Why Cloud Security is Essential
Many businesses rely on cloud systems for their operations. Because of how popular these systems are, they can be a hot target for cyber-attacks. This puts businesses in a vulnerable position. When a business cloud system encounters a cyber-attack, subsequentially their entire business identity and reputation are at risk. Organizations may lose operational control or system access. In addition to this, it may expose or compromise sensitive data. Hackers can steal business funds. These are just a few examples of why cloud protection is essential.
Just as there are benefits of using a cloud system, there are benefits of protecting it. Operating in the cloud ultimately saves companies money. As mentioned in an article on the importance of cloud security, cloud computing has lower upfront costs as well as reduced operational and administrative costs. Additionally, it allows ease of scaling and has increased reliability and availability. Cybersecurity is especially beneficial by saving the time of employees so they can focus on other responsibilities. If it has such strong benefits, and you know that it is vulnerable to exposure, then why wouldn’t you protect it?
Cyber Defense Magazine shares reasons why cloud security is important for all businesses. Author Jeremy Steven writes that “guarding against security breaches, managing remote work, ensuring disaster recovery, complying with regulations, and eliminating weak links are top reasons why cloud security should be prioritized.”
Input from Ermetic
Providing security products and services, Ermetic is a company that aims to protect against cloud breaches. These products increase security by reducing the room available for hackers to break through cloud infrastructure. This enables cloud users to protect their identities and data from being breached. This is especially necessary, as it could be in a public cloud setting.
They also recognize that commercial cloud tools, when used to address security needs, tend to lack quality and efficient visibility and analytic capabilities. With a lack of automation and reporting, companies who use these tools can be more vulnerable. This is because they will not be able to take action until it’s too late and their cloud has already been breached.
Cloud Protection Stats
In a recent survey, Ermetic uncovered statistics that illustrate the seriousness of cloud security. 98% of companies in the survey reported that they experienced a cloud data breach over the prior 18 months. This increased by 19% from the year before. In addition to this, 67% said they experienced at least three, if not more, data breaches. Ermetic also shared that 75% of future cloud breaches will likely be due to inadequate management of identities, access, and privileges.
Ermetic found that two of the top five security priorities are directly related to the cloud. First is access risk in the cloud. This is especially for enterprises with large development teams or large cloud footprints. Second is cloud infrastructure security. If this is breached, private data is exposed.
As previously mentioned, commercial cloud tools are not particularly reliable. 71% of those surveyed said that not only do they use their cloud providers’ security tools, but that it also uses a significant amount of time. Cloud systems have the benefit of saving time. But, if it is not secure or security takes back that time, it consequently uses more money.
Shai Morag, the CEO of Ermetic, shared in the survey report, “Even though nearly 70% of companies invest more than 25 hours a week on cloud identity management, the survey found that 83% had at least one access-related cloud data breach.” He continued, “In fact, almost 60% of organizations said they consider lack of visibility and inadequate IAM security a major threat to their cloud infrastructure.”
Final Thoughts on Cloud Security & Data Protection
Telecommunication company, AT&T, suggests 3 steps to an effective cloud security strategy. Their steps include using multiple levels of security and understanding how to balance data privacy. It also emphasized holding cloud providers accountable to ensure security. It is a good idea to embrace anti-virus and anti-malware applications as well as utilize a private connection to eliminating any the progression of a cyber-attack. Data cannot be breached if it doesn’t exist, so minimize the amount of personal information in the cloud as much as possible.
Cloud security is clearly essential to ensuring protection of your business’ private data, accounts, and identities. After reviewing the statistics of their survey, Ermetic concludes that “an effective cloud infrastructure security strategy must focus on identities, permissions and entitlements to truly protect against risks.” Creating a common language between businesses and vendors to discuss available security controls fosters a long leading security framework.
A full copy of this report by Ermetic is available here.