Top Reasons Why Every Organization Needs Cloud Security

Nowadays, almost every business is running on some kind of a cloud network database, an industry which is expected to have a remarkable growth of infrastructure and usage in the near future due to its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Therefore, securing and managing extensive amounts of data and intellectual property is an extremely high priority for all in order to make the transition and adoption to cloud a successful one.

According to a survey conducted by McAfee, 79% of companies store sensitive data in the public cloud. Cloud database helps organizations, be that of small or large size, operate at a higher scale, manage IT infrastructure efficiently, and decrease their capital overheads.

Depending on the type of organization that you run, there are various types of cloud options that you can operate with:

• Private cloud: This type of cloud is restricted to a specific organization's usage only. Hence, everything is stored internally and not shared with any external party. 
• Public cloud: This type of cloud is managed externally, by a third-party provider. 
• Hybrid cloud: Hybrid is a combination of both private and public clouds. This is mostly preferred by organizations that want rapid scalability and encryption. 

When organizations move to the cloud it does not come without all the inescapable security challenges; especially in today’s online world of malicious and sophisticated cyberattacks. 

What are some of the most frequent ones in the cloud world?

1. The “War” Against Security Breaches

According to a report from IBM and the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach in 2020 is $3.86 million.

Securing data in the cloud is vital because once you make this transition, you are no longer in “total” control. For instance, if you decide to run your apps on either a hybrid or a public cloud, you are trusting a third-party to manage your cloud. Therefore, you must always be able to foresee your cloud data security and make sure that your cloud provider does understand this responsibility. That being said, it is in the cloud security providers’ best interest to provide the most secure services; however, you should also do your part by hiring competent personnel who are qualified to ensuring cloud security in your organization and know how to strengthen the security chain between your organization and your cloud provider.

2. Managing Remote Work

One of the main benefits of using cloud computing is the quick and sheer accessibility of your data. You might have apps in your organization that can be accessed by your employees from anywhere and at any time. This also helps you in the sense of work arrangements, allowing you to hire staff from all around the world. The remote working method turned out to be quite useful, especially during the COVID-19 turbulence.

What can be the side effect of this? 

The downside of this is that employees might not be able to be aligned to the cybersecurity best practices. One instance of a security risk can be if they work from public places such as coffee shops. This means that in most cases, potentially, they will use the public WiFi to access the web, which increases the probability of a security breach or attack. Moreover, they might use their laptops and phones in some cases, to complete their assignments and tasks, which might make them even more vulnerable to malware and phishing attacks.

According to CWPS, 97% of users cannot identify a sophisticated phishing email (we agree, these are some scary statistics). Once the malware enters your system, be that cloud or any other system, it will be very hard to contain the damage.

3. Disaster Recovery

One of the most important points that business continuity planning covers is implementing a detail-oriented disaster recovery plan. As we are all aware, disasters are most of the time unpredictable and can occur at any time. If a disaster occurs with your cloud, it could potentially wipe out all of your data and intellectual property. That is unless you are cautious and have hired a professional cloud security manager who knows what they are doing to secure your data.

If your customers hear that you are not securing your data, how can you convince them that you will keep their data safe? Loss of credibility and reliability can be a disastrous damage to your business.

4. Complying with Regulations

Data protection regulations such as GDPR list strict requirements that you should always take seriously. These types of regulations are brought to the general public to ensure the integrity and security of the customers’ data.

For instance, if your customers’ data that is stored on the cloud in attacked or breached, you will be responsible to answer to the regulator and can face fines of €20 million (about £18 million) or 4% of your annual global turnover – whichever is greater – for infringements.

In such cases, you cannot blame your cloud computing provider and expect that you will get out of this “easily.” Some of the most regulated industries such as health, finance, banking, insurance, etc., already have taken measures and comply with these type of regulations. The importance of cloud security in these sectors is even greater because of the risks associated. All in all, a cloud data breach will undoubtedly not only damage your reputation but you will also be potentially fined by external parties too.

5. Building Access Levels

Last but not least, there are a lot of cases where organizations that use cloud storage accidentally leak data in public. Once again, this may potentially cause unrepairable reputational damage. Why do these types of cases occur?

They occur because of the lack of poor security awareness and best practices. One of the best options in cloud security is to enforce access controls on employees by assigning or limiting the data access to trained personnel and only to those who need it. This action can diminish the probability of accidental leakages as well as makes the work of malicious hackers who want to penetrate your cloud system more difficult.

How PECB Can Help You

Cloud computing security knowledge can assist professionals in adopting a thorough approach to cloud computing and gaining e better understanding of cloud security fundamentals. The PECB Lead Cloud Security Manager training course targets security professionals, business owners, entrepreneurs, business analysts, developers, senior managers, and anyone looking to expand their knowledge of cloud security as well as successfully manage their cloud storage. If your organization constantly deals with intellectual property, be that of clients or their own, having a designated person who deals with securing data in the cloud is a wise decision to make. For more information, please contact us at marketing@pecb.com. 

Conclusion

If organizations want to manage and assess cloud data, they should be cautious of the above-mentioned challenges that they will potentially encounter. As more organizations shift to the cloud, security will become even more crucial because it will be one of the last ways in which hackers will try to penetrate your cloud and attack your data. All in all, having a responsible manager in your organization who manages your cloud system is more than vital for having your clients’ trust and protecting your reputation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ardian Berisha is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for ISR at PECB. He is in charge of conducting market research while developing and providing information related to ISO standards. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact him: marketing.ism@pecb.com.