How to Avoid Being the '1 in 4' That Has Experienced a Cloud Security Breach

Security research of 1,400 IT professionals from cybersecurity firm, McAfee, has revealed some interesting findings. It found that one in four organisations using Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has had data stolen, while one in five has experienced an advanced attack against their cloud infrastructure. For most organisations today, the digital transformation drive is accelerating cloud adoption – and with 97 percent worldwide using some type of cloud service, security is a significant issue. The figures from McAfee highlight the difficulty of securing data in the cloud, if organisations fail to adequately protect their infrastructure.

One of the most notorious examples of a breach involved the leak of celebrity photos in 2014, which brought the issue of cloud security into sharp focus. And as a more recent leak from wrestling entertainment firm WWE shows, the issue has not gone away – in this case, an unprotected AWS server exposed the details of three million customers. The implications of continued security incidents should focus of the minds of organisations; with GDPR also now in force, and organisations starting to be fined, it’s essential to be part of the 75 percent avoiding data losses or breaches in the cloud.

Unified security is the centralised management of all an organisations cloud services and is the best approach to protecting the whole network, because having multiple cloud management tools to monitor makes it easier for an attack to slip through. A unified management system across multiple clouds with an open integration fabric – where disparate products co-exist, communicate, and share threat intelligence with each other – minimises this risk. In addition, DevSecOps must be a key focus; DevSecOps improves code quality and reduces exploits and vulnerabilities. Integrating development, quality assurance, and security processes within the DevOps team is crucial to operating at the speed today’s business environment demands with added security.

With 27 percent of IT security budgets on average allocated to cloud security, a figure estimated to reach 37 percent in the next 12 months, security will be a continued area for investment. Digital transformation is driving change and organisations want to embrace increased business agility whilst maintaining security. By working with a partner like McAfee, organisations can stay safe in the cloud and get the most out of implementing unified security