Cloud Storage Security Strategy And Risks
Cloud services include a variety of storage services that can store user images and document data such as Dropbox and GoogleDrive in the cloud and those that pursue convenience of information sharing such as accounting software that can share and reflect data in real time. A variety of services are available from various vendors, ranging from free-add supported service to corporate-level accounts with privileges that have user account management systems perfect for large firms.
The most important reason for resistance with adapting an official cloud system for a company is the security concern: possible information leaks and loss of valuable data due to the cyber attacks. In fact, many companies have seen delays in the introduction of internal cloud services because of security concerns. However, in recent years, cloud service providers are focusing on security in particular, so there is very little possibility of a loss of data that may be anxious and outflow to the outside, so safety and stability of it are getting better. Information leakage incidents are a matter of life and death for cloud service providers, so every company has a very high level of security awareness, and the services provided are also more secure.
Even though the security of cloud services has become stronger, it is possible that the carelessness of only one staff member can lead to threats such as malware infection and information leakage for companies and organizations that use it. It is required that each person’s staff, including system administrators of companies, understand the importance of information security measures and use various cloud services.
However, while cloud services offer great benefits to businesses, they are not without disadvantages. First of all, it can not be grasped the actual use situation. Because cloud services can be used casually, it may happen that they can not understand and control the cloud services used by employees. The fact that a company can not use or control is very risky, and if a problem occurs, it can be a threat to the entire enterprise. Second, unauthorized access to important information. In the case of file management on the cloud, there is a risk that an employee’s erroneous operation may make a confidential file accessible from outside. In addition, if only the employee’s account information is possessed, information may be stolen by malicious employees or retirees.
Furthermore, there is a possibility that the employee itself may access from a device infected with the virus without being aware, deploy the infected file, and spread the virus. In order to pay attention to these types of incidents, companies are not going to use cloud services indiscriminately and firmly grasp security risks in advance, and the data in the cloud services performance and safety is regularly checked by authorized IT auditors.
So what needs to be done in order to minimize risks with the use of cloud storage service:
- Visualization: The ability to visualize the usage status of the cloud service and whether the cloud service is secure or not. Not only are you viewing the list of services you are using and the user information you are accessing, you are also evaluating the safety of each service.
- It is a measure for so-called “shadow IT (cloud service not permitted by an organization)” in which individual users and specific departments freely use cloud services not permitted by the firm. Based on the evaluation in (1) visualization, it is possible to limit and control the use of unapproved cloud services through network filters.
- Data Security: The content of data to be uploaded can be checked, and communication can be interrupted or files can be encrypted according to the content.
- Threat Defense: When suspicious behavior or files are detected, it determines whether the account is hijacked or mishandled, an internal crime, or malware, and performs warning / detection / protection.
Source: https://searchcloudsecurity.techtarget.com/tip/How-to-build-a-strong-cloud-network-security-strategy
Also, Read:
An Introduction to Cloud Technology and Cloud Security
Malware Attack Using Google Cloud Computing Platform