As more and more business applications move to the cloud, modern enterprises are faced with a range of unique information security challenges. Cloud computing may allow your employees to access data and documents anywhere and at any time – this ups productivity, flexibility and agility – but it also makes it more difficult to keep everything safe. Security has evolved from being a firewall and an investment in anti-virus software into something that can be quite expensive and hard-to-manage.
“The volume of public cloud utilisation is growing rapidly, so that inevitably leads to a greater body of sensitive stuff that is potentially at risk,” says Jay Heiser, VP and cloud security lead at Gartner.
What many businesses fail to realise is that the main responsibility for protecting corporate data in the cloud lies does not lie with the cloud service provider but with the cloud customer. “We are in a cloud security transition period in which focus is shifting from the provider to the customer,” Heiser adds.
We’re rounded up a few of the challenges that go hand-in-hand with cloud computing. We’ve also put together a list of how to address these issues:
Employee negligence
The Challenge: Employee negligence remains one of the biggest security issues facing all systems and all businesses. When modern employees log into cloud solutions using any of their personal devices, they can potentially leave the system vulnerable to outside threats.
The Solution: It all comes down to training. Make sure your employees understand what threats are out there and teach them to be careful when using their personal mobile devices to access company information.
Phishing and social engineering attacks
The Challenge: In line with the point above, should your employees fall for a phishing or social engineering attack, they can put your business in serious trouble. Accessing data on the cloud simply requires the right login information, which means that this information is hugely attractive for hackers. Once they have the necessary login information, they can access and/or steal confidential information.
The Solution: Training your employees to recognise phishing scams is especially important. This means teaching them to check that the emails they receive are sent from the right address, to avoid clicking on links in emails that seem suspicious and report any unusual activity.
Inadequate data backups
The Challenge: If your data isn’t properly backed up, you become a prime target for ransomware attacks. These attackers “lock” a company’s data and only allow them to access the information once a ransom has been paid.
The Solution: The good news is that ransomware attacks only have a marginal impact in scenarios where the organisation’s data is frequently and thoroughly backed up. Avoiding data loss comes down to having your information backed up, so back everything up regularly.
Limit access
The Challenge: As we mentioned earlier, moving company data to the cloud means that any of your employees can access company information not matter where they may be. But as more and more businesses embrace freelances, interns and contractors, it becomes important to control what level of access is given to this fluctuating workforce.
The Solution: Be careful about who you allow to access your data and what data you give them access to. With cloud, you can update access control from anywhere. Should you find that someone access misusing their privileges to access a customer’s personal details, for example, you can delete their access rights immediately.
Cloud computing can save an organisation time and money, but trusting the system is critical because data is any modern organisation’s greatest asset.