What is Cloud Data Security?

Here are some of the main reasons why cloud data security is important in business environments.

Data loss prevention (DLP)

Cloud data security involves reducing unwanted data disclosures, analyzing incoming traffic for signs of security events, and integrating practices that prioritize the security posture of your organization. By following data security best practices across areas such as identity and access management and network security, enterprises can help protect their cloud data and promote data loss prevention.

Regulatory compliance

There are a number of international data laws that mandate strong data protection, including in cloud environments. Regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) help protect the customer’s right to privacy, mandating that organizations protect personally identifiable information (PII) with strict controls.

Other industry-specific regulations, such as HIPAA and PCI-DSS, also require organizations to comply with a strict set of criteria to meet cloud data storage and protection standards.

Reduces unauthorized access

Cloud data security practices help to protect all cloud surfaces and assets from unauthorized access. By protecting your organization from unauthorized access, you reduce unwanted data disclosure, helping ensure that sensitive data remains accessible only to the authorized set of users.

Data privacy and consumer trust

Enforcing and upholding high standards for cloud data security also promotes customer confidence and trust. By continually protecting customer data stored in your organizational cloud, you can improve your reputation and help mitigate negative brand sentiment associated with inadvertent data disclosure or the misuse of private data.

Here are some of the most prevalent cloud data security solutions and techniques that help keep data in cloud systems safe.

Virtual private networks (VPNs)

Virtual private networks offer organisations the ability to create more secure pathways for data transfer between two locations. VPNs help protect data in transit by implementing an additional layer of security in encrypted communications. Cloud providers offer cloud-native VPN structures that you can configure to meet your specific needs.

Identity and access management (IAM)

Identity and access management (IAM) enables you to define who has access to specific data, the level of privilege required to interact with data, and the visibility of data storage systems. 

Cloud IAM, such as AWS Identity and Access Management, provides tools such as multi-factor authentication and role-based access controls to manage user access and apply a granular level of information protection. IAM helps protect unauthorized access to data across your cloud data structures.

Encryption policies

Encryption is essential to managing the security of data, both at rest and in transit. Encrypting data according to leading standards such as AES-256 and TLS helps protect sensitive data from unauthorized parties. Include data encryption standards in your cloud data security framework as a baseline security measure.

Data controls

Data controls are technical and policy-based configurations that organizations adopt to maintain governance over data. For instance, logging and tracing controls can help show the flow of data throughout a system, IAM controls can examine who is accessing which files, and data residency controls can restrict all cloud data to a particular region.

Data residency

Data residency management, which refers to the geographical location where you store data, is a regulatory requirement for many prominent data protection frameworks. Leading cloud providers offer you the ability to select where you store data. Depending on your organization, industry, residency, and the data protection frameworks you follow, you can opt for single-region retention or multi-region storage.

Private cloud

Switching to a private cloud environment, where your organization has complete control over a dedicated cloud storage solution, can be a practical choice to enhance security in specific high-sensitivity environments. Owning a private cloud as a single tenant provides your organization with control over the hardware you use and your network configuration, minimizing any risks associated with shared data architecture.

Backups

Your business should ensure that it has a detailed automated backup process, which helps to preserve data integrity in the event of unexpected data loss or corruption. Many leading cloud providers offer integrated backup services, which you can use and configure in your disaster recovery planning process. Beyond establishing a backup and recovery process, your enterprise should also regularly test these environments for avoidable faults or errors.

Automatic deletion

A core part of many data protection compliance frameworks mandates that organizations cannot store user data permanently. Due to this requirement, you must implement automatic data deletion rules to remove any expired data or information that is no longer pertinent to your system. 

Removing old data can also help enhance your cloud data storage security posture, as it reduces any unnecessary data exposure. Equally, in cloud environments, automatic deletion policies also help to manage and reduce data storage costs.