You depend on data to run your business. As you adopt cloud services, safeguarding all that data from growing threats is an enormous challenge. This guide will equip you with best practices to lock down cloud data security. Follow our advice, and you can securely unlock the scalability and flexibility of the cloud.
What Is Cloud Data Protection?
Cloud data protection refers to the people, processes and technologies used to secure data residing on public, private or hybrid cloud infrastructure. Its primary goals include:
- Preventing unauthorized access, theft or deletion of data
- Ensuring data remains available for reliable recovery after outages or disasters through proper backup
- Granting access permissions only to authorized personnel based on the principle of least privilege
- Shielding sensitive data like PII from unnecessary exposure to third parties
Essentially, cloud data protection aims to safeguard data throughout its full lifecycle – at rest, in transit over networks, and while being processed or used within cloud apps.
Why You Must Prioritize Cloud Data Security
As enterprises rapidly adopt cloud services, threats to data in this new frontier multiply. Consider alarming statistics like:
- Average cost of a data breach: $4.35 million
- 112 million+ sensitive records exposed just in cloud breaches in H1 2022
- 90% of companies expect to store data across multiple clouds by 2024
Source: IBM/Ponemon Institute
With data fragmented across clouds lacking native integration, you face a pivotal moment. Adopt mature safeguards now, or risk data disasters that jeopardize your business continuity.
Soaring Cyber Threats Put Cloud Data in Cross-hairs
Today’s sophisticated cyber criminals aggressively target cloud environments. Why? With limited legacy controls, cloud data offers a soft underbelly.
Common Attack Tactics
Threat actors employ proven techniques like:
- Phishing tricks users into revealing credentials to access cloud accounts
- Exploiting vulnerabilities in cloud software like Docker, Kubernetes
- Stealing misconfigured databases and storage left publicly exposed
- Infiltrating APIs and hijacking accounts with stolen keys
Breaches often happen due to fundamental security hygiene issues. You must address these while layering added defenses.
Flagrant Insider Threats
Insiders like employees and contractors pose another data security wildcard. Their authorized access empowers small-scale pilfering or large-scale data dumps.
You need visibility across fragmented infrastructure to detect abnormal data movement. Controls must align access permissions with legitimate business need.
Implement least privilege and separation of duties to limit damage from turncoats.
Compliance Obligations Multiply
Regulations like GDPR, NYDFS, PCI DSS and HIPAA levy strict safeguards and breach disclosure rules. Fines run into the millions for violations.
As governments enact privacy and localization laws, compliance complexity soars. Weaving consistent controls across global multi-cloud deployments makes adherence an ongoing struggle.
11 Essential Practices to Lock Down Cloud Data
Now that you grasp the soaring risks, here are 11 critical security practices you must implement:
1. Universal Data Encryption
Encrypting data renders it unreadable to unauthorized parties. Apply encryption broadly:
- Encrypt data at rest in cloud databases, storage and backups
- Encrypt data in transit moving over networks and between services
- Encrypt data in use within cloud applications
- Classify data types (PII, IP, finances) to set encryption rules
Choose proven standards like AES-256 rather than rolling your own. Evaluate encryption slate used across your multi-cloud footprint.
2. Least Privilege Access
Limit data access to only the personnel requiring it. This principle of least privilege compartmentalizes risk.
Integrate cloud access policies with existing identity providers like AD or SAML:
- Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for cloud administration
- Automate user provisioning/deprovisioning to apps
- Align permissions to roles and responsibilities
This seals up overexposed data sitting outside security perimeters.
3. Detect and Deter Data Theft
Data loss prevention (DLP) platforms stop unauthorized sensitive data exfiltration:
- Network DLP scans traffic to detect/block leaks
- Endpoint DLP limits upload of data to untrusted apps or sites
- Cloud access security brokers proxy traffic to sniff data in flight across clouds
Define policies tied to your classified data taxonomy (e.g. blocking financial data uploads).
4. Recover Data Quickly from Any Failure
With availability vital, properly backing up cloud data is non-negotiable:
- Store backups across multiple regions to localize impact of outages
- Replicate mission-critical data across zones within regions for redundancy
- Validate recovery procedures, retention duration and restore times routinely
Follow the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, on 2 media types (disk snapshots, tape), 1 copy offsite.
5. Anonymize Sensitive Data Sets
When migrating datasets to the cloud or sharing with partners, pseudonymize fields containing PII or financially sensitive information. Data masking inserts fake placeholder data into these attributes.
This reduces privacy violations from exposures. It still provides a realistic data shape for testing systems.
| Actual Data | Masked Data |
|---|---|
| John Smith | Test User A |
| 123 Main St, San Francisco CA | 100 Test St, Testville CA |
Look for automated tools providing irreversible, one-way masking aligned to data types.
6. Establish Continuous Security Monitoring
Inspect data access, changes and administrative activity via detailed logs. Feed them into security analytics to uncover anomalies and threats.
- Turn on native cloud logging, then centralize logs in a SIEM
- Trigger alerts on suspicious access like dormant user actions
- Designate log data as evidence in legal proceedings if needed
Analyze logs daily at minimum; advanced analytics can pinpoint risks in real-time.
7. Map Systems to Data Regulations
Data residency and sovereignty laws dictate where certain data types can be stored and processed. Non-compliance risks heavy fines.
