Spike in Cloud data breaches

It is like every day there’s a new incident of data breach happening in every corner of the world. There are several avenues by which this breach occurs. The cloud makes access simple and enables forward-thinking approaches such as remote working. Yet this accessibility may leave the cloud vulnerable to data security breaches.

There is an increase in cloud and especially multi-cloud adoption remains on the rise, 37% of respondents from India have experienced a cloud-based data breach or failed audit in the past 12 months, up from the previous year that was 33%. A survey says, multi-cloud adoption is accelerating with 72% of organizations using multiple Infrastructure as a service provider vs. 57% in 2021 and there are 46% of organizations in India that store 21%-60% of their sensitive data in the cloud.

In 2021, organisations worldwide were using an average amount of 110 SaaS applications, compared with just eight in 2015, showcasing a startlingly rapid increase. There has been a notable expansion in the use of multiple Infrastructure as a service provider, with almost three-quarters or 72% of businesses globally using multiple IaaS providers, up from 57% the year before.

Despite their increasing prevalence and use, businesses share common concerns about the increasing complexity of cloud services with 40% of IT professionals from India agreeing that it is more complex to manage privacy and data protection in the cloud.

Additionally, the journey to the cloud is also becoming more complex, with the percentage of respondents reporting that they’re expecting to lift and shift, the simplest of migration tactics, dropping from 55% in 2021 to 24% currently. It is important for organisations to constantly adapt to this rapidly changing environment and stay on top of the evolving trends of the industry.

There are growing concerns on the Security Challenges of Multi-cloud Complexity. With increasing complexity, comes an even greater need for robust cybersecurity. When asked what percentage of their sensitive data is stored in the cloud, 46% of respondents in India said between 21-60%. Cyber-attacks also present an ongoing risk to cloud applications and data.

Respondents around the globe reported an increasing prevalence of attacks, with a quarter or 26% citing an increase in malware, 25% in ransomware and one-fifth i.e., 19% reporting seeing an increase in phishing or whaling. Now the challenge is how to protect sensitive data?

When it comes to securing data in multi-cloud environments, IT professionals from India view encryption as a critical security control. 65% of respondents cited encryption and 56% stated key management as the security technologies they currently use to protect sensitive data in the cloud. Encryption should be a priority area for enterprises to focus on when it comes to securing data in the cloud.

Additionally, it is encouraging to see signs of enterprises embracing Zero Trust and investing accordingly. Almost a third of respondents in India, say 31%, said they are already executing a Zero Trust strategy, 29% said that they are evaluating and planning one and, 20% said they are considering it. This is a positive result, but there is certainly still room to grow.

The journey to the cloud is also becoming more complex. Businesses are still learning and adapting to the security challenges of operating in the multi-cloud ecosystem. It is important for organizations to constantly adapt to this rapidly changing environment and stay on top of the evolving trends of the industry.