From an unheard technology to a platform that powers Amazon, Dropbox, and Gmail, the adoption of cloud continues to grow exponentially. And the primary reason responsible for this proliferation is cloud-based services that empower enterprises to evolve and meet expectations of the business world.

Today, where technology happens to be at the core of every business, it is rare to find an organization that has no impact of cloud technologies. Hence, the forecast of global public cloud revenue that is expected to reach USD 249.8 billion by end of 2020 should not take you by surprise.

Cloud computing is now being accepted even by smaller businesses as sophisticated applications are getting more affordable and simpler to integrate with the existing business setup. Although cloud computing offers businesses of every size and type significant amount of benefits, security still is a major concern as cloud adoption is overtaking deployment of necessary security controls as well as integration of knowledge necessary to secure cloud data.

Last year, several global companies experienced the brunt of ransomware attacks and data leakages that had devastating repercussions due to lack of basic and critically essential cloud security tools. Well, this does not end here, as consumers can be affected for years once sensitive information related to them is compromised and ultimately have a negative toll on the company’s brand reputation. And the reason for this is negligence of companies, when it is the question of taking cloud security as a priority.

Therefore, it is essential to look at cloud security closely because cloud breaches don’t have to Be Inevitable.

Here is why.

Understanding the root cause of cloud security errors

There are a number of companies that do not have control on the cloud and following are certain factors responsible for this,

  • Many a time, companies shell out a large chunk of their budget on on-premises, making it difficult to pay any additional amount for proper cloud security tools.
  • Sometimes companies might be misled under a false impression that prior on-premise investments can help with cloud, and therefore, they believe that there isn’t any need to go for cloud-specific security measures.
  • A large number of organizations feel that threats actors will not target them for various reasons such as small size, relative anonymity, and more.
  • Enterprises often fail to understand the shared responsibility model associated with cloud security. This model clearly explains that service providers are only responsible for operations and security of cloud. However, it is essential for businesses to understand that security of data and access is their responsibility.

Pro tip: Even though cloud providers offer a certain amount of native security and compliance capabilities, the catch is that these do not address all the gaps. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the organization to sign up for additional security solutions. If the organization fails to do so, several breaches might be the result of careless insider errors.

Gartner predicts that 99% of cloud security failures are projected to be the customer’s faults through 2025. So, it’s time to be aware and adapt to security demands of cloud.

With the surge in the number of companies storing sensitive business critical, customer, and employee data in the cloud, it is imperative to rethink about tightening cybersecurity. Fortunately, proactive implementation of cyber security strategy with the potential to identifying and responding to threats and vulnerabilities is a must.

But as the dangers and vulnerabilities associated with cloud computing are unseen, it would be great to see you in the next session where we would talk in detail about ways to prevent data breaches in the cloud.

So, stay tuned.