Security in the cloud. One of the concerns of top IT leaders is security. In fact, a recent Accenture study shows that despite 82% of organizations increasing their cybersecurity investments in 2021, successful attacks grew 31%. The same study showed that, globally, more than half (55%) of the largest companies are not effectively stopping cyberattacks, detecting and fixing breaches quickly, or reducing the impact of breaches.
In parallel, cloud adoption has been on the rise over the past 18 months as organizations have actively pursued digital initiatives in response to economic realities. And the momentum is expected to continue.
Why is cloud security still such a concern for many organizations? There are many reasons, one of which is fear. We've all seen some very costly examples of data breaches in the media.
The truth is cruel: many companies will never be 100% safe from a security breach. It's simply impossible. There are too many ways attackers can target you using increasingly sophisticated organized methods.
However, you can reduce the risk of serious losses with a sound security strategy.
Cloud security
There are five key elements of a solid cloud security strategy.
Today's security landscape is complex. Protecting your organization requires accepting the fact that your systems will be breached at some point; therefore, your strategy must contain both pre- and post-attack elements. Next, let's look at five key elements of a solid cloud security strategy:
- Visibility
Lack of visibility around cloud infrastructure is a major concern for many organizations. The cloud makes it easy to roll out new workloads at any time, perhaps to address a short-term project or a surge in demand, it is all too common that these assets can easily be forgotten once the project is complete. Without visibility into changes in your environment, your organization can be exposed to potential security vulnerabilities. After all, you can't protect what you can't see.
- Exposure management
Protecting your organization is about limiting your exposure and reducing risk. Prioritizing and addressing vulnerabilities that can cause disruptions to your business requires a team effort. You need alignment on key concerns among your IT and security groups and a strong working relationship between them to effectively manage your exposure.
- Prevention controls
Another concern for organizations, particularly those with large on-premises or hybrid environments, is the lack of tool compatibility. Many find that their existing tools do not carry over to the cloud. In addition, as you grow your IT estate in the cloud, there are new attack vectors to worry about. As you expand to the cloud, make sure you have the right security controls in place and a plan to tier controls as needed to protect against emerging attack vectors.
- Detection
When your security is breached, what happens and are you able to detect it? For many organizations, this can be a challenge because there is a shortage of security expertise in the market. Globally, more than 3 million cybersecurity positions were unfilled as of 2020. Your security system needs to identify when something is wrong, so you can take action to minimize the impact. Criminals use automated systems to attack, so you need to constantly monitor your environment or have a third party do it for you.
- Reply
Any effective cloud security strategy includes a plan of action. You should assume that an attack will occur at some point. As a result, you need a documented plan with defined roles and responsibilities, including the names of specific departments and individuals, so that everyone in the organization knows what is expected of them to minimize the impact and return to normal business operations. The plan should also be tested, reviewed and updated at least annually.
Cloud security is a shared responsibility between you and your cloud provider. To develop a cloud security strategy that will protect your organization, it is important to understand where the provider stops and your responsibility begins.
Discover how, from Anida Latam, we help companies to develop a strategy that fits their own reality, with the necessary tools and knowledge to provide adequate protection in the face of new and growing cybersecurity threats.
Cloud security
Cyber incidents caused by the "human factor" are often attributed to occasional employee error, but a more important element is often overlooked: deliberate malicious behavior by staff.
The leak contains user data from LinkedIn, Twitter, Weibo, Tencent and other platforms, is almost certainly the largest ever discovered.
