Overview

Our security strategy involves the following components:

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- Organizational security
- Physical security
- Infrastructure security
- Data security
- Identity and access control
- Operational security
- Incident management
- Responsible disclosures
- Customer controls for security

Organizational Security

We have an Information Security Management System (ISMS) in place which takes into account our security objectives and the risks and mitigations concerning all the interested parties. We employ strict policies and procedures encompassing the security, availability, processing, integrity, and confidentiality of customer data.

Employee Background Checks

Each employee undergoes a process of background verification. We do this to verify their criminal records, previous employment records if any, and educational background. Until this check is performed, the employee is not assigned tasks that may pose risks to users.

Security Awareness

Each employee, when inducted, signs a confidentiality agreement and acceptable use policy, after which they undergo training in information security, privacy, and compliance. Furthermore, we evaluate their understanding through tests and quizzes to determine which topics they need further training in. We provide training on specific aspects of security, that they may require based on their roles.

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We educate our employees continually on information security, privacy, and compliance in our internal community where our employees check in regularly, to keep them updated regarding the security practices of the organization. We also host internal events to raise awareness and drive innovation in security and privacy.

Internal Audit and Compliance

We review procedures and policies in Academy Platforms to align them with standards, and to determine what controls, processes, and systems are needed to meet the standards. This also does periodic internal audits and facilitates independent audits and assessments by third parties.

Endpoint Security

All devices used by our employees run up-to-date OS version and are configured with anti-virus software. They are configured such that they comply with our standards for security, which require all workstations to be properly configured, patched, and be tracked and monitored by our endpoint management solutions. These workstations are secure by default as they are configured to encrypt data at rest, have strong passwords, and get locked when they are idle. Mobile devices used for business purposes are enrolled in the mobile device management system to ensure they meet our security standards.

At Data Centers

At Data Centers rented by us, a co location provider takes responsibility of the building, cooling, power, and physical security, while providing the servers and storage. Access to the Data Centers is restricted to a small group of authorized personnel. Any other access is raised as a ticket and allowed only after the approval of respective managers. Additional two-factor authentication and biometric authentication are required to enter the premises. Access logs, activity records, and camera footage are available in case an incident occurs.

Network Security

Our network security and monitoring techniques are designed to provide multiple layers of protection and defense. We use firewalls to prevent our network from unauthorized access and undesirable traffic. Our systems are segmented into separate networks to protect sensitive data. Systems supporting testing and development activities are hosted in a separate network from systems supporting our production infrastructure.

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We monitor firewall access with a strict, regular schedule. Additionally, these changes are reviewed once in every six months to update and revise the rules. We monitor the infrastructure and applications for any discrepancies or suspicious activities. All crucial parameters are continuously monitored using our proprietary tool and notifications are triggered in any instance of abnormal or suspicious activities in our production environment.

Network Redundance

All the components of our platform are redundant. We use a distributed grid architecture to shield our system and services from the effects of possible server failures. If there's a server failure, users can carry on as usual because their data and services will still be available to them.

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We additionally use multiple switches, routers, and security gateways to ensure device-level redundancy. This prevents single-point failures in the internal network.

DDoS Prevention

We use technologies from well-established and trustworthy service providers to prevent DDoS attacks on our servers. These technologies offer multiple DDoS mitigation capabilities to prevent disruptions caused by bad traffic, while allowing good traffic through. This keeps our websites, applications, and APIs highly available and performing.

Server Hardening

All servers provisioned for development and testing activities are hardened (by disabling unused ports and accounts, removing default passwords, etc.). The base Operating System (OS) image has server hardening built into it, and this OS image is provisioned in the servers, to ensure consistency across servers.

Intrusion Detection and Prevention

Our intrusion detection mechanism takes note of host-based signals on individual devices and network-based signals from monitoring points within our servers. Administrative access, use of privileged commands, and system calls on all servers in our production network are logged. Rules and machine intelligence built on top of this data give security engineers warnings of possible incidents.

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At the Internet Service Providers (ISP) level, a multi-layered security approach is implemented with scrubbing, network routing, rate limiting, and filtering to handle attacks from network layer to application layer. This system provides clean traffic, reliable proxy service, and a prompt reporting of attacks, if any.

Data Security by Design

Every change and new feature is governed by a change management policy to ensure all application changes are authorized before implementation into production. Our Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) mandates adherence to secure coding guidelines, as well as screening of code changes for potential security issues with our code analyzer tools, vulnerability scanners, and manual review processes.

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Our robust security framework based on OWASP standards, implemented in the application layer, provides functionalities to mitigate threats such as SQL injection, Cross site scripting and application layer DOS attacks.

