FEATURE : REMOTE WORKING
THERE ’ S NO POINT BEING THE FASTEST CAR ON THE RACETRACK IF YOU CRASH ON THE FIRST CORNER .
Data dependent organizations cannot outsource responsibility for the confidentiality , integrity and availability of their critical data to a third-party cloud provider . So , once companies have made the jump into cloud , how do they land safely ?
Cloud-first challenges
Despite the growth in cloud-first models , a Thales survey shows half ( 51 %) of APAC businesses believe that cloud privacy and data protection regulations are more complex to manage than on-premises environments . A third ( 31 %) use more than 50 SaaS applications and one in three ( 33 %) admit to experiencing a breach or failing an audit for cloud applications or cloud data in the last 12 months .
The rapid shift to the cloud and remote working means organizations must be increasingly mindful of data sovereignty . Yet , the responsibility to tackle this challenge isn ’ t something that should remain solely in the hands of the CIO . IT security leaders , legal and procurement teams , risk managers and auditors must all be involved :
1 ) Get the basics right
As everyone who works with sensitive or critical data knows , this data cannot sit in cloud environments unsecured . Over the years , some of the most serious data breaches and professional embarrassments have arisen from poorly implemented cloud data security and human error . In fact , three quarters ( 75 %) of APAC businesses rank human error as one of the threats they are most concerned about while 80 % are concerned about security risks of remote employees .
Consequently , cloud service providers ( CSPs ) have taken action to encourage the application of better data security practices . Typically , these have involved :
• Stricter user and administrator access controls ,
• Improved configuration documentation and best practices ,
• Better security monitoring and alerting , and
• Prescribed use of cloud centric data encryption and key management .
54 INTELLIGENTCIO APAC www . intelligentcio . com