How do you ensure cloud security and access control across different regions?

To ensure cloud security and access control across different regions, start by understanding your cloud service model. Each model has distinct security responsibilities. Implement region-specific access controls, adhering to local regulations and compliance requirements. Use encryption to protect data in transit and at rest. Employ identity and access management solutions to enforce consistent security policies globally. Regularly review and update your security measures to adapt to regional threats. By comprehending your cloud service model, you can effectively safeguard your data across regions.

Information about the location of the cloud provider and its servers gives users information about which data protection laws their data is subject to after it has been stored. With many cloud offerings, it is not immediately clear in which country the provider is based or where its data centers are located. For example, a company based in Germany can operate servers abroad. The data can then be subject to foreign jurisdiction. Each country has different regulations governing access to files by companies and authorities, based on the data protection laws and other regulations that apply there. While in some countries authorities are allowed to evaluate the data or confiscate computers, in other countries this is prohibited by law.

Always remember that in your Journey to the Cloud, you are extending your business model to include third parties. In time, those third parties will become your strategic partners. In order for that to happen you have to trust them. Trust implies adding value to one another. Building a mutually beneficial relationship. Comes for the ongoing achievement of common goals, from the combined effort and know how of all parties involved. Technology is a important and integral of your security iniatives. Nonetheless, one must not forget that organizational - an personal - values and principles are also very important.

The guidelines shown also above on our left are very important: they make us reflect on the responsible design-phase of our network systems connected with a third-party's remote-drive. I find practically useful when paying attention to the "transportation-phase" of the data for back-ups: BitLocker can only assist for the secure encryption of files and folders whilst on our local drives and their individual sectors; once those get transmitted-through for cloud back-ups, the BitLocker's encryption does not secure them any longer. Securely encrypted tunnels can assist through the packet-exchange phase, together with the other possible resources correctly configured with the cloud storage providers (Multi-aaS).

The following things should be considered when sharing: If possible, sharing via a link should not be used for sensitive data. Security can be increased if the provider allows the data to be additionally protected with a password. In this case, it is advisable to communicate the link and password to the other party via different media (e.g. email and phone call). Sharing should - if possible - be limited in time in advance. If the cloud provider does not allow this, you should regularly check which people have access to which of your data and whether this access is still necessary. Sharing should always be specific and restrictive, i.e. if a file is shared, only this file should be shared and not the folder in which the file is located.

Whenever possible, it is important to implement the “attention to information-security culture” amongst our colleagues: the human-factor can often be the first-line of exploitation-entry by attackers, hence our first-line of defence. So that, one's behaviour (when getting well observant of cyber-security parameters) definitely plays an important role-model for others next to us, toward better maintaining the above mentioned culture. For example, an open question: are we careful enough not to get "shoulder-surfed" or not to get stolen sensitive information when working and connecting to cloud storage remotely from public places, like in coffee shops or in public terminals (and even with unsecured networks)?

One of the advantages of using cloud services is that data can usually be easily shared with other people and worked on together. There are different procedures for this. Let's assume that we use an online storage facility that allows us to share our own data (e.g. photos) with third parties. There are usually different procedures for this. If the person with whom I want to share the data is also registered with the cloud service, sharing can often be done specifically using the respective user name. If the person does not use the cloud service themselves, sharing can often be set up using a link.