Risk assessment is a key element of any discussion around security and the cloud. Security is measured in terms of how much risk there is of something happening – and nothing is without risk. So, when it comes to evaluating a move to cloud desktops, companies are really looking at how it will reduce risk.
While applications are a key part of many cloud deployments, rapid adoption of the cloud and the ongoing evolution of apps both create new risks. Careful attention must be given to secure the growing application threat vector. New strategies and solutions, including Web Application Firewalls specifically designed to protect apps from advanced threats, are required to help mitigate these risks.
In the age of heightened public cloud adoption and widespread cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) usage, cybercriminals are making use of OAuth – a permissions delegation and authorization protocol – to compromise cloud environments. As such, controlling which applications users interact with has become a business imperative. Let’s take a closer look at what OAuth is, the role it plays in allowing users to access resources across environments, the ways attackers are abusing OAuth and what organizations can do to better protect their cloud data.
In a new alert, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced that it is aware of several recent successful cyberattacks against various organizations’ cloud services. Threat actors are using phishing and other vectors to exploit poor cyber hygiene practices within a victims’ cloud services configuration.
It’s within this expanded terrain for cyberattacks that the security trends of 2021 and beyond are taking shape. Workers are engaging with company resources from diverse locations. At the same time, businesses have ramped up their digitalization journeys to be more flexible and agile after COVID-19’s disruption of supply chains. The result is a dynamic tech environment where the continuity of business operations – and ultimately market competitiveness – will rely on robust cyber protections.
Modern cloud based security systems and surveillance solutions have come a long way. While some companies continue to rely on the older technology they are accustomed to, traditional systems are continually being phased out in favor of the flexibility offered by cloud-based solutions. Cloud-based systems have a myriad of advantages over older, on-premises security systems, and there is rarely an instance where an on-premises system is preferred over a cloud-based framework when installing a new setup.
While there are several security concerns that cloud users must address in the long run, here are three critical areas that must be given immediate attention, especially now as organizations are planning to scale their remote work setup, and nine best practices organizations must follow to ensure optimal safety of their cloud instances.
Today's complex computing environments are rife with vulnerabilities. Keeping your organizational data safe requires employing today's best data security practice: adopting the premise that identity and access management provide the new and true security perimeter. Powerful identity and access management (IAM) models of public cloud providers enable the deployment of applications and data with far greater protection than what is possible in traditional cloud security. However, these cloud provider IAM solutions are not without risk when misused.
One lesson that is underscored by the disruption of COVID and the resulting transformation of business operations is the importance of IT modernization. Here, we know that business leaders understand its significance, but we also see evidence that failing to embed security into the strategies and plans for IT modernization may be a difference-maker.
In 2017, Gartner predicted that the public cloud computing industry would be worth $236 billion by 2020, as its demand, driven by the growing number of businesses recognizing cloud computing as a data center solution, seems to surge. And for good reasons. Cloud has proven to offer enhanced stability, security, flexibility, and cost-saving.
