World Cloud Security Day is held on April 3 to help raise awareness amongst IT and security leaders about the growing threats organizations associated with remote and hybrid work and BYOD. According to a recent report, 32% of remote workers use apps or software for work that are not approved by IT and 92% of remote employees perform work tasks on their personal tablet or smartphone devices. These devices, apps and software, along with the corporate data being accessed, are not visible to IT (shadow IT), which dramatically increases an organization’s security risk.

History of World Cloud Security Day

The cloud has become a crucial backbone for most organizations. In 2020, 61% of U.S. businesses alone moved their workloads to the cloud to quickly support remote work and accessibility to corporate data.. And while the cloud provides flexibility and potential boosts to productivity, it has also introduced risk which is not easily identified. As cloud operations become more prevalent, security threats have also become more prevalent.

Threat actors continuously evolve their tactics to take advantage of remote workers who are using smartphones and tablets and the public internet to connect to the cloud. Instead of sending phishing emails to desktop computers, attackers are tailoring their social engineering campaigns using SMS text messages, social media apps, or any other apps with messaging functionalities. With countless cloud services, it has also become harder to keep tabs on the settings of each individual service as well as when to update. As a result, misconfigurations and vulnerabilities become more common, giving attackers another way to compromise an organization’s or an individual’s data in the cloud.

HOW TO CELEBRATE WORLD CLOUD SECURITY DAY

• For individuals: Evaluate the security of your digital identity

It’s important that individuals don’t assume the cloud services they use are inherently safe. They need to take action to protect their own security, privacy and identity information.

Here are three simple tips to get started:

1. 1. Limit the sensitive personal and financial information you share to apps and services.
   2. Check your account and app settings for additional security measures like two-factor authentication.
   3. Know what data may already be leaked and take proper security measures, such as monitoring your credit card activities, and changing your account passwords.

•  For organizations: Audit your organization’s cloud security posture

While the cloud makes it easier for an organization’s employees to collaborate and stay productive, those aspects can also provide security blind spots which sophisticated threat actors can leverage to exfiltrate data. As organizations deploy more cloud apps, a unified strategy and approach to protect data across these different environments should be front of mind.

Here are four questions to ask to identify if your organization could be at risk:

1. 1. Do you have visibility into the misconfigurations across your various cloud apps?
   2. Do you know the types of data you own in the cloud?
   3. Are you able to protect data regardless of its location, and can you enforce security policies consistently across this data?
   4. Do you have access controls to make smart zero-trust decisions?

All cloud solutions from GSC IT Solutions mean you enjoy constant support and peace of mind thanks to our expertise and round the clock monitoring. We prepare you for growth. Contact us today at 603-485-7100 or sales@gscitsolutions.com.