Intelligent CISO Issue 54 | Page 63

Report finds cloud more complex to manage than on-prem

Cyberattacks also present an ongoing risk to cloud applications and data . Respondents reported an increasing prevalence of attacks , with almost half ( 45 %) citing an increase in ransomware , 43 % in malware and 40 % in phishing / whaling .
Protecting sensitive data
report from Thales reveals Australian businesses find cloud

A privacy and data protection more complex to manage than on-prem .

Over half of Australian businesses ( 53 %) believe cloud privacy and data protection is more challenging to manage than on-premises . Yet , according to the 2022 Thales Cloud Security Report conducted by 451 Research , part of S & P Global Market Intelligence , increasingly complex cloud environments are on the rise .
Globally , cloud adoption and notably multi-cloud adoption , continues to rise . There has been an expansion in the use of multiple IaaS providers , with almost three-quarters ( 72 %) of businesses using multiple IaaS providers , up from 57 % the year before . The use of multiple providers has almost doubled in the last year , with one in five ( 20 %) respondents using three or more providers .
In Australia , a fifth ( 22 %) of businesses now use over 50 Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS ) applications , while one in 10 ( 10 %) uses over 100 . However , despite rapid growth in the prevalence and use of cloud services among
businesses , research indicates many are still navigating how to protect the complicated environments they have created .
Security challenges of multicloud complexity
With increasing complexity comes an even greater need for robust cybersecurity , yet in the past 12 months , over a third of Australian businesses ( 36 %) experienced a cloud-based data breach or failed audit .
When asked what percentage of their sensitive data is stored in the cloud , almost three-quarters ( 73 %) said between 21 % to 60 %. However , only a quarter ( 23 %) said they could fully classify all data . Furthermore , 16 % say their employees still use nothing other than passwords to access data stored in cloud or SaaS applications .
Four in 10 ( 40 %) respondents admitted issuing a breach notification to a government agency , customer , partner or employees , which should be a cause for concern among enterprises with sensitive data , particularly in highly regulated industries .
When it comes to securing data in multi-cloud environments , Australian IT professionals view encryption as a critical security control . Most respondents cited encryption ( 60 %), Multi-Factor Authentication ( 51 %) and key management ( 47 %) as the security technologies they currently use to protect sensitive data in the cloud . However , when asked what percentage of their data in the cloud is encrypted , only one in 10 ( 13 %) respondents said between 81 – 100 %.
Key management platform sprawl may also be a growing issue for many enterprises with half ( 50 %) using between five to 10 platforms compared to just one in 10 ( 11 %) using one to two platforms . In addition , a quarter of respondents ( 23 %) admit to giving cloud providers full control of their encryption keys while 56 % have handed over at least half of their encryption keys .
Positive cloud security signs
It is , however , encouraging to see Australian enterprises embracing and investing in Zero Trust . Nearly a quarter of respondents ( 24 %) said they are already executing a Zero Trust strategy and 16 % said they are evaluating one . This is a positive result , but there is certainly still room to grow as 33 % still have no strategy . u
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