Data Isolation

Our framework distributes and maintains the cloud space for our customers. Each customer's service data is logically separated from other customers' data using a set of secure protocols in the framework. This ensures that no customer's service data becomes accessible to another customer.

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The service data is stored on our servers when you use our services. Your data is owned by you, and not by Academy Platforms. We do not share this data with any third-party without your consent.

Data Retention and Disposal

We hold the data in your account as long as you choose to use our services. Once you terminate your account, your data will get deleted from the active database during the next clean-up that occurs once every 6 months. The data deleted from the active database will be deleted from backups after 3 months. In case of your unpaid account being inactive for a continuous period of 120 days, we reserve the right to terminate it after giving you prior notice and option to back-up your data.

Logging and Monitoring

We monitor and analyse information gathered from services, internal traffic in our network, and usage of devices and terminals. We record this information in the form of event logs, audit logs, fault logs, administrator logs, and operator logs. These logs are automatically monitored and analyzed to a reasonable extent that helps us identify anomalies such as unusual activity in employees’ accounts or attempts to access customer data. We store these logs in a secure server isolated from full system access, to manage access control centrally and ensure availability.

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Detailed audit logging covering all update and delete operations performed by the user are available to the customers.

Vulnerability Management

We have a dedicated vulnerability management process that actively scans for security threats using a combination of certified third-party scanning tools and in-house tools, and with automated and manual penetration testing efforts. Furthermore, we actively reviews inbound security reports and monitors public mailing lists, blog posts, and wikis to spot security incidents that might affect the company’s infrastructure.

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Once we identify a vulnerability requiring remediation, it is logged, prioritized according to the severity, and assigned to an owner. We further identify the associated risks and track the vulnerability until it is closed by either patching the vulnerable systems or applying relevant controls.

Malware & Spam Protection

We scan all user files using our automated scanning system that’s designed to stop malware from being spread through our ecosystem. Our custom anti-malware engine receives regular updates from external threat intelligence sources and scans files against blacklisted signatures and malicious patterns.

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We support Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) as a way to prevent spam. DMARC uses SPF and DKIM to verify that messages are authentic. We also use our proprietary detection engine for identifying abuse of our services like phishing and spam activities.

Backups

We run incremental backups everyday and weekly full backups of our databases. Backup data in the DC is stored in the same location and encrypted using AES-256 bit algorithm. We store them in tar.gz format. All backed up data are retained for a period of three months. If a customer requests for data recovery within the retention period, we will restore their data and provide secure access to it. The timeline for data restoration depends on the size of the data and the complexity involved.

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To ensure the safety of the backed-up data, we use a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) in the backup servers. All backups are scheduled and tracked regularly. In case of a failure, a re-run is initiated and is fixed immediately. The integrity and validation checks of the full backups are done automatically by the ZAC tool.

Disaster Recovery & Business Continuation

Application data is stored on resilient storage that is replicated across data centers. Data in the primary DC is replicated in the secondary in near real time. In case of failure of the primary DC, secondary DC takes over and the operations are carried on smoothly with minimal or no loss of time. Both the centers are equipped with multiple ISPs.

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We have power back-up, temperature control systems and fire-prevention systems as physical measures to ensure business continuity. These measures help us achieve resilience. In addition to the redundancy of data, we have a business continuity plan for our major operations such as support and infrastructure management.

Incident Reporting

We notify you of the incidents in our environment that apply to you, along with suitable actions that you may need to take. We track and close the incidents with appropriate corrective actions. Whenever applicable, we will identify, collect, acquire and provide you with necessary evidence in the form of application and audit logs regarding incidents that apply to you. Furthermore, we implement controls to prevent recurrence of similar situations.

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We respond to the security or privacy incidents you report to us through with high priority. For general incidents, we will notify users through our blogs, forums, and social media. For incidents specific to an individual user or an organization, we will make sure to inform them.

Customer Controls for Security

So far, we have discussed what we do to offer security on various fronts to our customers. Here are the things that you as a customer can do to ensure security from your end:

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- Choose a unique, strong password and protect it.
- Use multi-factor authentication
- Use the latest browser versions, mobile OS and updated mobile applications to ensure they are patched against vulnerabilities and to use latest security features
- Exercise reasonable precautions while sharing data from our cloud environment.
- Classify your information into personal or sensitive and label them accordingly.
- Monitor devices linked to your account, active web sessions, and third-party access to spot anomalies in activities on your account,
- Be aware of phishing and malware threats by looking out for unfamiliar emails, websites, and links

We look forward to protected you, your privacy and your data.

Contact Information

Phone: +977 970-3037841 

Email: team@academyplatforms.com 

Address: Lalbandi 45801, Sarlahi (Nepal) 

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** This statement was last updated on July 07 2024 at 07:28 PM GMT+5:45.