As per the state of the Cloud surveys, 95% of respondents use the Cloud. But despite this technology's huge and rapid growth, Cloud computing comes with the possibility of breaches that can affect an organization drastically. A data breach is when someone steals confidential information from a system without the authorization or knowledge of the system's owner. This can completely ruin a brand and its revenue.
A study by Ermetic shows that almost 80% of businesses experience at least one data breach in 18 months, while 43% of businesses report 10+ data breaches. As per reports of surveys on 300 CISOs, the three most important causes of these breaches were a lack of proper visibility into access activities and settings, security configuration mistakes, and permission mistakes. Hundreds and thousands of data breaches have affected businesses in the last couple of years, and the list is limitless.
Maintaining a proper cloud network is critical to running a seamless and secure business. Hopefully, these seven ways to manage cloud data breaches will help you.
1. Set up backups and recovery solutions to prevent data breaches
Since systems have a deep interconnection with the Cloud, compromised accounts can heighten freedom quickly and lead to catastrophic damage. But it is possible to avoid data breaches by configuring backup and archive solutions. This involves creating data copies on different systems in different cloud accounts, and this will prevent attackers from deleting the same. Putting proper data recovery solutions in place is also vital. This includes automatic disaster recovery, frequent automated backups, and complete user management.
Here, you can use AWS cloud security to improve your organization's ability to meet the core compliance and security requirements, like data protection, locality, and confidentiality. Also, work on who can access your company data by establishing access controls that help manage risks. Be proactive and take all possible security measures to protect your data.
2. Educate the employees
Uneducated employees can be a threat to a company's data security. When employees know the right defense practices, businesses can minimize risks and prevent cloud security breaches. As a business working on Cloud, you must involve your entire company in the asset protection process. This way, they will have ownership of their obligations regarding security measures. Try involving the whole staff in security training and brief them about the best security practices. It is imperative to set up a response protocol to protect the employees when they feel compromised. Make a document entailing the steps users must take in varied situations, so they remain prepared always. You can even try running surprise security tests to understand how much information they have retained.
3. Set proper user permissions
You must have a decent password policy in place. For example, if an employee from your organization has been terminated, close down their access to all company data and data sources. Also, ensure only those people with access to company data need to work with it. It is not about trusting people but about minimizing the damage that can occur when a specific cloud account is compromised. Encourage password managers in your company so the employees can create more complicated passwords without the risk of forgetting them. Also, make sure that the passwords created within the organization expire after every 90 days.
4. Encryption is the key
It is critical to have cloud encryption in place for data protection. This allows data and text transformation using encryption algorithms to be later stored in the Cloud. You can encrypt your data at the network's edge to ensure protected data movement in the Cloud. And once your data is fully encrypted, keep the keys that decipher and encrypt your company details.
Doing this ensures that even if your company data is stored with a third-party provider, all requests for information will involve you as the owner. Also, do not make the mistake of storing encryption keys in the same software where you store data. Use top-quality encryption, both on stored connections and data. Avoid transferring sensitive details openly.
5. Come up with cloud governance policies
The correct cloud application governance procedure ensures compliance with internal and external data privacy commands. This involves providing training to the information workers and enforcing important usage policies. Your organization must also periodically conduct risk assessments and health checks while staying alert to the ever-changing security environment. Try classifying data based on sensitivity and applying the right data security tactics to each data class. This way, you will understand what is at stake, and this will help you make more proactive and informed decisions.
6. Go through the fine print
Avoid signing up for cloud services without thoroughly reviewing the terms and conditions and the user agreement. This document entails essential information about the way this service will safeguard your information and whether you give permission for the service to use and sell your details in any way by signing up. Beware of all updates in the privacy policies of your cloud service provider.
7. Adhere to penetration testing
Penetration testing is an IT security protocol to identify and address vulnerabilities while minimizing cloud security threats. This test will look like a real attack, but it will give you a clear idea of the effectiveness of the security and safety measures you have in place for data protection.
Summary
There's no full-proof way to protect against data breaches within a company. Educating your employees on the consequences of such breaches and the possibility of someone hacking into your systems can help. You can even ensure that employees change their passwords regularly and remind them to keep sensitive company information safe. Taking these steps can help in the long run.
