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3 Steps to Boost Your Enterprise Cloud Security

Organizations must keep a check on security implications associated with multiple cloud environments. Companies should build robust cloud security policies to defend against evolving cloud risks.

Nanocore Netwire AsyncRAT, Cloud security, cloud computing

Cloud computing has already revolutionized the way businesses operate. Several organizations jumped the bandwagon of deploying multiple cloud environments into their IT infrastructure. Organizations are using various cloud services to store confidential corporate data. According to a survey, nearly 90% of organizations use cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Over 77% of businesses have been using at least one cloud application.

By Rudra Srinivas, Senior Feature Writer, CISO MAG

Cloud computing provides organizations flexibility in multiple processing services like server management, storage operations, and networking. However, organizations must keep a check on security implications associated with multiple cloud environments. This is where Cloud Security comes into the picture. Organizations must build robust cloud security policies to defend against evolving risks threatening cloud environments.

With the rise in digitalization and remote working conditions, organizations globally continue to adopt cloud computing services. According to the State of Cloud Security report, nearly 84% of IT professionals are concerned about safeguarding the security of cloud environments due to the distributed work environment.  To protect their cloud environments from sophisticated cyberthreats, many organizations increased their cloud security budget. As per a report, the global cloud security market is expected to grow from $34.5 billion in 2020 to $68.5 billion by 2025. Factors like advanced attacks on cloud computing systems and the need for compliance with data privacy regulations are driving the cloud security market.

Some of the notable cloud security risks are:

  1. Misconfiguration of on-cloud data systems
  2. Lack of adequate security while migrating to cloud
  3. Lack of Identity and Access Management (IAM) practices
  4. Account takeovers, DDoS, or insider threats
  5. Accidental data leaks

Steps to Enhance Cloud Security

Most organizations store enormous volumes of sensitive data on their cloud-based applications and systems. Robust security measures and policies to protect cloud environments must include:

1. Strong Authentication

Any information stored on the cloud ecosystem should be strongly encrypted to prevent unauthorized intrusions. Enable robust authentication/verification procedures like two-factor and multi-factor authentication methods to restrict illicit entries.

2. Limit Access

Not every employee in the organization needs access to the cloud. Limit the number of users accessing data and applications in the cloud to avoid misuse. Closely monitor the end-user activities and their log entries in the cloud applications and services. You can suspect any abuse of the data based on the user access behavior. Organizations can also deploy automated solutions to detect unauthorized entries into the cloud environment.

3. Avoid Misconfigurations

Several organizations have sustained inadvertent data breaches due to cloud misconfigurations. The misconfigured cloud storage services in 93% of cloud deployments led to over 200 breaches in the past two years, exposing more than 30 billion records. Not only manufacturers, but organizations and end-users also need to follow the required security precautions while configuring the servers. And as due diligence, companies should closely observe the life cycle of the server and update it as per the requirements.

In addition to these, organizations need to ensure their employees are aware of the basic cloud security practices. Train your employees on the different cloud environments your business is using, as improper use of cloud services may lead to irreparable security risks.

About the Author:

Rudra Srinivas

 

Rudra Srinivas is a Senior Feature Writer and part of the editorial team at CISO MAG. He writes news and feature stories on cybersecurity trends.       

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