It is lawfully accepted that data protection is a fundamental human right. This right is representative of the current framework that helps control and safeguard the use of personal information online.
Cloud computing is predicted to be the future. It utilizes the internet as a service where both applications and resources get delivered on demand. Data security in cloud computing is taken into higher consideration when it comes to cloud storage. The important points related to data security in cloud computing cover the following:
Role of data security in cloud computing
The importance of data security in cloud computing
What is data breach?
What are the security issues in cloud computing?
Importance of data security in cloud computing
Data Security in cloud computing refers to the process that helps to protect data from getting corrupted by unauthorized access to cloud storage. The security measures here include data encryption, tokenization, and key management.
Protecting the data and its users
Advanced monitoring solutions provided by cloud providers
Allows to access data safely on mobile devices
Safeguards data from malware and attacks
Prevents data loss
Helps to retrieve lost data
Data breach: A serious problem
A data breach is a sudden occurrence of data spilling or leaking by unauthorized or illegal ways of retrieving data by an individual, application, or service. The intentional or unintentional release of private information to any unreliable environment is the primary purpose of data breaching. The process of data breaching can hurt a business organization or an individual in many ways.
Cloud computing is defined as potential providers that make IT resources and applications available to their customers. Cloud computing provides three unique services Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Why cloud computing is essential for an organization
Data security in Cloud computing has become an essential part of an organization’s security program. The cloud has become a place where employees meet, exchange information, and store data. You can store data remotely instead of on physical premises, cut costs, and speed up operations.
The benefits of using cloud computing for businesses are as follows:
Maximize Savings
Seeming to be at a higher cost for a business, cloud computing is highly efficient in terms of return on investment. By giving quick access to the company’s officials even before the beginning of a project, it increases the scope. The use of cloud computing is much more than just the initial price.
Secures Data
As compared to any conventional in-house system, fixed for monitoring data security, cloud storage stands above all. Data security in cloud computing is successfully holding information or data in every organization where the data is safe only if it is located offsite.
Flexible
Cloud computing services offer flexibility to all businesses. On taking up cloud computing services, business owners can rely on their services in terms of data handling.
As per the report by The Harvard Business Review Analytics Services, 38% of respondents in a survey said that the use of data security in cloud computing opened up new markets for them, 41% said it helped them increase their product range, and 36% said compliance accuracy with regulations increased substantially.
Provides Access
Cloud services alone can provide access to countless people via smartphones and devices. Cloud services offer the benefit of using data access to staff, freelance employees, and other remote employees.
Recovering from a disaster
Every organization goes through troubling times. No matter how in control the organization is, it might fail at times. In such times, cloud computing provides quick data recovery services to handle all kinds of data issues in the shortest possible time. 90 percent of cloud disaster recovery is done in less than 4 hours in comparison to other non-cloud users.
Security issues in cloud computing
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against the cloud
A distributed denial of service attack is found to be a significant attack in the field of computing. The DDoS attack is made to defeat the single largest threat to the internet and the Internet of Things.
Shared services of cloud computing
Shared services of cloud computing make customers reluctant to switch completely over to the cloud. People are still doubtful about the data security in cloud computing because of which there is still only 10 percent of data of the entire world stored in the cloud.
Ignorant employees
Employees who are not well introduced to the field of cloud computing are completely unknown of the diverse use of cloud computing as a versatile technology and often make mistakes that lead to a data breach.
Frequent data loss and no backups
In cloud computing, there is no guarantee for saving data as the clients are completely reliant on the internet for storing files. The data stored on the cloud usually has no backup.
Email phishing
After data breaches, email phishing is a second major issue in the field of cloud computing. It is seen that phishing attacks have increased over time.
Social engineering
With the openness of the cloud computing system, social engineering attacks are increasing at a fast pace. The employees of an organization must be well-trained to avoid outbreaks.
Vulnerabilities of the operating system
The systems containing complex networks and third-party involvement are more vulnerable to getting attacked. To fight system vulnerability, one should properly patch and upgrade the protocols.
The risk involved in cloud storage
The security risks of cloud computing are a concern to both cloud service providers and clients. Providers must ensure that their infrastructure is secure. Customers must make sure that apps are password protected and include various other protective measures.
