The cloud has revolutionised the way businesses operate by providing them with a cost-effective and flexible way to store and manage their data. However, moving to the cloud without proper focus on cyber security can expose organisations to a variety of dangers that could lead to severe financial and reputational damage. In this blog post, we’ll explore the cyber security dangers of moving to the cloud and how organisations can protect themselves by undertaking a Cloud Security Assessment.
Why do you need a Cloud Security Assessment?
One of the primary dangers of moving to the cloud without proper cyber security measures is the increased risk of data breaches. Cloud-based environments are attractive targets for hackers because they store large amounts of sensitive data in a centralised location. If an attacker gains access to this data, they could steal confidential information, compromise the integrity of the data, or even cause a full-blown data breach.
Another danger is the risk of data loss. Cloud-based environments are susceptible to outages, data corruption, and accidental deletion. Without proper backup and recovery measures, organisations could lose important data permanently, leading to a significant loss of revenue and reputation.
A lack of proper access controls is another danger that organisations face when moving to the cloud. A lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA) for example, if not implemented correctly, can be easily bypassed, allowing unauthorised users to access sensitive data. This could lead to data theft, loss of intellectual property, and regulatory violations.
Lastly, organisations that fail to implement proper cyber security measures in the cloud may also be at risk of non-compliance with industry regulations and data privacy laws. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in severe financial penalties and reputational damage.
To protect themselves from these dangers, organisations must conduct a thorough Cloud Security Assessment. This assessment will identify vulnerabilities in their cloud infrastructure and provide recommendations for improving security measures. A Cloud Security Assessment can help organisations implement robust security measures that protect against data breaches, data loss, unauthorised access, and non-compliance.
What a Cloud Security Assessment focuses on?
A cloud security assessment typically focuses on the following areas:
- Overall security posture: Conduct interviews and a documentation review to evaluate the security of enterprise cloud infrastructure.
- Access control and management: Review identity and access management, including user accounts, roles, and key management
- Network security: Review segmentation and firewall policies against common misconfigurations
- Incident management: Review incident response policy related to cloud infrastructure, including roles and processes related to an incident.
- Storage security: Assess posture of cloud storage including object-level storage, block-level storage, and related snapshots.
- Platform services security: Review security configuration of advanced service offerings specific to each cloud service provider
- Workload security: Review security for workloads including virtualised servers, server-hosted containers, functions, and serverless containerised workloads
How is a Cloud Security Assessment performed?
Commsec will follow a structured process for the assessment. It involves 5 steps:
- Identify Your Assets – The first step in performing a cloud security assessment is identifying all of the assets that are stored in your current environment. This includes customer data, financial records, and employee details.
- Classify Your Data – Once we have identified all of the assets stored in your current environment, we will help to classify them according to their sensitivity. This will help us to determine which assets are most at risk and need to be better protected when migrated to a cloud environment.
- Identify Threats – The next step is to identify the potential threats that could target your sensitive data. This includes both external threats like hackers and internal threats like malicious insiders. It can also include threats such as internet dependency and the reliance on the cloud provider for technical assistance.
- Evaluate Your Risks – After identifying the potential threats that could target your sensitive data, we will evaluate the risks associated with each one. This includes considering the likelihood of a threat occurring as well as the impact it could have on your business.
- Recommend Controls – Once Commsec have evaluated the risks associated with each threat, we will recommend controls that could be implemented to mitigate them. This includes both technical controls like firewalls and encryption as well as non-technical controls like employee training and incident response plans.
Conclusion
Overall, moving to the cloud without proper focus on cyber security can expose organisations to a variety of dangers. To protect themselves, organisations must conduct a Cloud Security Assessment. At CommSec, we specialise in cloud security and can help your organisation implement the proper security measures to protect your data and your business.
Contact us today to schedule your Cloud Security Assessment.