TechNews

Mitigating Major Security Breaches With The Cloud

Last year, in April over 500,000 zoom accounts’ data was put on sale on the dark web.

Not more than 8 months back, 1,852,595 records of Mashable were leaked on the web.

COVID-19 has increased data breaches and its cost by USD 137,000.

Are you worried about the data security and compliance of your business?

Data security and compliance is the top reason businesses are adopting new technologies and improving tech infrastructure inside the workplace. The cloud creates a secure environment in your office by eliminating security risks and breaches.

Let’s preview how hybrid cloud network security is the solution to our organizational challenges.

Cloud Security is Different: Here’s How It Can Eliminate Security Breaches

For businesses migrating to the cloud, security is crucial. While cloud security is now more sophisticated, it is necessary to understand how this security structure works. Based on different implementations and controls, decide the security architecture for your business.

1. Blurring Perimeters

Access is an important ingredient to business security.

A few decades back, office access was limited due to the data free-flowing throughout the organization via computers, physical files, etc. Today, technology and the pandemic have connected our experiences. Now it is easier to remove physical barriers and flow data over the internet. However, it has made security defenses weak. The physical perimeters are blurring and we are continuously using weak credential management and APIs in the office.

To control access to such a wide network, we need to utilize a data-centric approach. The cloud encryption approach! The first step towards securing your data is encrypting this data in transmission or at rest. On the cloud, providers use TLS 1.3 and 256-bit encryption methods.

Following this, the cloud uses a multi-layered approach to ensure access control at every level. Check how,

  • Multi-factor authentication or two-factor authentication to stop unauthorized access to the cloud-hosted data or applications. However, your employees and IT team are responsible for using strong credentials for access.
  • Apart from device-based access control, we need internal privileged access control. This means some employees can access one application but others can’t. For example, the accounting team can use QuickBooks but the design team should not. Using internal firewalls, the cloud ensures internal access as well.

2. Addressing Sophisticated Cyberthreats

With advanced technology usage, we also get sophisticated cyberthreats. These cyber-attacks negatively impact businesses by targeting exposed vulnerabilities in our systems. As a result, in this manner, any business can suffer unauthorized data tempering and information disclosure.

The only solution to these threats is staying on top of cyber-attacks. This means using continuous monitoring systems and expertise to detect and eliminate such intrusions at the earliest.

The cloud uses monitoring systems, such as Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDS/IPS), which are able to automatically monitor compromised accounts, intrusion, etc. The security team of the cloud provider also regularly audits and monitors your systems to personally detect unwanted intrusions or sudden increases in traffic.

3. Cyberthreat Readiness

On the cloud, your organization is always ready for cyberattacks.

In the office, your employees use desktops that contain and host applications and data. These movable or fixed hardware devices can be hacked or stolen to retrieve your company’s sensitive data, such as the personal data of customers.

However, on the cloud, data is on a remote server – always. The hardware units used by your multiple employees are just thin clients or virtual instances. The endpoint used by your employees is not storing data or an application on the cloud.

This means if any endpoint is stolen or lost, we can change access credentials and modify the hierarchy a bit. Your data and applications on the cloud remain safe.

One of the security benefits of the cloud is prevention of DDoS or ransomware attacks. If there’s any such intrusion (and your IT team acts quickly), you can firstly take access from the system and then restore and reinstall it. After this, we can start using the cloud desktop or application again on this system normally.

4. Operating System Security

The Cloud Service Provider also allows OS security through OS upgrade, patching, and hardening. These activities secure your operating systems from cyberattacks.

5. Physical Security

It is possible for physical cloud servers to experience a cyberattack because an intruder entered the premises. However, the cloud premises are secured with physical controls, such as password-protected access, CCTV cameras, control rooms, and continuous monitoring by humans.

6. Backup and Disaster Readiness

Even with continuous application and data security, we need to be prepared for unwanted situations. The cloud offers backup support to allow recovery when required.

Therefore, your applications and data stored on the cloud are continuously backed up to different secure servers of the cloud provider. If your businesses experience a cyberattack, you can still recover your data from a backup image stored on any server.

This feature is beneficial in many other scenarios as well, such as at the time of a natural disaster or accidental data deletion.

Additional Benefits of the Cloud

Other than protecting your organization from security breaches, the cloud offers several benefits:

  • In a pandemic, you can easily implement remote working. Your employees can access the cloud remotely from any device and location. Hence, making office work simpler.
  • The cloud is cost-effective; both in terms of security and other implementations. The hardware and resource costs are mitigated.
  • It is always easier to scale with the cloud. In-house, this means more hardware and hassle. On the cloud, it is just a click away!
  • It is a managed service that is completely handled and managed by the CSP. Your team only needs to take care of internal resources and credentials.

Summing Up

The cloud security infrastructure of every provider is different. However, although every organization has a different way of ensuring secure functioning and access to/from the cloud, you need the above security processes. Therefore, understand the features you can receive in cloud security and find a provider that offers services according to your business needs.

Shares: