The cloud continues to dominate the IT landscape as more organizations shift their digital workloads onto hosted platforms. According to Flexera’s 2020 State of the Cloud Report, more businesses are increasing their public cloud footprint, including those running hybrid cloud setups. Although the public cloud is an inexpensive and quick way to augment a business’s IT infrastructure, it also expands the security threat surface.
In a survey involving over 400,000 members of the enterprise cloud and information security community, 29 percent of the respondents cited data security risks as the biggest hindrance to cloud adoption. Cloud security is indeed a growing and valid concern among IT-dependent entrepreneurs. Let’s uncover the main risks your business faces through the public cloud and discuss the solutions available for cloud assets protection.
Lack of security control and visibility
When transitioning to the cloud, you lose visibility into some digital operations and control over low-level security configurations. You have no control over where or how data is stored in the cloud, and you can’t just tune any security setting to match your desired protection level. The cloud provider is mainly responsible for cloud security, limiting the available security options, weakening your overall cybersecurity posture.
Unauthorized access
The cloud’s unlimited accessibility is its main selling point, but it’s also the Achilles heel when it comes to security. Since public cloud services are accessible from anywhere via the internet, managing access point, user, and network vulnerabilities can become difficult. Malicious actors using stolen credentials, phishing attacks, insider threats, or brute force strikes can easily breach your cloud security defenses and gain access to high-value assets completely undetected.
Security compliance and legal risks
Several legal compliance regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, and PCI DSS require nearly all e-commerce businesses to meet strict data protection and privacy standards. Non-compliance attracts heavy financial and trade restriction penalties.
Adhering to data regulations on the cloud is a bit tricky since the in-built cloud security controls may conflict with or fall short of the recommended standards. Also, some of these data security regulations require companies to know where their data resides, who has access to it, and how it’s protected. Due to the abstracted architecture of cloud storage and security, some regulations define separate sets of rules to govern data stored on the cloud.
Mitigating cloud security risks
Nowadays, most cloud platforms allow users to configure their own security control (to some extent) or even integrate third-party security tools and services. This enables you to add a bit of flexibility to your data security and broaden your security options. Here are some of the ways you can minimize security risks in your enterprise cloud environment:
- Set up multi-factor authentication
- Encrypt data at rest and in transmission
- Secure your end-user devices using firewalls and anti-malware
- Enforce a strong password policy and company-wide cyber hygiene
- Educate your staff on cybersecurity best practices
- Manage privileges and monitor user-level access closely
- Route all your cloud connections through a protected private network
- Install automated security features where possible
Team up with a managed IT partner
Implementing the right cloud security apparatus is a complicated and high-stakes effort. A single mistake, misconfiguration, or oversight can compromise your entire cybersecurity framework. That’s why KME Systems is here to hold your hand and walk you through compliance and security readiness when migrating to the cloud.
Don’t let your fear of data security keep your business from leveraging modern enterprise solutions through the cloud. Let us do all the heavy lifting to ensure a successful and secure cloud transition. Get in touch with us to learn more about our cloud computing and cybersecurity solutions.
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