Safety in the Cloud

Take-Aways

• Companies can’t keep up with the ever-changing cyberattack methods, but cloud security can aggregate data to pinpoint abnormal or malicious activity.
• The goals of cloud-based security include fast hacker detection and recognition of real user behavior versus cyberattack behavior.
• Changing from an in-house IT system to cybersecurity in the cloud is no small task, but the ultimate benefits of time, money and increased security far outweigh any potential risks.
• Businesses that are first to embrace cloud-based cybersecurity will have an advantage in the marketplace.

Companies today have seen hackers steal corporate secrets and customer details. Even though digital privacy and safety become more important to a global economy, many businesses hesitate to trust cloud-based cybersecurity. Cloud-based security represents a paradigm shift from defensive measures like firewalls toward a sharing-based system that monitors both the criminal and the customer to protect against future attacks with greater agility at a fraction of the cost. Data about the behavior of those who legitimately interact with a company allow conclusions about malicious interactions.

Platforms such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft’s Azure are prime examples of the kind of security defense and offense that advanced cloud-based security can offer. The collective computing power and data collection of the cloud allow for increased detection of hacker activity and virtual crowdsourcing of solutions to any malware or breach.

“If your company followed this [cloud-based] approach, you would monitor attacks through sophisticated pattern recognition, deflect them through the use of digital decoys and learn from any attacks that did occur, in order to better prevent future threats.”

Information from all aspects of an organization is necessary to optimize the effectiveness of a cloud-based security system. The more data the cloud can analyze, the more attacks it can identify by recognizing activity that doesn’t match normal behavior by employees, vendors or customers. It can quickly recognize where hackers breached a system, and – since cybercrime is a shared concern among businesses – all companies connected to cloud security benefit from “authentication and analytics from multiple sources.”

“Another primary goal is to identify and understand the people you should be engaging with (customers, suppliers, partners) and distinguish them from the people out to do you harm.”

A company that uses an IT security system on the premises is constantly fighting an expensive, uphill battle against new cyberthreats. The shift to a data-based, cloud-based security system can save fortunes otherwise spent on new hardware, software and IT workers. Concerned business leaders can gradually and systematically send their systems to the cloud as they become more confident in its benefits.

The reality is that cloud-based cybersecurity will soon be commonplace for businesses. Companies that adapt and adopt the new security systems can offer customers something the competition can’t.