Categorize all systems hosting regulated data like:
- PII: GDPR, CCPA, upcoming federal laws
- Financial data: PCI DSS, GLBA
- Healthcare data: HIPAA, HITECH
Map applicable laws to data types, then implement controls satisfying each.
8. Layer Added Security Services
While cloud providers offer native security controls, robust protection requires defense-in-depth combining multiple tools:
- Data & rights management to classify sensitive data
- Web application firewalls to protect cloud apps
- Microsegmentation to isolate workloads
- Antivirus, vulnerability scanning
Evaluate capabilities from AWS, Azure and GCP then fill gaps with third-party offerings.
9. Secure Data Transfers with Encryption
Encrypt data in motion to prevent snooping of traffic between cloud services over the public internet or MPLS networks:
- Mandate site-to-site VPNs for server communications
- Standardize HTTPS/SSL protocols for web apps
- Consider direct connect services for more sensitive data flows
Choose secure protocols over unencrypted channels without exceptions to avoid data leaks.
10. Catch Threats Early with Analytics
Cloud architectures generate enormous data volumes far exceeding human monitoring capabilities. Security analytics platforms running machine learning algorithms detect the subtle signals of threats buried in all that noise:
- User behavior analytics to spot abnormal access patterns
- Network traffic analysis hunting for data exfiltration
- Behavioral modeling to build baseline profiles
Deploy tools tailored to cloud scale, scope and architectures beyond traditional methods.
11. Staff Specialized Cloud Security Roles
You need in-house technical specialists focused on safeguarding cloud data. Growing areas of expertise include:
- Cloud security architects to map controls across services
- DevSecOps engineers to embed controls via Infrastructure as Code
- Data protection officers to govern sensitive data use
- SIEM analysts interpreting cloud logs and events
Engage managed security service providers to help architect and monitor defenses if lacking specialized skills internally.
The Many Benefits of Safeguarding Your Cloud Data
Investing in robust cloud data protection delivers immense upside beyond just risk reduction, including:
Maximized Service Availability
With data strongly secured and backed up, cloud application availability reaches new heights. Secure platforms minimize outages from breaches, misconfigurations or denial-of-service attacks.
Trustworthy Data Integrity
Data remains accurate and reliable when properly shielded from unauthorized changes throughout its lifecycle via encryption and access controls. Checks ensure it‘s untampered through processing and analytics.
Enhanced Consumer Privacy and Loyalty
Stringent safeguards around personal and regulated data strengthen consumer trust and loyalty. Adhering to global data residency laws preserves that confidence across your operating geographies.
Airtight Regulatory Compliance
Mature data protections ensure you stay compliant with expanding industry and geography-specific mandates. This reduces audit failures and steep fines while enabling safe global data flows.
Formidable obstacles exist on the road to bulletproof cloud security. Be ready to tackle challenges like:
Escalating Sophistication of Cyber Attacks
Well-funded attackers have the cloud firmly in their crosshairs. They exploit gaps with social engineering, custom malware and credential theft. Defending ever-expanding perimeters demands skilled staff and ceaseless vigilance.
Visibility Gaps Across Fragmented Multi-Cloud
With infrastructure and data scattered across hybrid cloud environments, major blind spots emerge. Failing to monitor that entire fluid attack surface enables threats to slip through cracks.
In shared security models, responsibilities between cloud providers and customers are muddled. Both tend to offload risk to the other, leaving accountability voids. Explicitly establish data protection ownership to close gaps.
Ballooning Regulatory Compliance Obligations
From GDPR to SOC 2 to industry regulations, complying with expanding government and industry cloud security mandates requires immense investment. Consistently applying policies across global multi-cloud landscapes remains a work in progress.
Cutting-Edge Cloud Data Protection Technologies
Innovative technologies promise to tackle cloud security challenges:
AI and Machine Learning Algorithms
Artificial intelligence and machine learning models detect threats and anomalies that evade rules-based security tools. By automatically responding to risks in real-time, they augment human capability.
Zero Trust and Microsegmentation
Zero trust architecture shrinks attack surfaces by granting least privilege access controls. Microsegmentation logically isolates cloud workloads and data stores to limit lateral movement.
Infrastructure as Code Automation
Automating cloud infrastructure deployment and security policy enforcement via code minimizes risks of manual misconfigurations. Self-healing scripts can auto-remediate drift.
Homomorphic Encryption
Homomorphic encryption permits computation directly on encrypted data without decrypting it first. This pathbreaking technique allows mining insights from data while preventing exposure.
Choosing the Right Cloud Providers
Not all cloud platforms are equal when it comes to baked-in security. Across your multi-cloud footprint, assess providers on criteria like:
- Breadth of native security tools offered
- Depth of third-party security integrations
- Maturity of access controls and identity management
- Contractual commitments like SLAs guaranteeing application availability
- Speed and capabilities responding to support requests
Prioritize working with providers aligned to your compliance obligations and delivering robust data protections fitting your risk profile.
You can also leverage multi-cloud management platforms to connect tools and controls across heterogeneous environments.
The Bottom Line on Cloud Data Protection
As you entrust critical data to public cloud platforms, threats old and new will target these assets. Adopt layered security strategies tailored to the unique attributes of cloud while aligning to your risk appetite.
Treat cloud data protection as an adaptive journey, not a one-time project. Commit to continuous improvement as methods mature. With resilient defenses in place, you can fully leverage the convenience of cloud while sleeping soundly through the night.
