Cloud security may appear like legacy IT security, but it actually demands a different approach. And is now everyone’s concern. Before analyzing this further, let’s understand what cloud security is.
Cloud security refers to the technologies, policies, and protocols used to protect the cloud infrastructure, data and applications running in the cloud from external threats.
The global health crisis has proved an accelerator for cloud adoption across all industries. According to Gartner, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 20.7% to total $591.8 billion in 2023, up from $490.3 billion in 2022. This is higher than the 18.8% growth forecast for 2022. Even though enterprises are taking advantage of all the cloud benefits - eliminating the need for dedicated hardware, cost reductions and increased reliability, scalability and flexibility - putting the right cloud security mechanisms in place remains critical.
Despite the cloud’s agility and flexibility benefits, considerations around security still prevail. According to Thales, 45% of businesses have experienced a cloud-based data breach. And the biggest cloud security breaches we’ve seen to date lead to the same consequences: a company's reputation is tarnished, its customers may leave in droves.
Chief information security officers (CISOs) need to ask themselves the question around how they can adopt cloud services in a secure way, given that many of their existing security practices and architectures may be less effective in the cloud. A hybrid cloud system consisting of a blend of private and public cloud has evolved as an efficient mix in terms of rapid scalability that can guard against data security breaches.
Gartner reported that 60% of knowledge workers are remote and at least 18% won’t return to the office. “These changes in the way we work, together with greater use of public cloud, highly connected supply chains and use of cyber-physical systems,” Gartner warned, “have exposed new and challenging attack ‘surfaces.’” Distant team members sometimes further increase the risk by using apps that security teams are not aware of, e.g. the use of a new cloud collaboration tool. This activity lacks the security scrutiny and protection it requires. To prevent this from happening you need visibility into user activities that can be attained with Security as a service (SECaaS) - this allows companies to use external providers to handle and manage security risks. Outsourced security solutions cover services like data loss prevention or intrusion detection.
Regulatory compliance requirements like HIPPA and GDPR are almost universal and are meant to ensure a company’s integrity and maintain the security of data for all enterprises opting for the cloud. The main industries that are seeing an increased focus, volume and complexity of regulations are banking and financial services. In these sectors, CISOs are pursuing new strategies that drive requirements for critical infrastructure and applications to the cloud.
Noncompliance costs three times the cost of maintaining or meeting compliance requirements. Thus, security and risk management leaders should invest in cloud security posture management and tools to proactively identify and remediate risks.
Securing your organization’s cloud infrastructure begins with understanding what exactly needs to be secured. Security must ensure data confidentiality while facilitating business teams to seamlessly interact with data and applications across cloud systems. Security-by-design approaches must embed security at the core of the enterprise architecture to support secure data transport, data encryption and identity-management solutions with a zero-trust approach.
Cloud-based services are typically immediately internet connected, allowing you to start using new resources quickly.
However, this does not necessarily mean that you should continue to access them in this way due to significant connectivity and security concerns that should not be overlooked.
A best-in-class multicloud connectivity platform offers advanced threat protection capabilities, filtering traffic and enabling proactive measures through higher visibility. Here are some of the top considerations for enterprises when it comes to security of your multicloud infrastructure:
The way to approach cloud security is different for every organization and depends on several factors. One thing is clear - security and risk management leaders should invest in cloud security management processes and tools to proactively identify and remediate risks. The role of the cloud security architect will also gain territory. They will ‘own’ the building of your cloud security strategy and architecture, and create the roadmap for cloud security tools.
To connect your business-critical applications, InterCloud guarantees end-t0-end security and performance of your traffic from your premises to your cloud environments via a best-in-class multicloud connectivity platform and managed services that help to deliver comprehensive control against the constant changes in the security landscape.
Data is transiting through a private network and each resource (or set of resources) can benefit from traffic isolation. Private connectivity to the cloud drastically reduces the attack surface of applications. Isolating cloud data transfers from the Internet traffic, InterCloud’s platform is less prone to Internet common threats and attacks (malware, worms, DDoS) that come to alter performance and availability of directly exposed applications.
Visibility is the prerequisite for securing any kind of traffic. Thanks to the segregation of data flow, you will be able to see the traffic behaving differently and identify its source before the threat impacts your network.