Today, we live in an era where cloud computing is the new basic. The fact is that the need for cloud computing is still rapidly maturing and it has become an essential component of all enterprise’ IT strategy.

Especially since the inception of the global coronavirus pandemic, the adoption of cloud technologies have accelerated. We also saw an immediate demand for a secure and collaborative digital workspace as businesses responded to the fast-evolving customer needs.

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Now, cloud services are used for multiple purposes in corporate environments. However, with the use of cloud services comes the challenges and risk of data security in the cloud and to protect cloud data you require two things: visibility and control.

A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Secure Data in Cloud Computing
In the steps below, we’ve mentioned all the best practices for cloud security that will lead your enterprise towards a more secure cloud.

Understand the usage of cloud and its risk
First things first, do you know all about cloud computing? The place for you to begin is – focusing on understanding your current state and assessing risk. Wondering how? Follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Identify Sensitive Data
The biggest concern today is the loss and theft of data. That’s what leads you to regulatory penalties and loss of intellectual property. With a sound data classification engine, you can conveniently categorize your data to assess the risk entirely.

2. Understand How Sensitive Data is Accessed and Shared
This is important because as far as sensitive data is securely held in the cloud, if you don’t monitor who accesses it and where it goes, there’s clearly nothing in it for you. So, what you need to do is set permissions on files and folders in your cloud environment, along with allocating user roles, user location, and device type.

3. Discover Those Unknown Cloud Usages
This is the most common mistake most people make – not asking their IT team before signing up for a cloud storage account or converting a PDF online. Well, here’s a solution, you can use your web proxy, firewall, or SIEM logs to discover all cloud services being used. This will help you outline activities you didn’t know about.

4. Audit Configurations for IaaS
IaaS means dozens of critical settings. This leads to creating an exploitable weakness in case of misconfiguration. This is why, you’ve got to start auditing your configurations – to identity and access management, network configuration, and encryption.

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Protection for Cloud
Next, you need to get a glimpse of your cloud security risk. Why? Well, that’s because unless you know your security risks, you can’t apply protection to your cloud services according to the level of risk you’re facing.

1. Data Protection Policies
Assigning policies that govern what data can be stored in the cloud, quarantined or removed is a good start towards protecting your cloud. You can also opt to train users if they make mistakes and break any of your policies.

2. Encryption with Your Own Keys
Encryption within a cloud service protects your data from outside parties, but guess what? The cloud service provider will still have access to your encryption keys. And no matter the amount of trust you place in them, it’s still a better decision to encrypt your data using your own keys. This way, you have full control access and users will still work with the data without any interruptions.

3. Limit How Data is Shared
Enforce access control policies across one or multiple services from the very moment that data enters your cloud. You can start with setting users and eventually go higher.

4. Stop Data from Moving to Unmanaged and Unknown Devices
Cloud services provide access from anywhere, but giving access to unmanaged devices like a personal phone has the ability to create a blind spot for your security risk posture. So, you can choose to block downloads to unmanaged devices by requiring device security verification before downloading.

Conclusion: In the pre-COVID-19 world, enterprises often regarded cloud security as an additional layer on the existing infrastructure. However, when billions of people worldwide had to switch to a digital workspace overnight, enterprises realized the importance of having a well-maintained security infrastructure.

So, as cloud services evolve, so will the challenges and threats you face by using them. And that’s why it’ll always be better for you to stay on top of cloud provider feature updates that involve security and adjust your policies accordingly.

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