How to make the public cloud more secure
Although a growing number of companies use a blend of multiple cloud architectures, the public cloud still dominates the enterprise IT industry. Gartner forecasts global public cloud spending to grow by 18 percent in 2021.
Public cloud vs. private cloud
Unlike a private cloud owned and managed by one organization, the public cloud is a shared utility. Public cloud providers virtualize computing resources and distribute them among users. You don’t get a dedicated physical server, data storage unit, or network. Everything is shared and separated by virtual borders between clients.
What makes the public cloud a favored cloud model is its low adoption, running, and scaling costs. The public cloud minimizes your IT investment and overheads while still delivering dependable high-end computing power. With a private cloud, you have to purchase, manage, and service all the equipment yourself. The overall cost of a private cloud setup is prohibitively high for most businesses.
Security Risks and concerns over public cloud services
The public cloud is conveniently inexpensive and accessible to most businesses, but it comes with serious cloud security risks. In a recent survey, 75 percent of the respondents said they were ‘very’ concerned or ‘extremely’ concerned about their cloud assets security. 52 percent of them considered the public cloud riskier than on-premise IT systems. The top security concerns and risks in the public cloud are:
- Misconfiguration of the cloud platform
- Unauthorized access to cloud resources
- Data loss and leakage
- Insecure interfaces
- Cloud accounts’ hijacking
Concerns over public cloud security are mostly well-founded. Although the cloud host provides some level of digital security, it’s partly the client’s responsibility to secure their platform. The biggest challenge with maintaining public cloud cybersecurity is the limited visibility, access, and flexibility of critical security controls and settings. The cloud environment’s core security elements are heavily abstracted and rigid, raising questions about their effectiveness and compliance with security standards.
Securing your public cloud
According to The State of Cloud Security 2020, 75 percent of companies hosting data and digital workloads on the public cloud experienced a cyberattack in the last year. Public cloud security threats are all too real. A small human error can open a backdoor in your cloud system for devastating exploits such as data theft, ransomware attacks, cryptojacking, insider threats, DoS attacks, malware injections, and many more.
Here are essential measures you could put in place to reinforce your cloud security and overall cybersecurity.
- Install third-party antimalware, firewalls, and intruder detection systems.
- Implement strict privilege management and access control (MFA, zero-trust authentication, etc.).
- Enforce a strong cybersecurity policy and educate your staff on its importance.
- Tunnel all your cloud connections through a secure virtual private network.
- Ensure the security of all end-user devices.
- Employ intelligent mechanisms to monitor and analyze your cloud traffic.
Let the professionals handle cloud security
Human error is the leading cause of cloud data breaches. Ninety-five percent of all cyberattacks result from user oversight, or risky behavior such as reusing passwords, falling for phishing scams, and security misconfigurations.
You can only be too careful and considerate when setting up your cloud security framework. Given how critical security settings are, managing your cloud’s cybersecurity with an inexperienced team is a risk not worth taking. A secure cloud environment protects your data, users, customers, and intellectual property along with conserving legal compliance with data security standards. Don’t take any chances with cloud security. Let our team of professional cybersecurity experts take care of data and compliance in your cloud infrastructure.
KME Systems is a managed IT services provider keen on guaranteeing dependable security for all your hosted IT assets. Contact us to learn more.