Mrs Pip

Your cloud data is a risk. This is true whether you have a personal account or hundreds of petabytes of data shored up online. With the rise of “harvest-now-decrypt-later” strategies, where hackers are actively sourcing and stealing encrypted datasets with the expectation that quantum computing will be able to decrypt them further down the line, it’s imperative that all businesses start ramping up their digital security today.

source photo: prevent data leaks

This applies to businesses of all sizes, including small businesses. Don’t assume that just because you have tight profit margins or low revenue that you’re exempt from being targeted from ransomware or malware. In fact, you’re the easier target.

That’s why it’s imperative that you follow these top tips to fully secure your cloud accounts and prevent data leaks.

First, Understand SaaS Security Threats and Security Recommendations

As with any system-wide improvement, getting all the facts and understanding the threats at hand is essential, otherwise, you’re just operating in the dark. If you’re new to cloud security and specifically SaaS security, read through this Red Canary guide to get a refresher on the latest threats and security recommendations.

Start with User Access Issues

The easiest way to start protecting your cloud accounts is to actually go through them and fully optimize them. This means creating unique logins for each user and then restricting their access to your data based on their role. This way, a marketing executive can’t access financial information, and so on. You should already have this, but if you haven’t audited your access controls in a while, it’s time to do so now, and ramp up security measures while you’re at it by requiring all employees to create a new password.

Invest in the Latest Cloud Security Systems

There are several specific cloud security systems available to help you stay compliant and secure. Consider investing in one or more of these solutions to beef up your cloud security:

1. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

CSPM is one of the more critical solutions for cloud protection, most notably due to the risk of misconfigurations in your cloud infrastructure. Misconfigurations are currently one of the leading causes of cloud data breaches, so they’re not to be underestimated.

Enter CSPM. This tools monitors and assesses your cloud environment to ensure it meets established security benchmarks and any applicable compliance standards, such as HIPAA or GDPR. In doing so, it helps by identifying misconfigurations, flagging issues, and even automatically fixing common problems on your behalf.

2. Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Another option is to ramp up user access with an IAM solution. This tool works alongside cloud infrastructure entitlement management systems to establish robust multi-factor authentication protocols, which establishes complex permissions and entitlements based on user roles within the cloud. With IAM solutions, it’s harder for hackers to gain access to your system with stolen credentials.

3. User and Entity Behavior Analytics

This AI-powered tool works to analyze and understand baseline user and system behavior, which allows it to immediately flag suspicious behavior the second it happens. By detecting threats faster, you can immediately act and lock down breaches before they cause significant damage.

4. Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

Finally, CNAPP is an all-in-one platform that works to unify multiple security and compliance capabilities into one bundle. It integrates multiple cloud security systems, including those listed above, allowing you to centralize your protection into a single solution.

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