As more and more of you drive to cloud-based applications and infrastructure because you are experiencing the pressures from management who seem to buy every single bit of hype generated by the press, it becomes clear where the biggest concerns arise. Namely security.
A recent article in BusinessCloud.com titled “Security Concerns Still High In The Cloud – Times Three!” ended with the summary of “All in all, it’s just not getting much better out there in the Cloud….” The article cites a number of surveys and statistics to prove thier point:
“According to the 2012 Global State of Information Security Survey by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, some 25% of business leaders globally reckon that Cloud technologies expose them to additional vulnerabilities.
More than four out of ten respondents report that their organisation uses Cloud Computing – 69% for software-as-a-service (SaaS) , 47% for infrastructure-as-a-service (iaaS) and 33% for platform-as-a-service (PaaS).
Meanwhile according to Ernst & Young’s 14th annual Global Information Security Survey, Cloud Computing is the top security funding priority for the next year with 61% of 1700 respondents using or considering the use of Cloud Computing services within the next year.
Almost half (48%) of respondents listed Cloud implementation as a difficult or very difficult challenge, and more than half have not implemented any controls to mitigate the risks associated with Cloud Computing.”
Check out the chapter on Least Privilege in the cloud in “Preventing Good People From Doing Bad Things” for what you can do to help cloud security for your next project.
