The mass adoption of cloud technology combined with an ever-increasing volume and sophistication of cyber threats is what drives the need for cloud security. Reflecting on the security risks of adopting cloud technology – outlined above – failure to mitigate them can come with significant implications.
But it’s not all negative, cloud security can also offer significant benefits. Let’s explore why cloud security is a critical requirement.
- Cyber Security Threats Continue to Increase
- Preventing Data Breaches and Data Loss
- Avoid Compliance Violations
- Maintaining Business Continuity
- Cloud Security Benefits
- Choose a Trusted Provider
Cyber Security Threats Continue to Increase
A driving force for secure cloud practices is the ever-increasing threat from cybercriminals – both in volume and sophistication. To quantify the threat, a Cloud Security Report found that 28% of businesses experienced a cloud security incident in 2021. With the Government also reporting that businesses experiencing an attack on the systems in the past 12 months continues to increase.
Preventing Data Breaches and Data Loss
A consequence of these increased cyber threats is the acceleration in frequency and volume of data breaches and data loss. In the first 6 months of 2019 alone, the Emerging Threat Report from Norton outlined that more than 4 billion records were breached.
A loss or breach of data breaches can have significant legal, financial, and reputational implications. IBM now estimates the average cost of a data breach at US$3.92 million in its latest report.
Avoid Compliance Violations
We’ve already mentioned how cloud security carries the risk of compliance violations. To demonstrate the implications of non-compliance, you need only observe Germany’s federal privacy watchdog who recently handed 1&1 Telecommunications a €9.55 million fine for violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Maintaining Business Continuity
Good cloud security helps maintain your business continuity. Protecting against threats like a denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack). Unplanned outages and system downtime interrupt your business continuity and impact your bottom line.
Cloud Security Benefits
Beyond threat protection and avoiding the consequences of poor practice, cloud security offers benefits that make it a requirement for businesses. These include:
- Centralized Security
In the same way cloud computing centralizes applications and data, cloud security centralizes protection. Helping you to improve visibility, implement controls, and better protect against attacks. It also improves your business continuity and disaster recovery having it all in one place.
- Reduced Cost
A reputable cloud service provider will offer in-built hardware and software dedicated to securing your applications and data around the clock. This eliminates the need for significant financial investment in your own setup.
- Reduced Administration
Moving to the cloud introduces a shared responsibility model for security. This can provide a significant reduction in the amount of time and resource invested into administering security. The cloud service provider will take on responsibility for securing their infrastructure – and you – across storage, compute, networking, and physical infrastructure.
- Increased Reliability
A leading cloud service provider will offer cutting edge cloud security hardware and software that you can rely on. You will gain access to a continuous service where your users can securely access data and applications from anywhere, on any device.
