Alexandra Borgeaud
Research expert covering cybersecurity and tech in Latin America
Cloud security - statistics & facts
As companies migrate their workloads to the cloud, security concerns such as data loss, ransomware, or account compromization have become more important than ever. Over the past years, cyber threats have increased in numbers and variety, making security solutions essential to ensuring business continuity.
Simply put, cloud security is about protecting digital assets stored on cloud computing platforms. It encompasses products and services that safeguard cloud resources through a set of technologies and policies designed to protect information while ensuring regulatory compliance. Successful cloud-based security solutions allow for faster scalability and time for deployment, as well as cost savings.
Cloud security is a shared responsibility
Cloud security is a shared responsibility between the customer and cloud provider. The shared responsibility model distinguishes between three categories of responsibilities. Security responsibilities for defending cloud infrastructure and networks always belong to the cloud provider. In contrast, the customer’s responsibilities include identity and access management, encryption and protection of cloud-based data assets, and compliance. The last category consists of responsibilities that vary based on the chosen service model: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS).The main cloud security risk remains the human factor
Security has always been more than a technology problem. Some of the biggest security threats include incorrect configuration and insecure interfaces along, as well as exfiltration of sensitive data. However, it was not until recently that companies globally began emphasizing the importance of security awareness training, access rights and privilege, regular data back-up, or otherwise stated good cyber hygiene. Over the past three years, the main barrier to migrating to cloud-based security solutions has been the lack of staff expertise and training. Regarding hybrid cloud security challenges, shadow IT problems, such as detecting unauthorized application usage, remain of utmost concern. Organizations encounter similar challenges when securing their multi-cloud environments as well: six out of ten cybersecurity professionals struggled with having the right skills to deploy and manage a complete solution across all cloud environments. As an increasing number of public and private organizations migrate to cloud environments, ensuring that security teams and employees are properly trained to address these emerging challenges is of paramount importance.
