CLOUD security

The adoption of cloud-based services continues to accelerate. In fact, 97 percent of those surveyed in recent Confluera research indicated that their organizations expect to expand their cloud deployments.

To that end, many are enhancing the scope and extent of their cloud-based systems, often enhancing them to also include AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. This growth does not come without its obstacles, one of which is cybersecurity challenges.

The primary reason for concern centers on human resources. With the adoption of cloud and multi-cloud-based systems comes the need for more human expertise and time. Just keeping up with frequent security alerts takes up a reported 54 percent of staff’s time, with about half of those alarms turning out to be false. Clearly, technologies and systems need to be developed to reduce those numbers to use employee resources more efficiently to address actual cybersecurity incidents. In addition, productive dialogue needs to be fostered between infosec professionals and executives to reduce team burnout and ensure that systems are in place to efficiently manage alerts and keep systems up and running.

Furthermore, there is a big difference between cloud-based security and the more traditional measures employed to keep a data center safe from digital attacks. In many respects, a data center is a closed system that can be controlled by using strict practices and protocols. By contrast, cloud-based connectivity often allows open paths to the public internet and reduces visibility and control. For breaches to be kept to a minimum, organizations will need to recognize this fact and focus on reducing false alerts and increasing their control over their cloud-based systems.