Three Things You Need to Know about Cloud Hosting and Security August 15, 2016 In a rapidly changing business environment, you want to make sure you are doing everything you can to protect critical and sensitive information for your business and your customers. The last thing you want is for private information to get into the wrong hands which can impact your bottom line and reputation. Security is of the utmost importance, especially if you are looking to move your website or application data to the cloud. In Canada, the cloud market is starting to accelerate with 45% growth expected this year according to IDC. In the US, more than 90% of businesses already use some form of cloud hosting. With these increasing trends combined with a move towards hybrid clouds, it is important to understand what you are dealing with around security and how to mitigate risks proactively. Roughly 64% of all businesses feel that cloud hosting is a more secure environment than a traditional legacy system built internally. However, 75% of all businesses use an added source of cloud security beyond what a traditional provider offers, which implies that the cloud infrastructure isn’t as safe as you might think. However, implementing added security measures isn’t exactly inexpensive. Many businesses end up spending anywhere between $10,000 and $500,000 a year in an attempt to make sure their cloud hosting environment is well protected. For those who are interested in learning more about cloud hosting and cloud security, there are a few things that you need to know. Perform a security, threat and risk assessment. One of the first things you need to do is spend some time going through your cloud infrastructure and the security around it to determine just how much risk exists and how much you need to do to minimize that risk as a baseline. When you know what you are up against, you can better formulate a plan of attack. By having everything laid out before you, it helps minimize the chance that something is going to be missed along the way that could end up causing you a lot of time, money and resources. Thwarting the would-be hackers right from the start could be the key to protecting your best interest and that of your customers. Spend time going through and looking for ways that a hacker could try to gain access to your system. A threat assessment will help you determine where you need to change things around and how you can prevent something from going amiss simply because you weren’t prepared for the dangers that lied ahead. Make sure your application is using a comprehensive cloud security system. You need a cloud security system that accounts for both security technologies and internal procedures and controls to help mitigate threats and risks for your business. In doing so, you can rest assured that your platform is stable and secure while helping to protect the best interest of your customers, stakeholders, and employees. A comprehensive Information Security Management System (ISMS) should be the core foundation of your cloud security to build an effective risk management program for the long term horizon for your organization. By enforcing an ISMS, you can safeguard the integrity, availability and confidentiality of your business in a repeatable manner. Regardless of what industry vertical you might be in, you need a solution that is designed to help protect your information and applications. Strong cloud security should come equipped with security protection including: Firewalls VPN Intrusion Detection Access Management DDoS Mitigation Web Application Firewall Log Management Patch Management Consider additional forms of cloud security. Regularly auditing your cloud hosting platform can help you determine if there have been any data breaches and if your cloud security is working like it should. By spending time auditing your website application on a regular basis, you can catch something quickly before it has the chance to spiral out of control and cause a world of problems for your business. Vulnerability assessments and periodic penetration testing will help to safeguard your applications against new threats that surface every day. Data encryption is crucial. When the data is encrypted, it makes a hackers’ job that much more difficult to do. Hackers often look for someone who has their information readily available for them to swoop in and take it in mere seconds. Encrypted data is much more complex and time-consuming, which means they will often pass you by and look for an easier target. By going through the information above, you can make sure all of your application data is safe and secure in the cloud. It just takes implementing the right practices and technologies to ensure your cloud hosting platform is protected from the various security threats. Sources http://trade.gov/topmarkets/pdf/Cloud_Computing_Top_Markets_Report.pdf http://www.computerdealernews.com/news/canada-will-lag-behind-again-in-2016-this-time-in-cognitive-computing-idc/45859 https://clutch.co/cloud/resources/security-trends-in-enterprise-cloud-computing
