal data, financial information, trade secrets, or other types of sensitive data that should not be made available to the public.

Compliance with Laws and Regulations

Depending on the nature of the video, there may be laws and regulations that require it to be stored securely.

For example, videos containing personal information or medical records may need to be stored in accordance with privacy laws such as the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the United States or the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the European Union.

Avoiding Data Breaches

Storing videos securely can help prevent data breaches, which can have serious consequences for a company.

Data breaches can occur when unauthorized individuals or hackers gain access to sensitive information, and they can lead to financial losses, legal issues, and damage to a brand's reputation.

Ensuring the Integrity

If a video is modified or tampered with, it can compromise the integrity of the content. Securing your videos will help you make sure that they are not altered in any way, which is important for maintaining the credibility and reliability of the information being conveyed.

Availability of Video Files

If a video is stored in an insecure location, it may be lost or become unavailable due to technical issues or other problems. But if you store your video content securely, it’ll always be accessible when needed, which is important for maintaining the effectiveness of the content.

How to Store Videos Effectively and Securely

Effective and secure storage of videos is important for protecting sensitive information, maintaining the integrity of the content, and ensuring the availability of the videos when needed. There are various methods for storing videos securely, including the following.

Organize Your Videos

Organizing your videos is an important first step in securing them. By creating a clear hierarchy, you can effectively organize your videos and make them easier to find and access whenever needed.

Here are some steps that you can use to organize your videos properly.

Create a Clear Hierarchy

Establish a clear hierarchy for your videos by creating folders and subfolders based on the subject matter, date, or other relevant categories.

Make sure that you delete duplicate videos and the ones that you no longer need for any project. You can use a video content management tool to cut the clutter and keep your videos organized.

Use Descriptive and Consistent Naming Conventions

Using descriptive naming conventions for your videos can make finding and identifying them easier. This could include the date, the subject matter, and any relevant tags or keywords in the file names.

For example, you might use a naming convention such as "2023-01-01_company_meeting_recording" to indicate the date and subject matter of the video. Using consistent naming conventions will make it easier to find and access your videos.

You can also add tags and labels while naming your videos to create a system for organizing and categorizing your videos.

For example, you can tag a video about a company event with keywords, such as "annual dinner". This can be especially useful if you have a large number of videos and need a way to keep them organized and easy to find.

Add New Videos to the Right Location

Adding new videos to the right location within your hierarchy can help you maintain organization. To add new videos to the right location, you should first determine where the video fits within your hierarchy.

For example, you might have a folder for marketing videos, and subfolders for specific campaigns or topics. When adding a new marketing video, you would place it in the appropriate subfolder to maintain organization.

Use Secure Video Storage Options

There are multiple video storage options that you can use to store your videos securely, including hard drives, NAS (Network Attached Storage) options, and cloud storage solutions.

While choosing any of these options, you’ll need to make sure that you opt for the most trusted one(s), in terms of security.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage refers to storing your videos on a remote server accessed via the internet. This can be a convenient option, as you can access your videos from any device with an internet connection anytime. In addition, you can also consider getting an offshore server to improve site speed for global website visitors.

Some examples of cloud storage providers include Google Drive, pCloud, and IceDrive. When using cloud storage, it is important to choose a reputable provider and carefully review their security measures and data privacy policies.

For example, you might want to ensure that you choose the cloud storage for videos that offers encryption for data at rest and in transit, as well as access controls to limit who can view or modify your videos.

It is also important to choose a provider that is transparent in their business practices and communicates with you about any maintenance windows or outages in the service.

If problems do occur, a top-notch service vendor will resolve the issue as quickly as possible and make things right.

External Hard Drives

External hard drives are physical storage devices that you can connect to a computer or other device via a USB or other type of cable. They can be a good option for storing videos if you need a portable and offline storage solution.

External hard drives are typically easy to use and can be plugged in and unplugged as needed. However, they are prone to physical damage or failure, so it’s important to back up your data regularly.

For example, you might use an external hard drive to store videos that you need to access offline, and then regularly back up your data to a cloud storage provider for added security.

NAS (Network Attached Storage)

Network-attached storage refers to storage devices that are connected to a network and can be accessed by multiple devices. This can be a useful option if you need to store and share videos with a team or across multiple locations.

NAS devices typically follow robust security protocols, such as encryption and access controls. But it is important to choose a reputable provider, such as Seagate, and carefully review their security measures and data privacy policies.

Keep Multiple Copies of Your Videos

Keeping multiple copies of your video files is important to secure your data. You can use the 3-2-1 strategy for this purpose, as it involves keeping at least three copies of your video files, two of which are local, and one is on the cloud.

Here’s why keeping multiple copies of your video files is a smart idea.

Protect Against Data Loss

Keeping multiple copies of your media files can help protect against data loss due to accidents, theft, or hardware failure. It’ll help you minimize the risk of losing your data if one copy is lost or damaged.

Ensure Availability

It also ensures that you have access to your data when needed. For example, if you have a copy of your data in the cloud, you can access it from any device with an internet connection. This can be especially useful if you need to access your data from multiple locations or devices.

Automate Backup Process

Automating your backup process is a good way to ensure that your data is regularly backed up and up to date. By setting up a regular schedule for backups, you can avoid relying on your memory to remember to back up your data manually.

Most cloud storage options allow you to specify when backups should occur. Plus, you can also choose how to set up your automated backups, including specifying how many copies of your video files to keep and whether backups should be triggered when data changes or by the date and time.

For example, you can choose to keep three copies of your data and set up backups to occur automatically every week. Alternatively, you might choose to keep only one copy of your data and set up backups to occur automatically every time data changes.

