How To Solve 3 Common Cloud Security Issues

In the modern digital era, cloud security is a top concern. After all, most businesses now get some or all of their computing resources from cloud service providers rather than in-house servers or IT centers. Unfortunately, many companies are unprepared to face the plethora of cloud security challenges rising to the forefront.

Today, let’s look at how you can solve three of the most common cloud security issues through various defensive strategies.

Cloud Training Is the First Line of Defense

No matter what cyber threats your business encounters, how much they impact your operations will depend on whether or not your team is properly equipped to deal with them. Proper cloud training is more important than ever, which is why you should take advantage of educational resources from CBT Nuggets.

For example, AWS training and certification from CBT Nuggets is the best way to ensure your staff knows how to utilize this extensive, versatile cloud resource. Meanwhile, Microsoft Azure training can help you make the most of this tool suite and cloud platform without compromising security.

Sign up for a 7-day free trial to get a feel for what it’s like to train with us!

Issue 1: Untrained Staff

First and foremost, many business cloud security solutions are underutilized primarily because of untrained staff. There are still too many IT pros who don’t know how to maintain a tight, secure cloud network, especially if they are used to more traditional security solutions — such as in-house servers or IT infrastructure.

Uneducated personnel can lead to problems like ID badges being left out to be stolen, using insecure passwords, or being vulnerable to digital attacks like phishing scams. The more staff you have, the more likely that untrained staff members will contribute significantly to your cloud security problems.

The Fix

Fortunately, solving the issue of uneducated staff is fairly simple: educate them! For example, your company can host cloud security seminars or classes and mandate that everyone attends them over a certain timeframe, like a business quarter. That way, all employees know the new standards that are expected of them and how to leverage cloud security practices smartly.

Such seminars are also crucial for ensuring your employees know how to practice good cyber hygiene, such as:

• Generating strong passwords and not leaving them lying around

• Knowing how to spot phishing or ransomware scams

• Knowing what to do if they are ever the victim of a cyberattack, etc.

Knowledge is power, so providing employees with the knowledge they need to thrive is the easiest way to solve this security issue. All in all, education is one of the most critical best practices for cloud security.

Issue 2: Data Breaches

Data breaches are a big problem for modern cloud security initiatives. In fact, they are probably the biggest concern for your business overall; losing the vital or personal information of your customers can result in lost trust, major fines, and other business penalties.

Your business might suffer a data breach from a malware attack, a ransomware scam, or something else entirely. Regardless, you need to know how to solve this cloud security issue if you want your brand to survive – and thrive – in the modern digital environment.

The Fix

There are lots of ways in which you can stop data breaches from negatively affecting your company. First, you need to define data value and understand the impact of its loss. For example, if your primary database is breached, how much data will you lose, and how will that impact your customers? Once you understand this, you can begin laying the groundwork for an incident response plan.

Most data breach security measures involve tactics and techniques such as:

• Performing data input and output integrity strategies, making sure that entrance points into databases are secure at all times

• Always applying the “principle of least privilege” to access control, preventing people who don’t need to access data from being able to access it in the first place

• Establishing good policies and procedures to securely and safely remove and dispose of data your business no longer needs, such as outdated data about customers who no longer shop at your brand

You’ll also want to implement other cloud tools and security measures that are seen as standard approaches for all cybersecurity. For instance, your cloud infrastructure should be protected by a strong firewall. The firewall needs to be updated with modern virus definitions and attack patterns so it can recognize digital threats when it encounters them.

It might be worthwhile to contract a third-party cybersecurity team or cloud security firm to prevent data breaches. Dedicated third-party cloud security firms can provide your digital defenses with more attention and focus than your team may be able to, especially when accounting for your other business responsibilities. 

Issue 3: Poor Credential Protection

In addition to the above two cloud security issues, poor credential protection and management can lead to major issues in big organizations, especially problems involving identity and access management.

If you don’t properly hand out or monitor credentials throughout your organization, it can be tough or impossible to determine who has access to what, who was responsible for a previous data breach, and where cloud security vulnerabilities might arise.

Your company needs to keep strict control over things like administrator privileges, database passwords and security credentials, and even physical key cards (which can give access to cloud infrastructure or databases from “on the ground”).

The Fix

In most cases, solving the issue of poor credential protection requires a multi-pronged approach.

For starters, you should consider utilizing two-factor authentication or 2FA. Two-factor authentication means that each major administrative access point requires two forms of ID or two credentials before permitting access.

As a basic example, accessing a bank account that comes with security features such as two-factor authentication might involve inputting a password and answering a security question. 2FA is a popular cloud security fix because it’s relatively easy to implement across organizations.

However, you’ll also want to enforce strict identity access controls for all cloud users. Identity access controls or IAM frameworks define user access to confidential or sensitive data within an organization.

You should clearly define employee roles within your brand, including their title, authority, and responsibilities. With an IAM framework in place, you can capture and record all user login information and set privileges or administrative access controls for specific users.

Armed with this digital framework, you’ll be better equipped to ensure that only proper personnel have access to sensitive databases. In addition, you’ll also be able to know if someone without the proper credentials tries to log in and compromise cyber defenses. Most IAM frameworks have user-friendly access control interfaces with intuitive dashboards, so anyone can use them.

Final Thoughts

In the end, the above three cloud security issues are only some of the most common digital threats your business will face in the future. Remember to prioritize cyber defenses going forward, and consider using CBT Nuggets’ cloud training to prepare your team to prevent and fight any digital threats it encounters.