The cloud is the digital space’s newest frontier, but new and unforeseen dangers arise with every new frontier. Businesses that rely on the cloud to store their data have encountered a number of problems with how to Prevent Data Breaches. According to Gartner, as many as 95% of data breaches that occur on the public cloud server up to 2022 are likely due to the customer. So how do we secure our cloud data to Prevent Data Breaches this statistic from ending up?
Encrypting Data Regardless Of Where It Is
Encryption is a useful tool to ensure that data doesn’t get waylaid on its way from server to client. Based on the definition by Digital Guardian, we can say that encryption is a method of garbling a message so that it can only be understood by someone who has the correct key to restructure that message and make sense of it.
Most of the data that we encrypt is stationary or “at-rest” data. This refers to data stored on local disks or stored physically. The most interesting use of encryption is to use it with data or data “in-flight” that is transmitted over a network or stored on a cloud server. This ensures the data is secure until it is presented with the decryption key by the person who needs to access it. For in-flight data, encryption generally uses TLS / SSL connections or IPsec VPN tunnels to create encrypted communication channels. Businesses can try to use this methodology to Prevent Data Breaches.
Closed Access Security Broker (CASB) Methods
The direction many businesses decide to go in securing their cloud data is to use a CASB, managed through an API. Because of an API-based CASB’s scalability, they tend to be adaptable and capable of being deployed in both small and large use cases. What a CASB aims to do is monitor network activity and limit high-risk operations such as downloading files and distributing information from unsecured Internet.
Many cloud vendors have moved towards making CASBs available as part of their business customer offerings. The CASB system is defined on a per-user basis so that the same security measures would be applied to that device, even if a user tries to access the data through their personal device, in line with what that particular user is allowed to access. Computer World notes that a CASB is particularly useful in cases where the security perimeter of a company only reaches the edge of the company’s network and data is accessed outside the company from the business ‘ server.
Micro-Segmentation And Limited Access Paradigms
One of the best ways to ensure data security is to enable a user to access the devices and the data they need to be functional “just enough access” (JEA). This is a useful methodology to implement in smaller firms where there is a reasonable amount of users and the amount of data can be relatively small. However, as data and employee numbers increase, this methodology becomes unsustainable without much research into which users need access to which data and why.
The advantage of this system is that it limits the area where a breach may occur. Breach data may be compromised during cloud computing attacks, but the bulk of the data and network will remain untouched. Accounts that have privileged access tend to get extra scrutiny in this type of setup as those accounts have access to more than other types of accounts that the company holds. This kind of security is ideal for a small business, but the system will become unsustainable as the business grows.
Monitoring Traffic And Domain Audits
Traffic in and out of a system as well as what makes use of that traffic is of great importance when it comes to cloud data that is held publicly. In terms of access, a number of metrics can be tracked, ranging from the type of user that accesses the account to the type of data that a particular user uses at a given time. An abnormal access can be found and limited by tracking these audits and comparing them to what is considered average.
The downside of this system is that it can lead to false positives if a user has to repeatedly access a particular set of data to perform a task. Nevertheless, it may be very useful to determine where data beaches occur and track leaks before they become dangerous to the organization.
Cloud Resource Backups
A business should always have a cloud data backup action plan. In the event of a breach, cloud data is not guaranteed to still be there at the end of it. Frequent backups are needed to ensure that even if the cloud is compromised, data is preserved. While not strictly a security measure (since the infringement would still occur), it allows the company to operate independently of the infringed data, even ensuring that if ransomware were to propagate on the system, it could be completely removed without any adverse effects on the existing data.
Managing Risk In The Cyber Space
The cloud space can be full of dangers just like any other frontier. To ensure that their data remains unharmed, it is necessary to take proper precautions in securing data and access for any company. While there is no 100% security guarantee, taking action allows a company to feel much safer when it comes to its public cloud data. Knowing who has accessed the data and when it has been accessed is useful, but if there is no way to prevent unauthorized access, are these minor details even worth knowing?
