As of 2024, around 60% of all business data is stored in the cloud. That’s not a surprise, as cloud computing is a great way for companies to obtain unmatched scalability and flexibility.
However, this also means a huge amount of invaluable information is exposed to countless cyber-attacks and breaches every day. Find out how to prevent that with cloud data security.
Understanding Cloud Data Security
Cloud data security is a term encompassing all the solutions, technologies, policies, and security controls that protect data stored in a cloud environment from multiple cyber threats – from unauthorized access to exfiltration. A powerful cloud data security strategy usually includes encryption, access controls, and monitoring to ensure integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the info stored.
Why is it so important?
To put it simply – because losing data is costly, dangerous, and increasingly common.
According to research, 80% of companies experienced cloud security incidents in 2021, with one data breach incident costing around $5 million.
Here are some other figures that show how serious the issue is:
- As much as 45% of all data breaches are cloud-based.
- 85% of organizations that use cloud-computing state security as the top challenge they struggle with.
- Only 20% of companies assess their cloud data security levels on a regular basis.
- Total cloud environment intrusions increased by 75% from 2022 to 2023.
- By 2025, more than 50% of the world’s total data will be stored in the cloud (vs. 25% in 2015).
5 Key Strategies for Enhancing Cloud Data Security
Seeing how fast-growing the cloud is – and how costly the breaches are – it seems only logical that companies using it should up their safety measurements and start treating cloud data protection as one of the top priorities. Below, we’re listing five tools/strategies that can be a good start.
Data encryption
What is it?
Data encryption is what we call the process of converting readable data into an unreadable format using cryptographic algorithms. This way, only authorized parties with the correct decryption keys can access whatever data a company wants hidden. The encryption technique can be used whether it comes to data at rest (inactive data stored physically or digitally in a company) or data in transit (data that’s actively moving, e.g., across the internet or through a private network). Common types of encryption include Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for data at rest and Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) for data in transit.
What challenges does it solve?
- Unauthorized access
- Data breaches
- Data integrity
- Data privacy
Identity and access management
What is it?
Strong access controls are mechanisms and policies that regulate who can access certain data and systems within an organization. Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) means that users can only get to the sensitive information after they go through different types of verification. Role-based access control (RBAC) assigns access permissions based on a user’s role within the organization, ensuring they only have access to data necessary for their duties.
What challenges does it solve?
- Unauthorized access
- Insider threats
- Account compromise
- Shadow data
Regular security audits & real-time monitoring
What is it?
Regular security audits and assessments are systematic evaluations of an organization’s security posture. These include vulnerability assessments to identify weaknesses in the security infrastructure and penetration testing, which simulates cyber-attacks to test the effectiveness of existing security measures. Additionally, since the cloud is such a dynamic environment, a company may use threat modeling for real-time risk detection.
What challenges does it solve?
- Unidentified vulnerabilities
- Recognizing potential weak points within the cloud infrastructure
- Configuration troubles
- Lacking threat monitoring expertise
Data backup and disaster recovery
What is it?
Data backup involves creating copies of data at regular intervals to ensure it can be restored in case of loss or corruption. Combined with a robust cloud disaster recovery plan, which outlines procedures for restoring data and resuming normal operations after a data loss event, it is a great way to maintain operational continuity, minimize costs, and protect a company’s reputation.
What challenges does it solve?
- Hardware failure
- Cyber-attacks risks
- Downtime
- Operational disruptions
A multi-cloud strategy
What is it?
Multi-cloud is a strategy in which a company uses various cloud computing products or services from multiple providers to manage its data, applications, or complete IT infrastructure. It can be a combination of at least two private clouds, two public clouds, or a mix of both. This approach allows leveraging each provider’s unique security features and compliance certifications, providing a more robust and flexible security posture.
What challenges does it solve?
- Risk diversification
- Vendor lock-in mitigation
- Regulatory compliance
Ensuring the Cloud Data Security
There’s no stopping cloud data storage. With all the benefits offered by the cloud environment, the number of organizations relying on its non-tangible support will only continue to grow. Unfortunately, so will the number of attacks and threats to which the cloud is exposed. That’s why companies need to be more aware of the risks associated with moving their data up there so that it doesn’t vanish – literally and figuratively – into thin air.
