Cloud computing has enjoyed wide acceptance in recent times. During the lockdown, there was a massive migration from local to cloud computing and cloud security services. Sadly, with the increasing acceptance of cloud computing amongst organizations comes a greater burden. The security of the organizational cloud is worth worrying about. In this blog, we’ve outlined a core set of best practices for cloud security that can guide organizations toward secure cloud data and address cloud security issues.
Internet crime has been on the rise more than ever before. McAfee reports account for a 50% spike in the adoption of cloud services during the lockdown. What’s interesting is that the attack on cloud security experienced a 630% increase. The reasons are far-fetched; the world is tilting towards digitalization. You can’t imagine how much money and sensitive data is communicated digitally. Organizations need to secure their cloud through security architecture, structures, strategies, and practices that sustain the cybersecurity posture.
Best Practices For Cloud Security
Best practices for cloud security help sustain the integrity of the security firewalls and structures an organization has put in place. What practices should your organization’s IT team and employees uphold to guarantee your organization’s cloud security? Here you go!
1. Protect Data
To protect data, your IT team must set the line clear for what data demand more up-tight security and those that deserve an average level of security. Some organizations decide to make all the data in their cloud highly secured. Whatever your IT decides, there would be a need to classify data according to how sensitive they are and the need to make them difficult to access. Using a data software classification solution would be a less tedious choice for your IT team. It classifies data according to the sensitive information contained in them.
Using a comprehensive security solution would help you sort data according to their sensitivity. Also, your IT team would be able to search out sensitive data all over your organization’s cloud. The goal of sorting sensitive data from general data is to set surveillance over how data is shared. Your IT team must realize that encryption from your cloud service providers, as well as other security features they offer, would never suffice. Third-party security vendors must be sought as an extra layer of protection. Most importantly, your IT team must restrict access and sharing permission of very sensitive data.
2. Use Endpoint Security
Endpoint security is a way of ensuring every endpoint (laptop, mobile phones, etc.) that connects or uses your cloud is secured. These devices must be secured before connecting to your organization’s cloud. If they are not secured, they could serve as potential entry points for hackers. Through third-party software, the IT department of organizations must ensure endpoint devices are secured.
Endpoint cloud security could become exhausting for organizations with various endpoint devices. A more fluid pattern of accessing organizations’ cloud data through employees’ devices is great if endpoint security can be guaranteed through VPN or other means. Ensuring their endpoint devices are out of bounds to others is a critical security practice on the part of employees. Also, using malware software for fishing out threats before they access the organization’s cloud.
3. Implement Strict Surveillance
This security practice would preserve the integrity of an organization’s cloud security. Strict surveillance means that your IT team has its eyes on every activity in the cloud. Through cloud service providers or third-party software solutions, they can oversee all activities in the cloud. Even better, through strict surveillance, an organization’s IT team can monitor and prevent. Beyond monitoring activities, they can make proactive decisions and set structures to prevent an event from recurring. IT teams in organizations can perform better by setting automation to enact preventions as long as it preserves cloud security. Alongside strict surveillance, IT teams must periodically receive reports of activities in the cloud and audits of devices in the cloud security network.
4. Verification=Trust
It is unsafe for an organization’s cloud security if the IT team decides to assume trust. Using Multi-Factor Authentication is a way to ascertain the identity of people before they access cloud data. Anyone can impersonate legitimate users and compromise cloud security. There must be more demanding authentication processes for users who are given the privilege to access sensitive data in an organization’s cloud. For the safety of organizational data, not all data must be accessible to every user, even if their identity has been verified. Legitimate users who access sensitive data must have a more concrete way of validating their identity. Anyone could be with their phones if an auto-generated message is the MFA you use. Using a biometric feature is a better MFA for sensitive data.
5. Orientate Employees
Your IT team must be able to clarify the responsibility of employees in sustaining the integrity of cloud security. It helps them be more conscious of security and even better understand why an organization’s cybersecurity posture can make things a little difficult for them. Alongside orienting employees, the IT team should create a safe list when using the organization’s cloud. This safelist would shield organizations from incriminating activities employees engage in when using an organization’s cloud. The safelist entails a list of services you can use and policies that warn employees to avoid incriminating things while using an organization’s cloud. Employees in an organization must also be aware of cloud security policies that must be strictly obeyed to guarantee cloud security. The IT team must enforce these policies by monitoring and penalizing (restricting access) people with suspicious or contrary activities to the cloud security policies.
Final Thoughts On Best Practices For Cloud Security
The most important thing an organization’s IT team must realize about their cloud security is the inherent cloud service provisions won’t suffice. They must seek trusted and tested third-party solutions as an extra layer of security for an organization’s cloud. Conclusively, they must realize that third-party software and cloud service providers have their role in security. Employees and the IT team also have a role to play to ensure cloud security isn’t compromised.