Cloud Security Concerns Among Small and Medium Businesses

Almost two-thirds of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) believe that cloud platforms could do more to protect their data in the cloud, according to a new report from a cybersecurity firm IS Decisions.

The Adoption of The Cloud Raises Some Security Concern

Since moving their data to the cloud, 29% of SMBs said they have suffered a breach of files or folders. Almost a third (31%) said that detecting unauthorized access has become a much harder task, and 22% revealed that hackers have gained external access using an employee’s login credentials.

The new report from IS Decisions, “Under a cloud of suspicion”, is based on research with 300 heads of security in small- to medium-sized businesses across the UK, US and France who are using Dropbox for Business, Google Drive, Box and Microsoft OneDrive. It looks at perceptions of cloud storage security and how these perceptions are driving data-related security decisions.

According to that same report, only 52% of SMBs actively monitor sensitive files for unauthorized access, while the rest only do so either on an ad hoc basis or after a breach has occurred — or sometimes, not at all. Furthermore, while many SMBs are managing a hybrid-approach whereby they use a combination of on-premises and cloud storage, 56% of those surveyed say that it’s difficult to manage the security of data living in these hybrid infrastructures.

What Can You Do About It?

IS Decisions founder and CEO François Amigorena said: “There’s no doubt that the cloud has considerably enhanced the way that SMBs do business. But businesses who have moved to the cloud for storage are finding it harder to detect unauthorized access to company files and folders. The ease of sharing data among teams and simple integrations their storage can have with other cloud applications significantly increases the prospect of unauthorised access. Without the right access controls in place, the risk of employee credentials being misused or stolen makes detecting unauthorised access even harder.”

“The last thing any business wants is to suffer a breach of data. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger and more efficient way to ensure that data in the cloud remains safe.”

Visibility is key.

If you want to ensure your data is secured, you need to be able to track, audit and alert on all access to files and folders. By having a solution in place that provides a consistent and unique view of the security of your data across all your storage servers — whether on-premises or on a third-party cloud system — you’ll be the first to know if someone other than an authorized employee attempts to access your data, and therefore, you’ll be able to do something about it.