What Cybersecurity Leaders Should Know About Cloud Data Leakage
Cloud adoption has become the new necessity for businesses today as this ecosystem adds to the organization’s scalability, flexibility, and growth. In fact, this technology also enables them to save on the costs associated with managing extra IT resources and storage space. So, it can be said that this innovation enhances business performance.
On the contrary, this tech also introduces some critical business vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity professionals understand them as security threats. These include data breaches, data loss, insider threats, and malware. While these planned threats exist, some vulnerabilities commonly result from the negligence of personnel. Here, the latter is better understood as cloud data leakage, which is equally impactful and may cause financial losses for a company.
This article is focused on understanding cloud data leakage. Sharing the overview of this topic, we move forward with the speculation of how leaders can prevent this leakage in organizations. This solution-focused section discusses key data leakage protection solutions for securing a company’s cloud space.
Understanding Cloud Data Leakage
Cloud computing is a modern technological solution that has become the foundation of how a business operates today. While it is beneficial for companies, this technology is prone to security risks at times when the data is in transit, at rest, or in use.
Among many security-related risks, there is a risk of leakage of cloud data, which is caused by vectors like personnel negligence or a misconfigured cloud storage server. This can lead to exposing confidential data to the public, which can be very damaging to an organization. Hence, it is a pressing concern for cybersecurity leaders to invest in properly formulated data leakage protection solutions to prevent these from occurring.
Key Causes of Cloud Data Leakage
Taking a closer look, business leaders need to understand the technical reasons that introduce this vulnerability in a company’s tightly secured cloud storage spaces. It will contribute to guiding them in adopting the right solutions to cover these risks.
Here goes the list of causes of cloud data leakage:
| Key Causes | Description |
|---|---|
| Human Error | - Weak password setting - Being an easy target for social engineering frauds like phishing |
| Misconfigurations | - Involves incorrectly configuring cloud storage access permissions, leading to data exposure |
| Insider Threats | - Accidentally sharing data with the wrong recipients
- Intentional data theft by employees |
| Weak Identity and Access Controls | - Lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Improper role-based access management (RBAC) |
| Shadow IT Risks | - Employees using unauthorized apps
- Lack of IT governance |
| Third-Party Vendor Risks | - Shared cloud access with vendors and partners |
These risks are concerning for the organizations, as they can have a detrimental impact on their operational performance. The upcoming section explores this subject in detail.
Business Impact of Data Leakage
As cybersecurity leaders have a calculated judgment of the associated cloud leakage risks, it is also important for them to analyze how this can impact your organization. These can pinpoint what your pain points might be in case of a data leakage, hence securing them becomes a critical responsibility.
Let’s begin understanding them,
1. Financial losses
These monetary losses include hefty fines, legal fees, and a higher cost of securing cloud spaces.
2. Reputation damage
The company's reputation takes a hit in the market as soon as news such as data leakage goes to the media. Even clients may pull back from organizations in such critical times.
3. Compliance risks
Authorities such as HIPAA and GDPR can charge companies with penalties and lawsuits, along with audits for non-compliance issues.
4. Operational disruptions
Simply put, such leaks can lead to downtime and service delays, affecting the flow of business operations.
To avoid these consequences, leaders can talk to cybersecurity consulting service providers, as they can help ensure an enterprise-level threat detection and cloud data security.
Key Strategies Cybersecurity Leaders Must Implement
Focused on empowering a company’s cloud space and avoiding data leaks, decision-makers can implement certain well-planned strategies. These are focused on aspects like data protection and threat detection, focusing on comprehensively protecting a company’s cloud space.
Some of these effective data leakage protection solutions are shared below:
1. Identity and Access Management (IAM)
IAM is a mechanism that ensures proper access management.
It incorporates practices like multi-factor authentication, role-based access, and strong password management.
2. Data Encryption
This is a security process that converts data into unreadable coded information.
In this practice, data can be encrypted at rest, in use, and in transit to ensure its safety.
3. Continuous Monitoring and Threat Detection
This strategy leverages modern technologies like AI and ML to track cloud systems 24*7.
It helps in anomaly detection, alarming IT professionals about potential risks.
4. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
CSPM is an automated software that helps in continuous risk monitoring.
It assesses misconfigurations and fixes them before a data leak occurs.
Apart from these strategies, cybersecurity professionals are also adept at the application of certain practices for preventing cloud data leaks. We will explore them in the following section.
Best Practices for Preventing Cloud Data Leakage
As cyberattackers are becoming smarter, cybersecurity leaders need more strategic ammunition (policies and practices) for preventing cloud data leaks. This is a necessary move that can make your organization cyber-resilient in the cloud space, thus making your data leakage protection solutions more effective.
Here is a look at some of the practices that can be adopted to prevent data leaks.
Establish a shared responsibility model with cloud providers
Organizations must partner with providers like Azure and Google that can keep their cloud infrastructure safe. It implies having a joint responsibility for security.
Train employees on cloud security hygiene
Recognizing human errors, it is necessary to invest in cloud security training. Hence, training can be provided for preventing phishing attacks, along with stronger password management and handling data in a secure manner while accessing the cloud space.
Regular penetration testing and security audits
Data loss prevention softwares (DLP) can help ensure regular security audits for maintaining cloud security. These can help strengthen your defenses against data leaks and cyber attacks in real-time.
Final Thoughts
On this note, we can understand that cloud security is the catalyst for keeping up customer trust. We recommend that all these solutions be clubbed with one master move, i.e., investing in a talented team of experts that can handle this matter seriously.
At its core, a cybersecurity consulting service provider can help minimize the leader’s efforts and their share of worries. This can be achieved by experts assisting in the consistent application of custom-fit strategies to prevent data leaks.
