Research commissioned by Qualys and conducted by Dark Reading shines a light on the way information security professionals are struggling with the difficulties of safeguarding cloud and SaaS assets, including measuring, communicating and eliminating cyber-risks in the cloud.
According to the recent study data, almost 20% of professionals are experiencing serious challenges when it comes to system maintenance and fortification. Key findings from the research highlight these difficulties:
Cloud adoption is ubiquitous and complex: Most organisations polled (57%) use two to three cloud service providers, and 58% have at least five corporate-wide SaaS applications deployed. To secure this complex environment, the majority (60%) must manage and reconcile outputs from two or more separate cloud and SaaS security tools – a task they find challenging and suboptimal.
Sleepless nights: Professional defenders singled out cost (54%), system reliability and performance (36%), and limited cloud-specific security staff skills (27%) as the cloud and SaaS issues that concerned them the most.
Attacks are relentless: Moving data and applications to the cloud and adopting SaaS come with a whole set of risks. Enterprises are worried about threats such as account hijacking, phishing, ransomware and malware, data exfiltration, advanced persistent threats, and distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Configuration chaos: One place just about all parties find common ground when assessing cloud and SaaS risk is in the thorny issue of misconfigurations – one of the top concerns for both cloud (24%) and SaaS (33%).
Situational blindness: Few enterprises engage in ongoing or continuous assessment of their cloud and SaaS environments. The rest do security assessments at intervals that range largely from once a quarter (18% for cloud, 11% for SaaS) to once a year (25% cloud, 26% SaaS), and in some cases not at all.
Difficulty patching: Enterprises are also concerned about adversaries exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities in web applications (39%) and cloud environments (23%). Almost one in five say they have difficulty applying security updates and patches, creating a situation where organisations are exposed to attack as a result of exploitable vulnerabilities.
Sluggish response: Topping the list of IR concerns are a lack of skilled workers (49%), limited visibility into cloud and hosted environments (46%), and the inherent complexity of cloud-centric incidents (46%).
“The data shows in stark relief, the real-world challenges defenders face when it comes to shoehorning traditional security practices and methods – things like managing configs and vulnerabilities, controlling access, and corralling siloed security tools – into the defences of dynamic multi-cloud and multi-SaaS environments,” said Shilpa Gite, Senior Manager, Cloud Security Compliance, Qualys.
To boost their security posture, organisations should consider:
Implementing continuous monitoring and assessment: Continuous assessment helps in promptly detecting vulnerabilities
Adopting a unified security platform: A unified platform provides comprehensive visibility, streamlined security operations and consistent policy enforcement
Enhancing identity and access management (IAM): Proper IAM practices are essential for securing access to sensitive data and systems
Leveraging automation for security processes: Automating security processes improve operational efficiency and reduces risk of human error
Investing in advanced threat detection and response capabilities: Combats sophisticated threats such as advanced persistent threats (APTs), ransomware and next-gen malware
