Do you remember when cloud computing was new? Countless questions circulated cloud service providers’ abilities to secure their infrastructures. As more businesses and organizations migrate to the cloud, it has become apparent that some cloud service providers are better equipped than most organizations to secure their networks. However, many questions remain, and some cloud service customers are still seeking ways to secure their data.
It can be a challenge to keep up with all the opportunities surrounding different and innovations that hit the market. It’s an even greater challenge to stay ahead of the security issues facing the different types of cloud computing solutions available in the market. It is no surprise that more businesses and organizations are focusing on enhancing their cloud security posture for the future.
”As the threat landscape continues to evolve, businesses of all sizes – large and small – must continue to evolve their security posture and practices to defend themselves from the myriad of threats that exist today such as ransomware, and evolve tomorrow”, said Troy Drever, President of Pure IT in Calgary, Alberta.
Drever added, ”One of the most important aspects of cybersecurity is education. The end-user is the weakest link to a potential cyberattack. Ongoing cybersecurity training and testing is a must. This training is readily available from I.T. service companies to help businesses of all sizes to access high quality, ongoing security training for their staff.”
To help you make an informed decision on how to improve your business or organization’s cloud security posture, we talked to cybersecurity experts about the top trends in the cloud security market. The experts also shared insight on tools and strategies that can help leaders implement the top trends.
Cyber Insurance
Cybersecurity threats will continue to be a significant point of disagreement as long as confidential data is being used as a weapon in the black market.
”Cyberattacks have continued to make headlines consistently over the last year. Now more than ever, it is becoming more apparent that businesses of all sizes need to take Cybersecurity seriously and make it a priority to lower their risk. Cybersecurity insurance coverage is an absolute must at this point. Coverage is affordable, and with the world we live in now, there is no reason not to have this in place to protect yourself and your business. Implementing items such as multi-factor authentication, backup disaster recovery solutions, incident response plans, and facilitating security awareness training to employees will be vital steps businesses need to take to increase the cyber resiliency of the organization and lower their risk of becoming victims of a cyber attack.”
”For the SMB that lacks the resources or knowledge to effectively navigate the cybersecurity landscape to protect their business, partnering with a Managed IT Services Provider, such as Velocity IT, that specializes in Cybersecurity will be paramount to the success of their business looking into the future.”
-Kenny Riley, Technical Director at Velocity IT | https://www.velocityit.net/
Increase in Supply Chain Attacks
Supply chain attacks continue to be one of the concerns for cybersecurity experts because the chain reaction set off by one attack on one supplier can jeopardize a network of providers.
”Supply chain attacks will be more prevalent in the cloud moving forward; a good example is the latest vulnerability in Log4j with Log4Shell RCE. Half of the internet applications might be affected by this vulnerability. Why is this important? In the current day of age, most applications use large combinations of different open source components. If one of those components gets compromised or a vulnerability is found, it will affect the software package or the whole product running in the cloud environment. Keeping open source software up to date is a mundane task and requires regular pathing. Developers do not prioritize patching until a critical vulnerability occurs. Sometimes, they cannot update because it will affect other components and integrations, so upgrading becomes a massive project. In the next 1-3 years, we will see a lot more companies start using secure artifactories and the management of third-party software is becoming a critical priority for most CISO’s.”
-Brandon Christensen, CEO & Founder of V&C Solutions | https://www.vncsolutions.com/
Multi-Factor Authentication Is the Way to Go
Multi-factor authentication has become one of the most important steps that businesses and organizations can take to defend themselves against online attacks. Using a second factor can help protect high-value systems and accounts, secure email access, and limit the effectiveness of stolen credentials. While universal adoption of multi-factor authentication (MFA) may be hampered by technical limitations and user resistance, its use is growing. Experts predict that the multi-factor authentication (MFA) market will continue to grow due to the demand for more secure devices and accounts and rising threats.
”Multi-Factor Authentication is another key defense used to protect corporate systems from hackers. This security measure is very affordable for all sizes of organizations.”
-Troy Drever, President of Pure IT | https://www.pureit.ca/
”The cloud security market has finally begun to implement single sign-on and multi-factor authentication. This has been a great necessity in order to keep logins secure.”
-Ilan Sredni, CEO & President of Palindrome Consulting, Inc. – “Delivering Peace of Mind” | https://www.pciicp.com/
Zero Trust: Security for the Present and the Future
The rapid shift to a remote workforce at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with increased intrusions from phishing emails, left more businesses and organizations exposed to threats and attacks.
”Current trends we are seeing include zero-trust policies, dark web monitoring, and automated end-user cybersecurity awareness training to help mitigate today’s threats. Simple stacks of endpoint security and email security are not enough to mitigate today’s threats. Well-rounded and layered protection is what is required.”
-Joe Cannata, Owner of Techsperts, LLC | https://www.techspertsllc.com/
”With COVID-19, the work from home revolution has created a huge security risk for corporations. DNS filtering is a key system used to protect end-users that are not behind the corporate firewall from ending up on the wrong website where they can easily be compromised.”
-Troy Drever, President of Pure IT | https://www.pureit.ca/
”Another key security measure is Managed Threat Response. It’s no longer enough to deploy anti-virus and anti-malware systems. Those systems must be managed 24×7 by a Security Operations Center with professionals who are highly skilled and trained in threat hunting and remediation of threats in corporate environments. It is possible today for small organizations who cannot afford their own 24×7 security team to outsource that function to a Managed Services Provider who can provide that service for them.”
–Troy Drever, President of Pure IT | https://www.pureit.ca/
Securing cloud environments requires different approaches and technologies. Adopting these trends in cloud security can help improve the security posture within your organization.
