Cloud computing is the ideal way to achieve digital agility in your organisation. Moving data, applications, and infrastructure to the cloud allows companies to reduce technology costs, and use agile systems that support productivity and business growth.
While the benefits of cloud computing are huge, it is essential to have complete confidence in your cloud security solution and ensure your systems, and applications are always secure against unauthorised access, your sensitive data is protected against data theft, and compliance regulations are being met.
For businesses choosing to migrate to the cloud, a robust cloud security strategy is critical, as threats are continuously evolving and becoming more sophisticated. It is essential to work with cybersecurity cloud specialists who can ensure your cloud has best-in-class security solutions that are customised for your business infrastructure.
What is cloud security?
Simply put, cloud security protects cloud-based applications, data, and services through technology, defined processes, accessibility controls, threat management, and governance policies.
Security is invaluable to ensure your business gets the maximum benefits of cloud services. It can’t be overstated that a security-first approach to cloud services needs to be implemented from the top down. Yet Gartner states “execution remains impeded by a lack of necessary skills and tools to ensure secure cloud computing deployments.” Partnering with a managed security service provider who has extensive experience in cloud deployment ensures a robust cloud security strategy is implemented and managed, and your cloud security posture is improved.
Cloud breaches will be common
In the last two years, the number of organisations rapidly implementing cloud solutions accelerated, to enable remote work models. This rapid and hasty migration also meant security issues are more likely to occur if protocols aren’t as robust as they should be. A recent report shows almost 80% of companies have experienced at least one cloud data breach, with a data breach in hybrid cloud costing companies an average of $3.61 million.
To prepare for inevitable future breaches, organisations should invest in tools that offer a clear picture across all platforms, both in the cloud and on-premise. This way they can have a clearer idea about the potential damage following a breach and respond quickly to minimise it.
Zero-trust initiatives
In 2022, the adoption of zero-trust will continue picking up speed as organisations realise that it is the most important principle for securing cloud infrastructures. Zero trust is a security model where all users are authenticated, authorised and continuously validated before they can be granted access to applications and data.
Zero-trust is a framework that has particular relevance today as it addresses the challenges businesses face with remote workers, hybrid cloud environments, and emerging cyber threats. It tightens up security and as zero trust becomes more popular, organisations should invest in technologies that provide them with comprehensive visibility of their network as well as advanced threat detection, response, and management solutions.
Service and machine identities
Although organisations will continue to increase the security of their human identities with multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO), attackers are expected to shift their focus to machine and service identities.
Essentially, machine identities are an instrumental part of protecting the confidentiality and integrity of information between machines. This is done using keys, certificates and usernames like people use to authenticate their identities with passwords. Managing these machine identities has become crucial for preventing data breaches from occurring.
Getting cloud security right
While the benefits of cloud adoption are significant, embracing these technologies comes with risks that must be managed proactively. To avoid becoming a statistic, security should be front of mind for any organisation deploying cloud-based services, covering visibility and compliance, network protections, identity security and proactive threat management. These aspects of security are critical and cannot be overlooked.
Even after 2022, as the pandemic and government restrictions become a thing of the past, organisations on the path of digital transformation will continue to embrace the hybrid work model. The trend of cloud usage will continue, as will attacks against service provider platforms and the data they contain. 2022 needs to be the year for getting cloud-related security matters right. The cloud security specialists at Linktech Australia can help you make your cloud journey more secure and reliable.