25 Nov Firms failing to protect sensitive data in the cloud
Eighty three per cent of companies are failing to encrypt at least half of the sensitive data they hold in the cloud – leaving them open to security breaches.
According to the 2021 Thales Cloud Security Study, 57% of companies surveyed say they use at least two cloud infrastructure providers, with 24% saying the majority of their workload now resides in the cloud. One fifth of firms also confirmed that they use cloud services to host most of their sensitive data, and 40% say they’ve experienced a breach in the last year.
Despite this, companies are still failing to grasp just how important is it to secure data. A third use multi-factor authentication as part of the cybersecurity measures. But alarmingly just 17% of people questioned say they’ve encrypted more than half of their cloud data. For organisations using a multi-cloud approach, this figure drops to a mere 15%.
Sebastien Cano, SVP for cloud protection and licensing, Thales, said: “Organisations across the world are struggling to navigate the increased complexity that comes with greater adoption of cloud-based solutions.
“A robust security strategy is essential to ensuring data and business operations remain secure. With nearly every business reliant on the cloud to some extent, it is vital that security teams have the ability to discover, protect, and maintain control of their data.”
The pandemic has certainly accelerated the adoption of cloud technology. Today, cloud solutions are allowing data to be used transactionally and are supporting key day-to-day business operations. Pre-pandemic, its use was far more geared towards a data storage solution.
This new report supports an earlier study from Rackspace Technology which revealed less than half of organisations in the Middle East have confidence in their ability to understand the cybersecurity threat landscape in relation to their business.