Protecting cloud information security assets include safeguarding data from physical threats, insider risks, and even negligence. Cloud Data security relies on a combination of software, policies, and processes to ensure that data remains safe while allowing access to authorized personnel on the cloud.
With Cloud Computing comes enhanced agility and optimised resource scaling which can be accessed from any internet-enabled device. This increases data security in the event of system outages. However, many organizations are slow to adopt these capabilities as they struggle to understand the security mechanisms and regulatory compliance standards associated with cloud data storage.Â
The most efficient way to secure cloud data is by employing an expansive set of technologies and processes to protect assets stored or processed on the cloud. This still remains one of the most challenging tasks businesses face when trying to shift their mindset away from managing on-premises data centers. What are the security mechanisms available, how secure is my cloud information, and what are the best practices to ensure that assets on the cloud are protected?
Stud own for answers on cloud data security challenges and benefits, its operational components, and how Hostaix enables companies to monitor, investigate, and neutralize threats in cloud, on-premises, and hybrid systems.
Why companies need cloud security
Currently, businesses are generating, collecting, and storing data at an astounding speed—ranging from sensitive business and personal customer information and behavioral analytics to marketing analytics. This phenomenon is known as big data.
Apart from the sheer volume of data that needs to be accessed, managed, and analyzed, businesses are also adopting cloud solutions for enhanced agility, faster time-to-market, and to support increasingly remote or hybrid workforces.
Perimeters of traditional networks are disappearing and security teams are finally waking up to the need of adopting new methodology for protecting cloud data. Companies need to figure out how guard data and control access to it as it traverses through and across different environments because applications no longer reside inside the company’s data center, offices are not physical spaces anymore, and an increasing number of users are working remotely.
Data privacy, integrity, and accessibility
Data confidentiality: Access or change to data is limited to only authorized personnel or processes. Put simply, your organizational data needs to maintained as private.
Data integrity: Data can be trusted, meaning it is accurate, authentic, and reliable. Here the focus is on policies or protective Measure that ensure no tampering or deletion of record data occurs.
Data availability: You have to control unauthorized access, but also ensure the data can be accessed by authorized personnel when required. This means guaranteed uptime of the systems, networks, and devices that need to be operational.
These are called the CIA triad, and describe the fundamental concepts of a well-structured and organized security system. Any incident of breach, exposure, or in other term security incident is most likely to infringe one or more of these concepts. This is the primary reason this set of rules is utilized by security experts.
What are the challenges of cloud data security?
The exposure risk increases if applications and data are removed from a data center and its traditional security infrastructure. While much of on-prem data security elements still remains, these need to be customized for the cloud.
Some of the frequently faced challenges with data protection in the cloud or hybrid environments are on the cloud or hybrid environments include:
Unorganized allocation of assets. Businesses do not have clarity of the allocation of all the applications and data their company possesses, as well as which assets are included in their inventory.
Decreased Control. Storage of data and applications on 3rd party infrastructure reduces the level of control exerted on how they are accessed and shared.
Distracted focus on identifying the reason for shared responsibility. Security of the cloud is a collective responsibility of the business and the provider, and blurring of duties leads to basic coverage gaps.
Lacking protection consistency. With increase in use of multi or hybrid cloud providers by firms for optimization of costs, these vendors possessed varied capabilities and limited resources available to the public leading to inconsistent protection.
Increased violence towards cyber security. The slow adoption of the cloud by businesses renders their databases and data storage services target for internet criminals, enhanced focusing on weak data management policies pose an added risk.
Defiant administrative limits.
There is an intense scrutiny on organizations to follow protective privacy policies that require governance of the information security policies on various levels within an organization. This includes delineating and enforcing strong data policies.
Remote server data hosting. Using distributed servers for storage of data can improve access speed and provide more operational flexibility. However, such systems can also introduce national borders and privacy restrictions complexities that would not be an issue if the data was hosted in-house.
What are the benefits of cloud data security?
Simplicity in backup and restore functions
Through implementing automated frameworks for standardizing backups, security for cloud data ensures that teams are no longer burdened with troubleshooting manual backups. Through modern technologies, disaster recovery allows for restoration as well as recovery of data and applications in a matter of minutes.Â
Cloud and regulatory compliance policies
Features that accompany security for storing data in cloud technology ensure that regulations are met through knowing the storage locations, accessibility by users, the level of processing, and protection of data. Through the use of the cloud, data loss protection features work to provide the means to find, classify, and de-identify sensitive information thereby reducing violation risk. Â
Encryption of data
Protection of sensitive information should be a guarantee with the movements that the data undergoes. Data stored in the cloud is secured during transfer, storage, and sharing through the intervention of the cloud user with the aid of multiple encryption levels for data locked both while in transit and at rest.
Improved oversight
Through enhanced measures for securing data within the cloud, visibility is maintained on critical activities for the cloud which includes spatial operating with data assets that define what the data assets are and the location that they occupy, who the consumers of the cloud services are, and what type of information they retrieve.
Who is responsible for securing your data?
Both clients of cloud computing and service providers share the burden of security. The specific division of the responsibilities will depend on the type of deployment selected, as well as whether you opt for IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS.
In simpler terms, your responsibility will include equipment like data, user accounts, and user privileges on identity and access management data, while the provider is concerned with the security of the cloud itself.
At Hostaix, we do it differently; we have what is known as a shared fate model. That means we actively work with our customers to ensure they have securely deployed on our platform. Implementing best practices requires Secure-by-Default configurations as well as blueprints, policy hierarchies, and advanced security settings, all of which help establish stable synergies across platforms and tools deployed by our customers.
