Cloud Security Essentials: Key Practices for Secure Adoption

More than 85% of businesses, according to Gartner, will adopt a cloud-first principle by 2025¹. Businesses are steadily shifting their operations to the cloud because this technology can help them stay competitive by improving operational efficiency, customer service, and overall profit margins. Meanwhile, there are major security concerns where organizations should prepare a clear plan to protect their valuable cloud-based operations.

Cloud security can equip organizations with a suite of technologies, processes and policies that are dedicated to managing and protecting resources across cloud-based infrastructure. This article will cover the importance of cloud security to protect organizations from top security concerns and the effective cloud security measures to safeguard their resources in the cloud.

What are Cloud Security Solutions?

Cloud security solutions are comprehensive frameworks designed to protect data, applications, and cloud infrastructure from unauthorized access, threats, and data breaches. These solutions often include encryption, identity management, and real-time monitoring to ensure that sensitive data remains secure at all times.

Why should Cloud Security be Considered a Top Priority?

45% of breaches are cloud-based (IBM and Ponemon Institute, 2022)². Any kind of attack on a cloud service may be disastrous, both financially and in terms of brand reputation. When it comes to technology upgrades and purchases, 72% of companies are now automatically opting for cloud-based services (Foundry, 2022)³. The acceleration of cloud adoption is attracting more and more threat actors to leverage cloud services as an access point to lay the groundwork for a ransomware attack and to steal large amounts of sensitive corporate data.

Cloud providers can provide a safe environment to some extent. However, there are a number of security concerns that cloud providers are not always aware of, specifically the ones connected with their user systems and data. The lack of preventative measures and responsibility taken by businesses also makes them easy prey for cybercriminals through weak credentials, human error, or misconfigurations.

To ensure a safe cloud environment for their businesses to operate in, organizations need to plan security solutions robust enough to protect them from the top cloud security threats. Cloud-based security practices might include everything from security policies and procedures to technological safeguards against unauthorized access to cloud data. In today’s business world, threatened by evolving cyberattacks, adopting best cloud security practices is critical to enable organizations to take control of and protect their cloud resources, ensure their ongoing operations, and meet data protection regulation compliance.

Challenges of Cloud Data Security

Data Breaches

The risk of data breaches increases in cloud environments due to the complexity of securing multiple access points and large volumes of data. Businesses must implement strong security measures to prevent unauthorized access.

Regulatory Compliance

Adhering to various data protection regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA, becomes more complex when managing cloud environments. Businesses must ensure their cloud data security solutions meet these evolving standards.

Human Error

Misconfigurations and lack of knowledge are common issues when deploying cloud services, making human error a major security risk. Effective security solutions should minimize these risks by automating processes and providing user-friendly tools.

Data Loss

Cloud environments can be vulnerable to data loss due to outages, accidental deletions, or insufficient backups. A reliable cloud data security solution ensures robust data backup and recovery processes.

Essential Practices for a Secure Cloud Environment

Using best security practices to solve top cloud security issues is crucial to the success of any cloud security strategy. The following security measures are essential for any organizations’ cloud security strategy:

1.    Enable multi-factor authentication controls on user accounts

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a crucial part of a safe network since it demands the user prove their identity in more than one way, using various types of authentication each time. Whether it's mobile, biometric, or physical, adding this extra layer of authentication strengthens security. 

With MFA, organizations can better control access to cloud resources. Instead of relying on passwords alone, which may be easily compromised, MFA allows businesses to clearly identify who has access to what information. This feature also assists in regulatory compliance. For instance, HIPAA compliance necessitates that only authorized individuals have access to ePHI.

2.    Implement cybersecurity awareness training

Cybersecurity awareness is a crucial practice for achieving a robust cloud security posture. 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error (World Economic Forum, 2020)4. The way users engage with cloud applications may either leave the system vulnerable to attackers or fortify it. 

Therefore, it is important that businesses provide their employees with training on cybersecurity awareness and incident response. Beside increased security, businesses that invest in cybersecurity awareness training will gain the additional benefits as follows:

• Time- and Costs-Savings: When an attack happens, businesses not only have to put in a lot of work and time to correct it, but they also have to pay a hefty price. With appropriate trainings, cyberattacks may be better avoided or handled.
• Empowered Workforce: Employees would be more confident in taking actions to prevent a devastating breach in the workplace. They can thus protect themselves and their company from data breaches.
• Maintain Customers’ Trust: Data breaches can harm a business’ creditability. As human error is the major cause of data breaches, training employees can mitigate this threat and keep businesses safe.

