A primary reason for organizations adopting cloud computing services is remote data management, but a significant concern that arises henceforth is of ‘security’ primarily. So, majorly, cloud security is the prime concern of organizations. Cloud service providers play a vital role in this migration; by assuring the firms about the safety of their data and sensitive information.
Cloud Umbrella
Cloud services are mainly of three types, as follows:
Challenges while Adopting Cloud
Cloud services offer a private, public, community, or hybrid cloud. The main areas of concern where the organizations fall back from adopting cloud services are data protection, data portability, copyright, jurisdiction applicable laws, and compliance.
Regulatory Needs for Adopting Cloud
To address the challenge of data security issues, necessary steps need to be taken by the organizations; a CASB solution provider effectively helps organizations apply policies for adopting cloud
- Policy Regulators: Policy regulators should be up-to-date with technical and social cloud advancements so that plans can be altered or new ones enacted, and they need to see that all the regulatory laws are strictly enforced. The international policy-makers need to work in tandem with all the countries’ law-makers so that a valid, proportionate, and enforceable law protects the individual’s expectation of privacy.
- Organizations or Single-Users: Organizations should know which information in the data is to be put into the cloud and understand the potential commercial value of such data when misused. Also, they need to be aware of the immediate actions to be taken when data leakage takes place. They need to have proper cloud security protocols in place in the system for minimal chances of a security breach. Organizations need to adopt and follow strict rules complying with security measures of law bodies like PCI, PII, and PFI, etc. Regular data audits and data protection impact assessments need to be carried out regularly.
- Cloud Service Providers: Cloud service providers can offer customized security packages according to individual customer needs. For example, security regulations for a healthcare center may be different from an e-commerce dealer. Healthcare centers have to follow rules of HIPAA while e-commerce businesses will be more concerned with PCI. Cloud service providers need to make their clients understand the security regulations they follow so that their data is safe and secure.
Regulations & Compliance Measures
- Cloud Security issues need to be addressed by cloud service providers, and they should be the focal point of discussion while marketing the services to potential clients. Only when the cloud services provider ensures full data security will the client agree to hire their services.
- Cloud service providers need to certify against the compliance standards such as the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) certification, SaaS certification, etc. This type of accreditation is issued against regular external audit controls over data center access to both the network and physical security.
- Many countries have specific laws and regulations for security issues. This government security standard lends credibility to the service provider’s business.
- Cloud service providers should have certifications that are supported by periodic audits and reissuing certificates conforming to international standards.
- Specialized certifications can be applied to entire cloud infrastructure, which will ensure that the cloud provider is supporting the compliance standards for its full operations across the globe.
- The guidelines provided by the regulatory bodies are the best practices to be followed, and this shows the cloud service provider’s commitment to achieving the best practices by paying attention to the security details.
- Each customer is unique, and the cloud service provider must ensure that its customer is satisfied with the provided cloud security and data safety.