GRC in the Cloud: Recommended Security and Compliance Practices

We are living in interesting times. As innovation, convenience, and connectivity reign, organizations are empowered to accomplish more than ever. Of course, with reward comes risk, and digital security incidents continue to rise.

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To mitigate risk, organizations must try new tactics to stay ahead of the cybercriminals that threaten their operations. Similarly, governments around the world continue to explore and implement governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) requirements to keep organizations, critical infrastructure, and citizens safe from harm. As business moves from on-premise to the cloud to for vital tools and services, all sights are on cloud vulnerabilities.

The Rise of the Cloud

The move to cloud applications is nothing groundbreaking at this stage. Over the last decade or more, tools and applications have been moving to cloud-based models, starting with software companies shunning media and licensing keys in favor of digital services and scalable subscriptions. Now, it’s more uncommon to find on-prem apps and services, and an entire generation is coming of age in a world where they don’t know any other way.

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At present, 67% of enterprise infrastructure is based in the cloud, and the average person uses 36 cloud-based services - daily. Cloud adoption serves many benefits, including improving time to market, offering scale and agility to meet organizational demand, simplified delivery for hybrid and remote workforces, increased visibility and control for administrators, along with the ability to align cloud spending with operating expenditure (OpEx) rather than as capital expenditure (CapEx) as is usually the case for on-premise software.

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As organizations hang their proverbial hat on the cloud, cybercriminals have turned their attention to vulnerabilities, including APIs and weak authentication. The rise of the cloud is also the rise of cloud risk.

What is GRC?

Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) is a strategy to manage industry and government regulations. GRC processes and practices offer a foundation to align business objectives with IT strategies while reducing costs and meeting requirements. Within GRC, businesses can also make better business decisions and improve performance by employing well-designed risk management protocols.

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Popular GRC risk management tools support businesses in policy management, risk evaluation, user access restriction, and compliance simplification. GRC certifications are also available, providing the advanced technical skills and knowledge to maintain systems using risk management frameworks. GRC specialists have an indispensable role as experts in keeping data and businesses safe - from intruders and from penalties.

Cloud-Specific GRC Landscape

The intersection between cloud-based operations and GRC requirements focuses heavily on ensuring that sensitive data stored in the cloud or transmitted between cloud applications remains secure.

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Meeting GRC requirements in a cloud environment means ensuring your organization has a risk mitigation strategy in place and that cloud service providers meet their relevant compliance requirements.

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To be effective in cloud risk management, organizations need to be aware of their industry compliance requirements and those related to data stored within the cloud. Then, they must identify, assess, and prioritize risk profiles while implementing risk mitigation tactics.

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Ultimately, a business must take a calculated approach to create a security plan, employ continuous monitoring for breaches, implement access controls, design a disaster recovery plan, and ensure their strategy maps to regulations and standards within their industry. Plans and strategies should be regularly reviewed and updated, including policies and procedures.

Types of Risk

To mitigate cloud computing risks, it’s vital for organizations to understand their risk profile. The threat landscape is ever-evolving, and a robust security strategy requires keen attunement to the risks in order to effectively prevent or mitigate them.

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●?????Privacy and Security: cloud apps and services may have security risks such as data breaches, unauthorized access, weak encryption and authentication, and weak storage security. Privacy vulnerabilities arise when disparate services do not have the same privacy or security levels as on-prem infrastructure, leaving sensitive data vulnerable to exposure.

●?????Operational: cloud service providers must have the infrastructure in place not only to handle large volumes of users while maintaining uptime, but to treat all of these connections and requests with discernment. In a multi-cloud environment, your organization must be able to implement tools that work together cohesively without leaving security gaps or blind spots.

●?????Service Interruption: by nature, cloud services are at risk of service interruptions due to network failures, power outages, server issues, and more. This is particularly crucial with critical infrastructure, as service interruption may create risk for citizens who rely on these utilities.

●?????Compliance: depending on the industry, organizations have a variety of compliance regulations to adhere to, particularly when it comes to data collection, transmission, and retention. Some of these compliance regulations include HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOX, and carry a threat of legal penalties and fines.

●?????Data Leakage or Loss: data stored in the cloud may be vulnerable to loss, leakage, theft, or misuse. Organizations can only do so much to protect data stored in the cloud, and a remarkable amount of trust is bestowed upon service providers to keep data safe with adequate backup and recovery systems in place.

GRC in the Cloud

In a digital-first, cloud-centric world, it’s easier than ever to conduct business without barriers. Yet with this agility come unique challenges and a growing regulatory approach to match.

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Understanding the threat and risk landscape is crucial to reaping the benefits and avoiding potential pitfalls. Learning and training modules like the CGRC Certification build organizational resilience and give technical professionals tools to add value (and peace of mind) to their business.