As the world continues being digital, the cloud becomes a basic organizational need and not just a luxury. Concepts like remote working and advanced business intelligence are possible because of the cloud. However, this innovation also opens companies to some level of risk. Data breaches are far more common than one would expect.

Even with great security measures, cybercriminals are getting smarter by the day. That’s why it’s important to have a comprehensive cloud security strategy to protect your company. Take a look at the pillars of a solid cloud security strategy.

Visibility

Many organizations deal with the loss of visibility when implementing the cloud. That means they don’t have a comprehensive view of the activities happening in the cloud. Cloud computing has allowed users to spin up different types of workloads on demand or to address projects. But afterward, users can easily forget these assets, exposing the company to security vulnerabilities. Without visibility, you can’t identify security threats or any other inefficiencies in your cloud deployment.

A comprehensive cloud security strategy should allow you to maintain visibility. You can address this problem by seeking cloud security solutions. Check out cisco cloud security solutions to see how you can solve the security issues of visibility. Such security solutions let you know the kind of data stored in the cloud, who has access to that data, where specific data is located, etc.

Shared Responsibility

When your company partners with a cloud service provider, it means sharing some security implementation responsibilities. That means your team will keep handling some tasks as you move data, workloads, and applications to the cloud. At the same time, the provider will also be in charge of other tasks. Identify which tasks your team will handle and which tasks the provider will be in charge of. Well-defined responsibilities enable you to take proactive steps to continuously improve your security position.

Managing Vulnerabilities and Exposure

You have to protect your company by limiting exposure and reducing risk. You can’t afford to be exposed to vulnerabilities as they disrupt your business and lead to loss of income. This strategy requires a team effort. Ensure your security group and IT team are on the same page regarding top concerns, such as installing software security patches as soon as they are available. This allows the organization to manage exposure effectively.

Resilience

Another important cloud security strategy involves resilience. This element requires security teams to do more than prevent organizational attacks. To keep the impact of an attack at a minimum, you must enable quick attack detection, efficient response, and recovery. Mentally, it would help if you were prepared to eventually face an attack. This lets you balance your resources between preventing an attack and managing it. Assuming that failure is possible can be hard to accept, but planning for it allows your team to remain resilient.

Prevention Control

Most companies, especially those with on-premise software or hybrid environments, are worried about tool incompatibility. Many discover that their tools can’t translate to the cloud. Besides that, as their cloud estate increases, there are new threat vectors to be concerned about. As you expand in the cloud, ensure you have the proper security measures in place and a plan to advance those measures to protect the company against emerging attacks. It would be beneficial for your company to initiate contact with hybrid cloud services to receive the benefits of using both public and private clouds, making it much simpler to better manage your data and applications.

Data Encryption

Encrypting your data will hide it from unauthorized users by changing it into another format or code. Organizations should encrypt their data when transferring it onto the public cloud. This is something cloud service providers can help with.

Detection

Can you detect a security breach in your organization, or will you simply continue with operations until it’s too late? This is a challenge for most companies, considering there’s a cybersecurity labor shortage. Despite that, you need a security system that immediately identifies issues and alerts you or the IT team. You can then take action to reduce the impact of the attack. Cyber threat actors use automated tools to attack systems. Be vigilant and constantly monitor your environment, or hire a third party to do so.

Endpoint Protection

Using cloud services necessitates the need for endpoint protection or security. Organizations have to use endpoint security solutions to safeguard devices and browsers. Such solutions will examine files entering a network, detecting malware and other threats easily.

Response

A solid cloud security strategy must have a plan of action. As already mentioned, one should assume that a data breach is possible and can happen at any time. Part of your strategy should be planning how you will respond to that attack. That plan should highlight the roles and responsibilities of various departments and personnel in case of such an attack. By doing so, everyone will know what’s expected of them to reduce the impact of an attack and resume normal operations. Beyond that, test the plan to see if it’s practical and review it or update it once a year.

As cloud security continues evolving and getting better, the strategies to protect your organization don’t change as much. Consider this element as a shared responsibility. Sit with your cloud provider and develop a strategy that protects the company from attacks adequately. This also means highlighting the responsibilities of both of you.