Gartner forecasted that global cloud spending will increase 21% during 2023 to reach $592 billion, with $42 million going to cloud management and security.
Although companies are investing in cloud security, they may not understand who is responsible for which aspects of protecting cloud assets. While the cloud provider takes care of infrastructure security, the customer is usually accountable for securing applications and data.
To protect their cloud resources adequately, organizations need to assess their cloud security to understand the risk landscape, bridge gaps in security, and meet compliance requirements, as well as to find the right ways to prevent and respond to attacks.
Cloud Security Risks
Migrating to the cloud creates cybersecurity risk by expanding the attack surface. Cybercriminals have more opportunities to stage breaches by exploiting containers, serverless technology, and virtual machines. These cloud-native assets are all located outside of traditional firewalls.
The trend toward adopting hybrid and multicloud strategies has created its own risks. Companies that work with multiple cloud vendors experience challenges with management and visibility, making it difficult to take a strong security posture. Integration problems contribute to incompatibility, inconsistent security policies, and a lack of a cohesive security architecture.
Using a hybrid or multicloud model also stands in the way of adequately meeting compliance regulations for data protection and privacy. Inconsistently implementing security controls across cloud instances prevents companies from conducting the data governance needed to meet industry requirements.
The Importance of Cloud Assessments
Ideally, cyber risk should be considered from the start by involving the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) when a company is first discussing migrating data and applications to the cloud. Once your company has migrated, that ship has sailed.
However, you can still catch up by conducting cloud security assessments.
Cloud security assessments should be conducted regularly to help your company keep up with the evolving threat and compliance regulation landscapes. A cloud security assessment can identify blind spots in cloud visibility, including shadow IT. The assessment can also uncover hidden or overlooked vulnerabilities presented by cloud infrastructure and applications.
An assessment can prioritize which risks need to be addressed first. Security alerts generate many false positives that may get prioritized over legitimately critical threats. Using the results of a cloud security assessment, your company can put together a plan for eliminating security gaps with the appropriate tools and processes.
How to Respond to Attacks on the Cloud
Even if your company is well prepared for an attack on the cloud, you may still experience a breach. To prepare for that eventuality, your business needs to have measures in place to respond to and remediate a breach. Cloud security should include monitoring, management, and response.
Companies need to monitor the cloud around the clock to detect and identify threats immediately before they can cause damage to data and applications or trigger downtime. Business continuity, backup, and disaster recovery tools and processes will help an organization bounce back quickly after an attack on the cloud.
Management Cloud Security
Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) for cloud security will help your company fill gaps in your approach. A third party can step in to provide the management, monitoring, and response services that your cloud provider may not offer, taking the burden of responsibility off your IT team’s shoulders. An MSP can also carry out cloud security assessments with the advantage of a fresh perspective on your approach to cybersecurity.
Pegasus Technology Solutions provides Cloud Management and Security services, including cloud security assessments, to companies in Texas and other areas of the U.S. We provide 24/7 end-to-end cloud security monitoring, protection, and management.
Our managed security services take a two-pronged approach that covers both prevention through security assessments and remediation through restoration. Our services for Security and Operational Posture Management help your organization’s cloud resources adhere to compliance and governance mandates.