Due to the ever-changing nature of the threat environment, organizations should provide their staff with the right cybersecurity awareness training to ensure they are already ready for the latest threats.

3.    Improve your Cloud Security Posture 

The cloud misconfigurations leading to the data breaches mainly come from the cloud users, not the cloud service providers. With Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), businesses can spot and fix misconfiguration and non-compliance in the cloud. This can limit the attack surface that can be exploited by hackers, improving the safety of the cloud infrastructure.
With CSPM solutions, businesses may standardize the implementation of cloud security best practices across increasingly complex infrastructures, including hybrid, multi-cloud, and containerized settings. The following are some features of CSPM solutions:

• Threat detection: CSPM helps organizations reduce risks by giving them centralized visibility of misconfigurations and suspicious activity.
• Incident response: CSPM identifies indicators of compromise, such as an attacker switching off encryption or altering assumed roles in IAM, and notifies the organizations of any misconfiguration issues.
• Compliance: CSPM may also provide ongoing monitoring and reporting for compliance with requirements like HIPAA.
• Securing infrastructure: CSPM solutions can check for misconfigurations within configuration files. This protects enterprises from putting their applications in insecure cloud settings and aids in understanding how different cloud services interact with one another.

4.    Ensure encryption

Encryption at the network's edge protects data before it leaves the company's premises and is sent to the cloud. Encryption will increase security by scrambling the data in corporate files, systems, and databases so that it cannot be read without the proper decryption key.

Organizations should protect encryption keys and retain full access control over private data even when they use encryption in cloud storage. Moreover, these encryption keys should not be stored in the same application as sensitive data. It's not enough for the IT team to only have the encryption keys; they also need to evaluate the effectiveness of the protocols on a regular basis.

5.    Deploy a Powerful and Scalable Cloud Backup Solution

In the event of a data loss, cloud backup would be an invaluable solution for recovery. With cloud backup, organizations may save a duplicate of their cloud data in a separate location in case of data loss or theft, allowing them to quickly recover lost data to keep operations running and protect themselves from potentially disastrous IT disruptions.

Recently, cloud backup has become a popular alternative to conventional physical backup. A cloud backup's key benefit is that it allows for restorations to be performed remotely and from any device. Organizations can thus minimize costs and risks associated with downtime and ensure seamless operations.

Due to the increasing number of mission-critical resources moving to the cloud, it may become more challenging for businesses to effectively manage and secure their key operations. Prevalent security concerns like account hacking, insider threats, malware, etc. should be handled by a robust suite of cloud security solutions. Adnovum covers the whole spectrum of your organization’s cloud security needs, from risk assessment to implementation, customized to businesses’ needs to guarantee a robust security defense against ever-changing cyberthreats. 

Benefits of Cloud Data Security

Enhanced Data Protection

Cloud data security solutions offer encryption, access controls, and multi-factor authentication, providing robust protection against unauthorized access.

Compliance with Regulations

Cloud data security helps businesses stay compliant with global data protection regulations by implementing necessary safeguards and providing tools for continuous monitoring.

Cost Efficiency

Many cloud data security solutions are scalable, allowing businesses to pay for what they need. This helps reduce unnecessary expenses while maintaining strong data protection.

Increased Trust and Reliability

By implementing cloud data security measures, businesses build trust with their customers, ensuring that their sensitive information is protected.
 
References:

1.    Gartner. (2021). Gartner Says Cloud Will Be the Centerpiece of New Digital Experiences

2.    IBM and Ponemon Institute. (2022). Cost of a Data Breach 2022 Report

3.    Foundry. (2022). Cloud Computing Study 2022

4.    World Economic Forum. (2020). After reading, writing and arithmetic, the 4th 'r' of literacy is cyber-risk

FAQs

What is a cloud data security solution?

A cloud data security solution encompasses technologies and practices that protect cloud-stored data from breaches, ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Why is cloud data security important?

Cloud data security is crucial to protect sensitive data from breaches, comply with regulatory requirements, and ensure business continuity in the event of cyberattacks.

What challenges come with implementing a cloud data security solution?

Challenges include navigating complex regulatory requirements, mitigating human error, and securing multi-cloud environments. Implementing robust solutions can address these challenges effectively.

How can businesses ensure their cloud data security is up to date?

Regular security audits, real-time monitoring, and automated threat detection tools help businesses ensure that their cloud data security remains robust and current.