Properly Securing Your Cloud System

Engagement with cloud computing has increased rapidly and despite the serious disruption caused by the COVID-19 is being used by more businesses than ever. But one thing that has become clear is that different cloud products have different levels of security.  Security in the cloud is not the same as security in the corporate data center. Different rules and thinking apply when securing an infrastructure over which one has no real physical control.

As enterprises move their applications and data to the cloud, executives increasingly face the task of balancing the benefits of productivity gains against significant concerns about compliance and security. 

A survey conducted by Centrify, a provider of privileged access management (PAM) solutions, found that 51% of respondents said that transitioning to a cloud-based model allowed them to keep their businesses operating during the lockdown. However, over 50% of UK business decision makers admitted that security remains the biggest barrier to public cloud adoption in their organisations.

• The research was conducted independently via a survey of 200 business decision makers in large- and medium-sized enterprises in the UK, also revealed that over one-third (35 per cent) of the organisations who have adopted cloud are less than 80 per cent confident that it is completely secure.

• When questioned about security weaknesses in their companies, 45 per cent of decision makers agreed that it is the increasing amount of machine identities and service accounts, such as those used by servers and applications, that are becoming the largest exposure point for their organisation.

• The survey also revealed that more than one in four (28 per cent) companies have already been targeted by a cloud hacking attempt since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.

• Despite continued requirements on enterprises for digital transformation and rapid innovation, almost one-third (31 per cent) of business decision makers admitted that their development teams are more interested in getting around security than building it into the DevOps pipeline, which is an alarming outcome cor corporate cyber security.

Key Concepts Businesses Can Use To Ensure Data Security In The  Cloud

Make sure the cloud system uses strong data security features:  Your cloud system must be designed to use antivirus programs, encryption controls and other features that help protect data. A cloud system and its dedicated servers must also use the right security controls to see that all data moves back and forth as needed without other people being at risk of breaking into the data. A firewall may be added to a cloud server in most cases.

Backups must be available as well:    The backup setup that your cloud computing system uses must also be checked. The backup can be set up directly on the cloud computer, but you might have to do it manually. You might want to use your own server or something similar to a portable hard drive or a secondary cloud server to help you out. There's no guarantee that your cloud computing system will have a backup support system, so that will likely be your responsibility.

Test your cloud system on occasion:     Testing might sound like a minor issue, but it can make a major difference. In particular, you need to test your cloud to see how well it is performing in conjunction with its security setup. Ethical hackers may be hired to test the security of your cloud system. An ethical hacker, in particular, is a person who is hired to use hacking activities to identify issues within your cloud system or other storage space. The hacker will then provide you with recommendations for taking care of any concerns. This is a popular option for testing as it goes deep into your system to find even the most-hidden problems.

Look for redundant storage solutions:    Redundant storage involves adding internal drives to store data, often more than you really require. This helps to keep data duplicated as much as possible. It makes it much harder for your data to be broken into or stolen.

Allow your system to use as many data access accounts and permissions as possible:    If every bit of data in your cloud computing system was accessible to everyone in your business, then it would be rather easy for your data to be distributed or even stolen. It is important that your system will work with several data access accounts at a time. These include individual accounts that have their own sets of permissions.

Having multiple accounts makes it so many bits of data will be protected by having only a select number of people able to access certain parts of your service. This will, in turn, protect your setup.

Never assume that your cloud system is always going to be safe. Always look to see that it is meeting the right standards to ensure that data is protected. By doing so, you can prevent your data from potential losses in the future and ensure that it can still be accessed in a variety of spaces.

Centrify:      ITPro:       Data Centre Knowledge:        CSO Online: 

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