In A Post-Pandemic Cloud-Based World, What Will Cybersecurity Look Like?
It’s been almost five months since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Over the last few months, the pandemic forced businesses to shut down and battered the global economy.
The growth of remote-based work has brought in new security challenges that need urgent answers. Businesses are concerned about securing their remote workforce and are looking for robust solutions to authenticate users and individual devices.
According to a recent report by Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybersecurity spending is estimated to reach almost $1 trillion by 2021. This signals the importance that organizations have put on cyber risk management as digitization has an impact on many areas of business.
The Effect Of Covid-19 On Cloud Computing
Cloud computing, which is praised for its reliability, flexibility, and security, has emerged as one of the few working solutions for businesses during this pandemic. It’s being extensively used by businesses to manage operations and provide continued service to consumers. That said, a lot of organizations aren’t able to harness the full potential of cloud computing, primarily because they aren’t sure about the use and application of it.
There are a lot of cloud service providers (CSP) to choose from and this leaves businesses baffled. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) are the three core options to choose from. After, you’ll need to choose the right architectural model: private cloud, public cloud, or a hybrid cloud.
To make the right decision, businesses need to consider the following:
- A fully cloud-based service allows you greater control and ensures streamlined operations between teams. This leads to less redundancy and higher efficiency
- Different CSPs offer different service plans, thus leading to different outcomes based on your choice. For instance, private clouds may not be consistent with public clouds
- The security levels will also differ based on the selection. Hybrid cloud solutions will have different security protocols as compared to on-premise cloud solutions
Planning Ahead: Three Approaches
To adapt to these changing times, it’s important to define a roadmap and plan for the future. Every business should ideally consider a three-step-framework to validate which cloud-based and cybersecurity solutions best fit their needs.
Risk-Based Assessment
You should consider the data-centric view before deciding to migrate the workforce and operations to the cloud. Take note of these aspects and choose a solution that addresses your core business needs.
First, you’ll need to understand which data and how much data you want to migrate to the cloud. Additionally, you’ll need to assess the software, applications, tools, and databases that’ll be used to host and process your business datasets. You’ll also need to consider the regulatory requirements of international data.
Next, you must assess the security and privacy policies of the cloud service provider and its impact on the services. You must validate the encryption used and the flow of data between applications to finally reach the end-users. Based on the assessment, you can calculate the risk of migrating the data and implement the necessary measures.
Responsibility-Based Analysis
While most of the set up will be handled and managed by the CSP, the accountability of the end user’s data remains with the business. You’ll need to run a responsibility-based analysis to identify all security and risk management roles that’ll be shared between the service provider and yourself. Detailed service responsibility is the best option to choose from.
You’ll want to ensure that security measures are in place before you start migrating your business data to the cloud. You must consolidate a list of all data sets that you’ll need to provide to the service provider. It should also include security policies, baselines, tools, and technologies that’ll be put in place.
You’ll also need to map the data sets to each function and analyze the potential threats and risks. Then, map the security responsibilities in accordance with your business and the CSP. Individual responsibilities should be documented and mutually agreed upon before you migrate to the cloud.
Defining Clear Contracts
The agreement between the CSP and your business should be transparent and clear when it comes to the security and auditability of each measure in the cloud. Although there are many ways to address this, the best option is to define and agree on a broad Service Level Agreement (SLA) based on your business needs and security requirements.
The final contract should indicate SLAs on user monitoring, access management, incident reporting, backups, auditing, availability, and scalability. Once these are agreed upon, you’ll receive actionable metrics to better manage and implement cloud solutions for your business.
Bottom Line
With these changing times, it’s important for businesses to adapt. As more and more businesses digitally transform and move their businesses online, the risk of cyber-attacks will increase significantly. To mitigate this, create a roadmap, run a cybersecurity risk assessment, and scrutinize the security measures offered by the CSP before you migrate to the cloud.
