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CLOUD COMPUTING
By David Linthicum, InfoWorld |
JUN 25, 2019

Fix your cloud security

Cloud security technology is the best it’s ever been, yet enterprises still don't live up to
expectations

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3404330/fix-your-cloud-security.html[06/26/2019 10:29:01 AM]

Fix your cloud security | InfoWorld

Getty Images

I found some interesting statistics in this RedLock article that illustrate the
severity of the cloud security problem:

Only 7 percent of businesses have good visibility of all critical data,

and 58 percent say they only have slight visibility. (ForcePoint)

Vulnerabilities: 24 percent of organizations have hosts missing high-

severity patches in the public cloud. (RedLock)

More than three-fourths of security breaches (80%) involve privileged

credentials. (Forrester)

Almost half (49 percent) of databases are not encrypted. (RedLock)

[ What is cloud computing? Everything you need to know now. | Also:

InfoWorld helps you identify the right tools for the job: AWS cloud services
guide. • Microsoft Azure services guide. • Google Cloud Platform services
guide. • IBM Cloud services guide. ]

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3404330/fix-your-cloud-security.html[06/26/2019 10:29:01 AM]

Fix your cloud security | InfoWorld

It’s pretty depressing, considering that we have technology to solve each of

these problems. What’s happening?

Enterprises are either not willing to use the right technology, or they don’t
understand that the technology exists. It’s not that the database is
unencrypted, it’s that nobody has any idea how to turn on encryption in flight
or at rest.

Also at fault are the “it was not on-premises” folks out there. They cling to the
fact that since some security feature was not a part of the original on-
premises system, it shouldn’t be needed in the cloud.

The time to deal with security issues is when you move from on-premises to
the public cloud. You need to spend at least a couple of weeks looking at
identity access management, encryption, auditing, proactive security, and
more, and then evaluating its viability to your enterprise. Otherwise, you could
miss the cloud security boat as you make the migration. 

In my opinion, this is the single most important step in migration. It allows you
to reflect on what your security needs really are and how to solve them using
cloud computing technology which, these days, is better than anything you
can find on-premises. 

This is also a good time to upgrade your personnel skills. Although some
existing security admins can be retrained in cloud-based security, others
can’t. Now is the time to drop the hammer on what’s needed, either by
retraining or replacement. They’re tough decisions, but the alternative is more
unpleasant.

It’s not an excessive amount of work to assure optimal cloud computing

security. I understand this is a new world for most of us, but it’s worth the time
to do things right up front.

Related: Cloud Computing

Cloud Security

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3404330/fix-your-cloud-security.html[06/26/2019 10:29:01 AM]

Fix your cloud security | InfoWorld

David S. Linthicum is a chief cloud strategy officer at Deloitte Consulting, and an

internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader. His views are his own.

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https://www.infoworld.com/article/3404330/fix-your-cloud-security.html[06/26/2019 10:29:01 AM]