Think Public Safety

5 Cloud Security Myths Debunked Author: Tunde Williams

Created Jun 15 2017, 1:21 PM by Paul Jeffs

Once viewed with a great deal of scepticism, the public cloud is now mainstream. Today, more than 80% of UK organisations have adopted at least one cloud service (source: Cloud Industry Forum). Yet, despite the growing adoption, fear, doubt and uncertainty persist around cloud deployments. Given the potentially transformative benefits of the cloud, I think it is important that we challenge the myths and get to the facts. Let’s take a look at some of the common myths.

#1 There are more data breaches in the cloud
According to the Spring 2014 Alert Logic Cloud Security Report, both on-premise and cloud hosting providers (CHP) saw a dramatic increase in vulnerability scans from 2012 to 2013, with CHPs having a slightly greater increase. But depending on the type of attack, such as malware and botnets, on-premise deployments were far more susceptible.

Source: Alert Logic Cloud Security Report, 2014

#2 Cloud is less secure than on-premise solutions
Public cloud providers benefit from economies of scale and investment resources to deploy and maintain cutting edge security technology. For example, most cloud service providers have better physical security for their datacentres than most companies have for their own facilities. Across both security and compliance, global public cloud providers are able to invest massive amounts of resources that exceed what any one individual organisation can realistically deploy.

#3 You lose control of your data when it is in the cloud
Cloud vendors are not all the same. Terms and conditions and contracts setup between the consumer and the cloud service provider must affirm that you maintain ownership of all data that is ingested or generated from using the service. Furthermore, the contract should prohibit access, sharing or sub-licensing of your data for any reason other than it being used in conjunction with your application subscriptions and comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which goes into effect on 25 May 2018.

#4 The cloud is going to cost you significantly more
Cloud deployments reduce operational expense by minimising your need for complex IT resources, connectivity and infrastructure. For example, compliance with GDPR requirements can be much easier with the cloud, with established service providers offering sophisticated and built-in controls. Also, when it comes to supporting workloads classified as UK OFFICIAL, the leading public cloud providers can readily support a cloud environment that aligns with the National Cyber Security Cloud Security Principles and Center for Internet Security (CIS) Critical Security Controls guidelines.

#5 Your data is centrally located, increasing the risk of data loss
Centralised data actually minimises the attack surface area and decreases the touchpoints for threat actors. The leading cloud infrastructure providers offer redundancy to ensure a single zone failure does not result in loss of data. In general, objects should be redundantly stored on multiple devices across multiple facilities in a data centre region.

By harnessing the cloud, you can benefit from a flexible data platform where security, compliance and performance can all be configured to meet specific service requirements and is easily upgraded to keep pace with future requirements. Moving to cloud-based data management solutions can help you manage and store large volumes of sensitive data with more control, better security, and greater flexibility to enhance your organisation’s capabilities.