Top cloud security issues include:
Loss of sensitive data
Hijacking of accounts
Malware infections
Violations of regulatory controls
Hacked interfaces
Insider risk
The financial data held by big companies is highly significant. At the same time, personal data held by other apps is equally crucial.
Some time back, Judith Duportail, an independent journalist, with the help of a French Journalist, Olivier Keyes, found that an app contained her data of 800 pages. It included all her details about her mother, age, gender, own interests, the people she took an interest in, her travel history and the places she visited.
She immediately contacted Tinder app officials and realized that any application, for that matter, knows so much about the user while you are busy interacting with the application. In today’s times, personal data is a propelling force for marketers. It is traded for advertising purposes, and this makes data on cloud storage a goldmine for cybercriminals.
UBER cyberattack: a massive hack
A cyberattack on Uber left the data of more than 57 million customers and drivers in 2016 in the open. The breach was concealed for more than a year when the executive broke the news. For this, the hackers were paid handsomely to delete the data. The company ended up paying the hackers a sum of $100 000 to erase the data and to be mum on the whole episode. It is so right to say; insider threats can increase cloud computing risks.
Utilizing the cloud service for a business-related task is risky because the company is entirely dependent on the vendor. Before you decide to outsource the work to a cloud service provider, you must be aware of the credibility of a service.
In evaluating a cloud provider, some useful questions to ask are:
Does cloud encryption occur by default?
How is data in transit secured?
How are the physical data centers secured?
What process is in place for the prevention, detection, and countering of network intrusions?
How are users authenticated?
Cloud data security measures: A proactive step
Reliable cloud service providers usually have many security controls that help to prevent security issues in cloud computing. The most obvious risk mitigation for cloud storage is done through encryption. The way data is encrypted, it can increase the level of security.
Data encryption is one of the best ways to safeguard the digital assets you possess. This process utilizes a key along with an algorithm that converts the data into an encoded piece of information.
Top 5 encryption tools
Data files may be split into chunks, separately encrypted, and stored in different places, so even if anyone manages to decrypt the data, they only get access to random blocks. Other than this, encryption is not the last solution; experts must utilize multiple security layers to protect your data.
Cloud encryption: How it works
The most significant security risks of data security in cloud computing come from giving control of your information to others. When you put data security in someone else’s hands, you can’t just assume your information is secure. Data security in cloud computing continues to rest firmly in your hands, as well as the cloud service provider.
In most cases, the cloud provider is responsible for encrypting data. The user can add another layer of protection to the data. Encrypt data before it reaches the cloud. The two forms of encrypting data services are transit and resting.
Data files that travel from PC and cloud service are seen to be encrypted with at least 128-bit SSL technology. On the other hand, the data which is said to be at the resting stage remains to be free from encryption.
The process of encryption is simple. You can create your encryption key that works in tandem with cloud storage services. Some of the free encryption services are:
AxCrypt
Folder Lock
7Zip
Boxcryptor
Don’t store highly-sensitive data in the cloud
There’s no such thing as complete privacy for the data in cloud as revealed by the rise in identity theft. Data stored on the cloud is tight but infallible. Many times, it is seen that cybercriminals can enter into files. It can be done merely by bypassing passwords or answering security questions.
Keep your crucial information away from the virtual world whenever possible. For example, you should not store credit/debit card information or passwords every time an app or website asks for it. Secondly, encrypt the data using your encryption software and then save it.
Make passwords stronger
Weak passwords for your cloud storage are an invitation to hackers. Knowing that users keep common passwords for multiple accounts, these are like a treasure to hackers.
Using the same password for email and other accounts is a problem as all your login and forgotten password information arrives in your email. One must make it harder to use and difficult to remember the kind of password.
It is expected that every user must use a distinct paraphrase for every online account. Passwords that are unique will never fail as they are untraceable by any means. Another problem is not changing passwords frequently. You must educate your staff about the importance of using new, different, and strong passwords for their accounts.
Install antivirus software
The problem might not be due to cloud security at all, but due to the system you logged in from. Without antivirus software, you expose your system to viruses that provide points of penetration.
