The cloud is a powerful tool that allows businesses to store their growing collections of data remotely and access them from any location. This allows seamless collaboration between teams, remote working, and an improved workflow from start to finish.
While the cloud is going to be protected with robust security measures, it’s not infallible. This was proven true recently when Oracle, a notable cloud provider, confirmed a cloud data breach allegedly involving over six million records.
Not only was there a data breach, but there was also a delay in informing their customers, as they initially denied the claims before later backtracking and informing their customers.
In short, you cannot blindly trust the security and safety of your cloud account. You can’t even fully trust that the companies you have hired will be immediately upfront and truthful with you.
What you can do is ramp up security on your site. The good news is that there are plenty of strategies you can implement, including the following top options.
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First, Locate, Define, And Classify Your Cloud Data
You need your data to be in order. This means you need to know where all of it is and remove any ROT data. ROT, in this case, stands for redundant, outdated, or trivial data. You also need the data you are keeping to be properly secured.
Highly sensitive data needs to be encrypted or tokenized, and all files should be locked to only the users that need access.
Now, before you panic, know you do not need to do all that on your own. You can instead use a security posture management tool.
Typically, you have the option between cloud (CSPM) and data (DSPM), but for most businesses, the winner of the CSPM vs DSPM debate will be the DSPM.
Here’s why.
CSPM also doesn’t necessarily know what information is more at risk, which makes its classification methods shaky at best. DSPM, on the other hand, uses a combination of AI and ML technology to more accurately identify and classify data.
It can even automate certain steps, helping you streamline your data security strategy quickly.
Establish Effective And Strict Data Governance And Security Policies
Everyone in your business needs to start classifying and treating data using a firm set of rules. Every file that is made, for example, should use established naming conventions and be stored in a filing system that everyone in the company uses and understands.
The same applies to security measures, like deletion policies or encrypted backup methods. There are even data governance tools to improve and automate this step, allowing you to save time and ensure all data is properly governed.
Audit And Improve Your Users
One of the biggest threats to your cloud is unauthorized user access. If a low-level employee can gain access to sensitive documents, then those documents are in danger. This doesn’t necessarily mean your employees are going to steal from you (though there are cases of insider fraud).
In most cases, the threat comes from a phishing scam. If an employee just clicks on a spoofed link, they may inadvertently download a malware file. Data breaches could also leak login credentials. That’s why the last tip in this list is to improve your identity management.
By limiting login access and regularly purging old accounts or unused permissions with tools like CIEM or zero-trust principles, you can reduce the risk of a breach, if it happens.
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