Cloud security fears linger despite high adoption

The majority of cloud users still aren't ready to trust their solutions, a new report finds.
24 July 2019

Businesses face a shortage of cloud skills. Source: Shutterstock.com

The majority of data we harvest today is stored in the cloud. As of 2019, 81 percent of businesses have a multi-cloud application in place, or are at least working towards putting the technology in place.

But while this rapid and growing adoption is positive news for the cloud computing market, underlying it remains a heavy skepticism around cloud computing security– particularly given the sensitive nature of the data stored there.

That was the underlying finding in Synopsys’ cloud security report. The study surveyed over 40,000 companies, with questions concerning their trust and issues with cloud computing. The results showed that despite advancements in the technology, security concerns haven’t dampened.

Cloud security concerns

Despite being in-application for years, the majority of cloud users are concerned their data isn’t airtight. Just over a third (37 percent) of respondents were confident in the cloud security posture of their companies.

The low level of confidence is attributed to several reasons, among them are data loss and leakage (64 percent) followed by data privacy and confidentiality (62 percent). Meanwhile, 34 percent of users aren’t confident in their systems’ compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Concerns will have risen following GDPR, with crippling fines leaving little room for error when it comes to data protection. 

Steps towards security

Despite the findings, IT heads are at least taking steps to quell concerns. More than half (51 percent) said their main approach to organizational security is through training and certifying their existing IT staff. The second priority is maximizing the use of native security tools offered by cloud services (45 percent) such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

When asked on the effectiveness of their security training program, the respondents are (somewhat) confident. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents think the training they provide helps them combat cyber risks effectively while only 20 percent showed extreme confidence when the question was asked.  

Additionally, more companies are shifting their focus towards defending their systems against malware (29 percent). Since the point-of-entry for a hacker is by planting a malware in unsuspecting systems.

There’s no doubt that cloud computing could ease workload, improve productivity and help people work more efficiently. However, concerns over just how airtight security is are making some companies shy away from committing to their investments. 

It may take some time before security issues are completely fixed, but being a man-made system, it’s far from perfect and right now, it’s in both the hands of the companies and cloud service vendors to ensure security is enough to protect sensitive data.