When public cloud security concerns persist, companies look to encryption

Dive Brief:

The rise of the cloud has changed how enterprises defend the cybersecurity perimeter, according to a Bitdefender survey of more than 1,000 IT security professionals working in large enterprises in the U.S. and Europe. More than half of those surveyed say migrating to the cloud has drastically increased the size of the security border companies have to defend.
More than 70% of companies are employing hybrid clouds, but security concerns about the public cloud remain, according to the report. Though 80% of those surveyed say encryption is the most effective way to store securely in the cloud, only one in six encrypt all data stored in the public cloud. On average, most companies encrypt between 31% and 60% of data stored in the public cloud.
Companies avoid storing their most sensitive information on the public cloud, such as data about competition, new products, backups or intellectual property, according to the report. Instead, organizations mostly store client, product and financial information in the public cloud.

Dive Insight:

Experts have expressed concern over the security of cloud storage since the advent of the technology, but their fears are not founded on paranoia alone. Over time, security incidents have grown larger as more information on the internet is exploited and exposed.

The cloud itself is not necessarily the center of the security incidents; human error is blamed time and again. Take the recent Verizon data leak, for example. A third-party contractor was blamed for compromising the information of 14 million customers after incorrectly configuring information stored in the cloud for external access.

Though trust in the cloud has waned, companies are still rapidly adopting the public cloud, often taking a hybrid approach. 85% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy in place and private cloud adoption has decreased, according to a February RightScale survey.

A lot of the responsibility for cloud security falls on vendors, which are working to integrate advanced technologies into products to help customers respond to cybersecurity incidents. Last week, both Google and Microsoft unveiled additional cloud security measures targeting user cloud visibility and confidential computing, respectively.