Overcoming the Cyber Security Challenges of the Cloud

The rise in business processes supported by cloud services has been well evidenced by organizations using cloud services to store confidential data in the cloud environment. But when using cloud services, organizations are still unsure whether to entrust cloud service providers (CSPs) with their data. CSPs generally provide a certain level of security as substantiated by multiple surveys, but cloud-related security incidents do occur.

CSPs cannot be solely responsible for the security of their customers’ critical information assets. Cloud security relies equally on the customer’s ability to implement the right level of information security controls. Nevertheless, the cloud environment is complex and diverse, which hinders a consistent approach to deploying and maintaining core security controls. It is vital that organizations are aware of and fulfil their share of the responsibility for securing cloud services to successfully address the cyber threats that increasingly target the cloud environment.

The Rise of the Multi-Cloud Environment

As organizations acquire new cloud services, they typically choose these from a selection of multiple CSPs and therefore need to deal with a multi-cloud environment, which is characterized using two or more CSPs.

Organizations favor a multi-cloud environment because it allows them to pick and choose their preferred cloud services across different CSPs (e.g. AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Salesforce). However, each individual CSP adopts its own jargon, its own specific technologies and approaches to security management. The cloud customer therefore needs to acquire a wide range of skills and knowledge to use different cloud services from multiple CSPs securely.

Organizations require a range of different users to securely access cloud services from within the organization’s network perimeter through secure network connections (e.g. via a gateway). However, organizations also need their cloud services to be accessed from outside the internal perimeter by business partners and users travelling off-site or working remotely, all connecting through a selection of secure network connections as dictated by the organization.

Overcoming Challenges

While CSPs provide a certain level of security for their cloud services, organizations need to be aware of their security obligations and deploy the necessary security controls.  This requires organizations to understand and address the many security challenges presented by the complex and heterogeneous aspects of the cloud environment.

While CSPs provide a certain level of security for their cloud services, organizations need to be aware of their security obligations and deploy the necessary security controls.  This requires organizations to understand and address the many security challenges presented by the complex and heterogeneous aspects of the cloud environment.