You can safeguard your computer and mobile devices from malware infections. The useful applications are designed to protect personal information from cybercriminals.
Encrypt your information
If you have a file that you want to move to the cloud storage, using specific encryption software enables you to create a password for the file. Encryption is a mathematical process that complicates text in a way that makes it unreadable by anyone. This process turns the text into jumbled code using algorithms.
Even if your cloud storage provider automatically encrypts data, it’s still better to do this. No one can read the contents of the file without knowing the password.
Test your security position
You can hire ethical hackers to look for potential ‘holes’ in your operating systems, and this way, you can take care of potential issues before they get exploited.
The internet being an uncertain channel for exchanging information and data, can lead to high risk. One must take a quick assessment test of internet security. Testing the security vulnerabilities of software applications must be a part of the internet strategy. It will help to determine the security infrastructure by stopping threats, protecting users, and safeguarding company data.
Take a ‘hybrid’ approach
A hybrid data storage move to the cloud means that corporate data exists on the cloud, and some parts of it might also be on-premises. The challenge is to manage security in both places. Security technology is available that covers both on-premises and cloud data stores using a data-centric platform approach.
As organizations continue to move to the cloud to take advantage of its reliability, performance, and economics, the focus moves more on the platforms that streamline and simplify security and management for both on-premises and cloud data.
Data in cloud computing trends
Data in cloud computing is a principal agent that helps to shape enterprise computing. The year going forward it is expected that cloud computing will dominate the market in 2020. It will continue to function the way it is and become a platform for various high-technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and IoT.
With the onset of 2020, there are expectations that investments in cloud computing will grow at a steady speed. Having said that, Synergy Research Group makes progress and details a 37 percent yearly growth of data in cloud computing.
The unexpected and evolving trends in the area of data in cloud computing are:
Serverless computing
The serverless computing system is gaining popularity in the world of cloud computing. With the introduction of the “Pay as you go” model, serverless computing helps business owners to keep track of cloud hosting expenses. Companies like Amazon, with their AWS service, ensure that serverless computing systems are here to stay for the continued time period.
Increased demand for hybrid cloud
The demand for hybrid cloud continues to increase, and by 2025 it is expected that this model will be utilized by more than 75 percent of organizations. Based on a research report, several factors are responsible for its growing demand. The main reason for its growing demand is that it offers a lot of flexibility by offering multiple cloud providers.
Moving edge to the main stage
A study by McKinsey found that approximately 127 new IoT devices get connected to the internet every second. This number is estimated to gain three times more than the population soon. Due to these heavily growing numbers, companies will have to establish small data centers at the desired locations, irrespective of the size of the location.
A new report by Gartner states that 2025 will turn out to be the main year of the decade when data-driven by the enterprise will be created and deposited at the edge.
Increasing demand for disaster recovery
As organizations are turning to be fully digital, the chances of data getting lost will also become a big concern. The average cost of the data breach is expected to increase by $4 million. Depending on the nature of the business, the growing cost of IT downtime gets close to $5,600 every 60 seconds.
This being the latest trend of data in cloud computing, business owners are now relying more on disaster recovery (DR) as a strategy that can drastically cut down the time of recovery.
The growing use of AI and ML in data centers
With the sudden outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, the growth of AI gained usage in the medical field and in data centers. The main use of AI in the data center is to detect the patterns in the server and determine network failures. Knowing the impact of AI in data centers,
Gartner estimates that more than 30 percent of the viability of data centers that help the preparation of a data center will not be sufficient by 2020. Due to this reason, to meet up the ever-growing demand for artificial intelligence, the AI platform will make use of cloud services.
Conclusion: The future is cloud computing
Cloud computing is seen to be a next-generation paradigm in computation. However, a paradox exists when it comes to the cloud – the number one reason for staying away from the cloud is computing security. It is the main reason for going to the cloud.
Storage in the cloud has many advantages but always keep in mind that security is not guaranteed. Researchers for data protection have proposed many new ideas to attain the highest level of data security in cloud computing. As there are still many gaps to be filled and more work is required to make it effective and successful. If users adopt the right security measures, cloud computing can go a long way to keeping files on-premises and in the cloud safe.
