Cybersecurity makes all the difference when working with the rapidly proliferating cloud technology organizations increasingly rely on throughout the world. Computing and network assets are gradually migrating to remotely-hosted deployments in popular consumer spaces, and browser-based user interfaces (UI) are being adopted at growing rates. Yet this aspect of digital transformation is moving faster than the ability of traditional IT processes to protect against new vulnerabilities that appear, or that of users to adjust to their role in the modern attack surface.
Cloud security has escalated the need for good education and expertise in endpoint protection, but above all, it has raised the demand for dynamic human intelligence. Hackers have proven that they can exploit conventional automated solutions like antivirus software by taking advantage of the gaps in code and with enough persistence. Defending your hosted environment against attacks requires dedicated monitoring and stewardship available in real-time for your critical data assets that can be exposed in the event of a breach.
Here are the top ways that human-driven cybersecurity makes a difference in the cloud:
Cloud Security Requires More Just Antivirus
Automation delivers incredible value for consolidating or outright eliminating manual tasks, but if there is any downside, it is that the technology still needs human input for improvement. Antivirus software can perform functions and hunt down malware faster and with more precision than any human, but can only do as much as it is programmed to. Hackers are using their own tools to get ahead of patch updates, and to exploit the areas where your firewalls cannot protect your users completely – human error.
Hosting in the Cloud Has Enabled Work from Home in the Pandemic
COVID-19 social distancing made the value of cloud networks readily apparent, and the spread of this technology allowed business continuity plans to be leveraged at an unprecedented scale. Unfortunately, many traditional IT resource deployments have still not been fully adapted to the reality of hosted infrastructures. As the business world sees increasing benefits from working from home, future strategies must include cloud security as a top priority for the distributed workforce.
Remote Work Is the Future but Will Stretch IT Resources
In the immediate and far-off futures, many companies will continue to operate with a significant enough portion of staff working remotely to make it a cybersecurity item. Many in-house IT departments will be stretched past the breaking point trying to monitor all the external access points in their network, and even outsourced managed service providers (MSP) will come up short without the right level of expertise and endpoint protection. You will need experienced cyber veterans familiar with hacker footprints to quickly and decisively deal with potential data breaches.
Legacy Technology is Not Built for Digital Transformation
Legacy software and hardware still often occupy a space in both business and consumer networks, and this creates gaps in cloud security where the technology designs clash. ERP rushed into SaaS development are a great example of the vulnerabilities that can slip through the cracks, but what can also be overlooked are all of the personal devices with access to your critical data that are not updated for the latest cyber threats. Without consistent monitoring for these weaknesses, your remote connections can be breached too discreetly to cause alarm until it is too late.
The Role of Cloud Service Providers
As the case with Capital One’s data breach illustrated, enterprise cloud service providers (CSPs) like Amazon Web Services (AWS) place the responsibility of user security strictly on the customer. For midmarket and SMB hosting services, your business has to contend with this and the fact that you will be at the mercy of their uptime performance. If you migrate to a digital infrastructure with a CSP that does not have both a good record and a stated commitment to cybersecurity, then the protection of your data hosted online will be entirely reliant on you and your team.
Human Cybersecurity Intelligence Provides Dynamic Protection
The social engineering deployed by hackers relies on many of the same principles as traditional espionage, and your cloud security should be able to match this thinking in practice. Human cyber intelligence coupled with deep experience can uncover and react to threats in real-time, the same maximum speed the cloud operates at. This give you much more flexibility to leverage your IT resources and data delivered through hosted connections, and defend any overlooked backdoors within your network.
Leveraging SOC as a Service
A security operations center (SOC) is a fully-staffed cyber intelligence and network monitoring unit dedicated first and foremost to proactive cybersecurity and incident response. Engaging a SOC as a service allows you to implement cyber defense at the operational level and deploy practical, technology-agnostic information security strategies across your software and IT stack. Being able to leverage a team of expert analysts and professionals for protecting your hosted infrastructure ensures that your business can cybersecure your communications down to the user level and mitigate external exposure.
The Benefits of Cybersecurity for Cloud-hosted Data
Whether you are aware or not, your data likely is exposed to a cloud endpoint – your smartphones, your Microsoft 365 apps, the websites you visit and more are either designed or being modified for SaaS connectivity. The only way to protect your system as well as ensure regulatory compliance for consumer privacy is to deploy cybersecurity that can handle modern network demands. Armed with the right solution, you will be able to take full advantage of the steady migration to cloud-hosted digital resources and position your business for maximum ROI on your software.
Leverage the Smart SOC with Secure Cloud Hosting
Secure Cloud Hosting by SWK Technologies allows you to implement a military-grade “Smart” SOC for your mission-critical business applications and network. With active IT support and endpoint protection delivered through our Managed Cloud Services division, you will be able to enjoy the true benefits of your technology stack while keeping your data cybersecure.
Contact us today to learn more about implementing cybersecurity with your cloud-hosted environment.
