Increase in Cloud Complexity 

In recent years, cloud adoption among organizations has multiplied, and so has the complexity of these cloud services. According to Thales 2022 Cloud Security Report, multi-cloud adoption has accelerated in 2022, with over 72% of organizations using multiple laaS providers, rising by 15% from the previous year. While a multi-cloud environment allows organizations to take full advantage of the particular benefits different cloud environments have to offer, it also adds another layer of complexity to the cloud infrastructure. This increase in cloud complexity brings an even greater need for robust cybersecurity solutions– and it seems the bulk of IT professionals would agree. In a study by Checkpoint, 57% of surveyed organizations reported they have found it challenging to protect their data in multi-cloud environments, as built-in policies and regulations make cohesive protection challenging to attain and as complex cloud environments make a consistent security strategy hard to maintain. 

Cloud Incidents on the Rise

Cyber-attacks continue to present an ongoing risk to cloud environments as cloud incidents rise. In 2021 alone, 40% of surveyed organizational participants reported having experienced a cloud-based data breach. In the same recent study by Thales, participants reported an increase in the number of cloud attacks, with 26% reporting an increase in malware attacks, 25% in ransomware, and 19% in phishing attacks. To make matters worse, 66% of participants also revealed storing between 21-60% of their sensitive data in their cloud environments. 

Who’s Responsible? 

Cloud offerings come in three different forms. The responsibility of cloud security rests on different shoulders within an organization, depending on the cloud offering. However, in general, cloud security is a shared responsibility between the organization and the vendor of the cloud offering. Below we have broken down the responsibilities in greater detail depending on the type.

Public Cloud: Cloud services such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are defined as public clouds. Public clouds are hosted in a specific region and provide infrastructure and services over the public internet. In these public cloud environments, the cloud vendor is the owner of the physical network, infrastructure, and hypervisor. In this case, the customer still controls the virtual network, apps, workload OS, and the access granted to their environment and data. 

Private Cloud: With private cloud, the individual organizations are responsible for every aspect and layer of their security as it is hosted and managed by the organization. This includes their physical network, firewalls, virtual network, entire infrastructure, and more. 

SaaS: SaaS, also known as Software-as-a-Service, are vendors whose primary responsibility lies in managing their platform and its security. In this case, vendors do not own the organization’s data or take responsibility for how an organization chooses to use its platform. Therefore, the organization is responsible for mitigating the risks of a breach.

Mitigating Risks with MSPs

The numbers at the beginning of this article make it clear that the growth of cloud complexity and the rate of cloud incidents occurring is a significant challenge that needs to be addressed by every organization using a cloud environment. The simple truth is that, when it comes to securing their cloud environments, most organizations don’t possess the experience and expertise to accomplish this independently, especially as complex multi-cloud environments become more prevalent. A good Managed Service Provider, or MSP, will have the knowledge and hands-on experience necessary to tackle these challenges. Even if an organization possesses the team and the tools to secure its on-prem environment, these practices are not transferable to securing its cloud. For the complete identification and remediation of risks across organizations’ cloud infrastructures, Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) services are recommended. CSPM automates both the identification and remediation of cyber-risks within cloud environments while providing risk assessment, compliance monitoring, DevOps, regular audits of compliance mandates, and scanning storage buckets for misconfigurations that leave data vulnerable. 

AgileBlue’s Cloud Monitoring and CSPM

AgileBlue’s Cloud Monitoring provides complete visibility into an organization’s digital infrastructure and cloud monitoring to mitigate cyber threats before they lead to a significant cyber incident or a data breach.

AgileBlue’s Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) provides discovery and visibility into cloud infrastructure assets and security configurations, allowing organizations to access a single source of truth across multi-cloud environments and accounts. Our CSPM eliminates security risks and accelerates the delivery process so violations can be identified and remediated in real time. The best part? By centralizing controls, AgileBlue helps reduce overhead expenses and eliminates friction and complexity across multi-cloud providers and accounts. 

If you’re interested in taking a more confident stance on your organization’s cloud security, we’d love to help. Please provide information about yourself to request a demo using the form below. A member of our team will reach out promptly.