Controlling and Monitoring Access to Sensitive Data in the Cloud Posted on : Aug 18 - 2018

As enterprises plan their digital transformations, many organizations choose to move their business information to the cloud in an attempt to save both time and money. According to a 2017 Intel Security survey, over 60% of companies use the cloud for storing sensitive customer information. Looking at these impressive numbers, it becomes obvious that access to sensitive data in the cloud needs to be properly controlled and monitored. It’s the only way you can ensure sensitive data protection and comply with regulatory requirements. However, ensuring an on-premise level security in the cloud environment can be quite a challenge.

So, what are the risks of not monitoring access to sensitive data in the cloud and what can be done to ensure a better level of control? We talk about it in the next section.

Key problems of poor cloud access management

Even though the definition of sensitive information may vary from an organization to organization, the key requirements for cloud data security and governance are pretty common. Your company’s data must be constantly available while being well-protected and secured at the same time. The main problem is that many organizations don’t monitor their sensitive data security properly.

The lack of control poses a serious threat to a company’s cybersecurity. Thus, ensuring a high level of cloud computing sensitive data protection is essential. Here are the main risks posed by a poor monitoring and control of cloud information access:

You don’t know where your sensitive data is. When stored in the cloud, the information can be physically located almost anywhere in the world. The main problem created by this cloud computing peculiarity is that some types of sensitive information are subjected to strict data residency and compliance regulations.

You don’t know who can access that data. It’s not only your top-management and IT department staff that can access your data. Cloud provider employees and third-party actors may also be able to access your company’s critical information. Your task is to make sure that any third-party users won’t get access to the information they’re not supposed to have access to.

You don’t know if your data has been changed. Without an advanced monitoring and auditing system, you can miss the moment some of your company’s sensitive information was changed, deleted, or moved to a different location. This can result in devastating data breaches as well as serious compliance and regulation violations.

It’s also important to work with trustworthy cloud service providers (CSPs). When choosing a CSP, pay special attention not only to their reputation but also to their flexibility and the variety of security tools and solutions they can offer. View More