What Role Does the Cloud Have in Cybersecurity?

Cyber security is an increasingly important issue. As more people have transitioned to consistently working, shopping, and getting entertainment online, businesses and individuals alike are wondering if their confidential information is safe on the internet.

At the same time, the interest in cloud computing has skyrocketed. More businesses move their computing and data into the cloud every day, leading many to question how secure the cloud is.

While, at first glance, cloud computing and cybersecurity may seem like polar opposites, they’re actually in a symbiotic relationship. In fact, with today’s cloud security practices in place, you may find that the cloud enhances your cybersecurity in ways you didn’t think possible.

Cybersecurity and Cloud Vendors

If you’ve migrated to cloud computing or data storage or you’re looking into doing so, you’ve likely spoken with a number of cloud vendors. One thing they all have in common is resource dedication to their own products’ security. Big players in the cloud computing space – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, for example, all have dedicated resources to ensure the highest level of security.

Using a well-known cloud vendor can provide you with resources for securing access and data on your end as well. Many of these vendors will provide guidance for enhancing your cloud security and, therefore, your organization’s overall cybersecurity.

Cloud Computing and Encryption

As you migrate to the cloud, you’ll find that encryption is necessary for secure data storage and computing. Many cloud service providers offer encryption services, so you know that the data moving to and from the cloud is secure. If your risk tolerance is lower, you can also employ someone to manage your encryption keys for the cloud.

When data is stored in-house, the likelihood that an organization will continuously go through the process of data encryption is significantly lower than when data is stored in the cloud. This added layer of protection is not only necessary for your cloud migration, but it’s also beneficial to your overall cybersecurity strategy. Encryption is also one of the many practices that an organization must practice in order to comply with regulatory policies such as HIPAA and GDPR. With this built into your cloud computing migration strategy, you can check one step off of the stringent list of security requirements for regulatory approval.

Cloud Computing and User Access

One way your organization can work together with your cloud service provider to enhance security is to lock down your user access list. The principle behind this is ensuring that only the access needed for each individual is provided to them.

Especially as an organization grows, you’ll find that more people need access to data in order to get their work done. Limiting cloud accessibility to what is absolutely needed, or the least privilege that can support the employee’s data access needs can help to enhance the security of your organization.

With this, ensuring that password managers and strong passwords are used can help to provide security around using the cloud as well. Password managers can suggest complex passwords for each user so that the likelihood of a password being stolen is lower.

Cloud Computing and Data Backups

Your cloud service provider will work with you to set up data backups. In the case of security compromise or a disaster event, you’ll be able to restore your data and applications to the previous save point. This is even easier with cloud backups, as the data is already being migrated and stored externally, which provides a unique way to restore data without having to use internal resources.

Having backup data promotes security for your data by continuing to hold encrypted data to restore when necessary. If your organization is using the cloud, you can count on the fact that you’ll be using data backups and promote the security of your encrypted data overall.

Cloud Computing and Vulnerability Scanning/Risk Assessments

Cloud security has a higher need for identifying potential vulnerabilities and finding security weaknesses. Seeking out these potential weaknesses hardens security for your overall cyber efforts.

If you’re working with a misconfigured cloud environment, you’re at risk for exploits. Penetration testing and vulnerability scanning can help to ensure that your configuration is appropriate and secure before you even set up the cloud for access.

Cloud Computing and SaaS Options for Your Cloud Infrastructure

If you’re struggling to keep your cloud environment secure and compliant, there are SaaS solutions that can help. You don’t have to take on the challenges of growing your cloud and keeping it secure all in-house.

Something that could be considered best-practice, is finding a single solution that is all-inclusive. A solution that ensures your multi-cloud infrastructure is secure, compliant, scalable, and audit-ready. Maintaining the safety of your cloud infrastructure doesn’t need to solely fall on your in-house team.

Look around, do some research, and see what works best for you and your business. MatosSphere, for example, is a platform that can accomplish such tasks for you. Take the time to learn what platform would be best for your company.