By carefully considering these options and choosing the right settings for your needs, you can ensure that your data is regularly backed up to keep it up to date.

Always Use Encryption

Encryption is a process that converts data into a scrambled or encrypted form that can only be understood through the use of a key. The key is a string of characters used to decipher/decrypt the encrypted data and make it readable again.

Encryption can be applied to various types of files, including videos. By encrypting your video files, you can protect them against unauthorized access or tampering and ensure that it is secure and available when needed.

There are several types of encryptions that different tools use. We recommend you opt for a tool, such as AxCrypt, that uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) to help you store your videos in encrypted form.

It’s a strong encryption method and can take a long time to crack through brute force, even with a supercomputer.

Avoid Public Wi-Fi Networks

Public Wi-Fi networks, as the name suggests, are open to the public and can be accessed by anyone within range. They are often found in public places such as coffee shops, airports, and libraries, and are intended to provide internet access to anyone who needs it.

However, public Wi-Fi networks are generally not as secure as private networks, such as those found in homes or businesses. They often do not have the same level of protection in place to prevent unauthorized access to data transmitted over the network.

This makes it easier for hackers or other malicious individuals to access data transmitted over public Wi-Fi networks, including passwords, login information, and other sensitive data. So, you should avoid using public Wi-Fi networks to access your video files stored on cloud storage.

However, if you really need to access your media files for some reason while using a public Wi-Fi network, it is important to use an enterprise VPN provider (Virtual Private Network) service like Surfshark or NordVPN for example.

A VPN is a service that encrypts your internet connection and routes your data through a secure server, protecting it from being intercepted or accessed by unauthorized individuals. It can also help protect your privacy by masking your internet activity and making it more difficult for websites or other parties to track your online activity

With such benefits, the challenge lies in choosing the right service for your needs. This can be simplified by referring to a list of top VPN providers, which can provide a comprehensive comparison based on features, security, and price. Understanding these aspects will allow you to make an informed decision about which VPN provider best meets your requirements.

It can also help protect your privacy by masking your internet activity and making it more difficult for websites or other parties to track your online activities.

Password Protect All of Your Devices

Password-protecting your devices is an important step in securing your media files. It’ll prevent unauthorized access to your data and protect it from being accessed or tampered with by hackers and cybercriminals.

To password protect your devices, you will need to set up a unique password for each device you want to protect. It is important to choose strong passwords that are difficult for others to guess or crack.

A strong password should be at least 12 characters long and include a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters.

You should also avoid using the same password for multiple devices or accounts, as this can increase the risk of your data being accessed if one password is compromised.

In addition to setting up passwords, you should also consider using additional security measures such as two-factor authentication or biometric authentication to further protect your devices and data.

Two-factor authentication requires you to provide an additional form of verification, such as a code sent to your phone via text message or email, in addition to your password to access your device.

Biometric authentication uses physical characteristics such as fingerprints or facial recognition to verify your identity. These measures can help prevent unauthorized access even if someone knows your password.

Important Note: You should also use the same practices to secure your cloud storage accounts.

Set Expiration Dates on Published Videos

Time-based delivery is a useful tool for managing the delivery of your video content. By adding a scheduling and expiration time, you can control how long a specific video will remain accessible online and limit access to it after a certain date.

How you’ll add the expiration date to a published video will depend on the platform you’re using to publish videos. For example, if you’re using the IBM cloud video streaming platform, you can add the expiration date while scheduling the video. It’ll automatically unpublish the video on the expiration date you set.

Using time-based delivery can be particularly useful for webinars or company announcements, where you want to allow outsiders to replay the video for a short period of time after the event has finished.

This can help ensure that the information is available to those who may have missed the event, while also preventing the video from being accessed and shared outside of your organization after a certain point.

Implement Access Controls

Implementing access controls is an important step in securing your media files and videos. You can use a video content management system to implement this functionality to control who has access to specific videos.

There are several types of access controls that can be used to protect your videos, including:

User Authentication

This is the process of verifying the identity of a user before granting access to a resource. For example, you can set up password-based authentication for your video management platform, requiring users to enter a unique password in order to access or edit videos.

Role-Based Access Controls

This type of access control is based on the roles and responsibilities of users within an organization. Let's say you have a video management platform that contains a variety of videos, including marketing videos and HR videos.

In such a scenario, you can allow marketing team members to access marketing-related videos and the HR team to access HR-related videos.

This way, you can control access to your video files more effectively, ensuring that only the appropriate users or groups have access to each resource based on their role within your company.

Permission-Based Access Controls

This type of access control is based on the permissions, such as view, edit, or delete, granted to users for specific videos. It can be helpful in different scenarios. For example, you can use it to ensure that your production team can view and edit videos but your marketing team doesn’t have access to edit or delete files.

Restrict IP Addresses

Restricting access to your video files based on IP addresses is another excellent way to protect your data. IP addresses are unique numerical labels assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.

By allowing access only from specific IP addresses, you can ensure that only authorized users or devices can access your data.

You can configure your firewall to allow access only from IP addresses within your organization's network, or you can specify a list of allowed IP addresses that are granted access to your data. It’ll prevent cybercriminals from accessing your sensitive media files, even if they know about your video hosting.

Monitor and Review Your Security Measures

It's important to regularly monitor and review your security measures to ensure that your video files remain secure. By keeping an eye on your security measures, you can identify potential vulnerabilities and take steps to address them before they become serious issues.

Final Words

Storing videos securely is crucial to ensure the protection of your media files. This is especially important if the videos contain sensitive information that could cause harm or damage to your company if it were to fall into the wrong hands.

By following the best practices discussed in this guide for securing your video storage and implementing strong security measures, you can help protect your media files from unauthorized access or tampering.