Written by Lauren Miller, Kyloe Partners
The term ‘Cyber Security’ is nothing new, but it’s a field that is constantly evolving and a topic which is becoming more prominent in businesses of all sizes. The chances are, if you’re working as part of a company that uses IT of any sort (and most do!), Cyber Risk is a very real threat that should be addressed. Despite its name, this risk extends beyond technology and requires having the correct processes in place and educating staff on adhering to these processes.
The discussions around Cyber Security are vast and overwhelming - a quick Google search on ‘Cyber Risk’ throws up over 140 million News results – for the purposes of this article, we’ll be focusing on the benefits of the Cloud when it comes to protecting your company.
The impact of Social Engineering
The Cloud is touted as a safer place to for your data data than a local server, so why do we still hear so many stories of high-profile data breaches? Security of the Cloud itself may be the obvious starting point for blame, but Proofpoint’s 2019 Human Factor report shows that more than 99% of the attacks observed required human interaction to succeed.
Social engineering (such as Phishing) influences human psychology and involves hackers accessing information by manipulating people into performing actions or disclosing sensitive data. By using social engineering, hackers can get hold of personal data without ever actually having to hack into the Cloud.
According to Security Boulevard, almost 75% of companies never equip people with minimal training, which means that organisations put themselves at risk.
Security benefits of the Cloud
There are many factors that influence Cyber Security so it’s important to remember that the Cloud isn’t a quick solution for eliminating risk, but there are various benefits which can help to reduce your vulnerability:
Multi-factor authentication: as hacking techniques become increasingly sophisticated, a unique login and password aren’t always sufficient in protecting you. Staying on top of cyber threats can seem daunting and almost impossible for companies who don’t have large IT teams.
Cloud-based solutions will take the hard work out of staying ahead and offer multi-factor authentication that verifies user identity via more than one method. For example, these verifications may combine something that the user knows (password), something that the user has (hard token), and something that the user is (fingerprint).
Physical security: Cloud computing vendors are there to provide data safety – where small to medium-sized businesses may be restricted when it comes to physical security of their data and facilities, Cloud vendors have security as one of their main focuses, and therefore have the ability to employ stronger physical security measures at their facilities.
There’s also no reason to worry about data being stolen as a result of misplacing storage devices or laptops and mobile phones. As data is stored on the cloud, the loss of a physical device does not affect the data.
Security certificates: If you can’t afford to take chances with your data, compliance and security certifications are there to make it easier for you to trust cloud computing providers. Providers with certifications should be employing individuals who are qualified and experienced with configuring cloud servers and keeping client data secure.
Are you thinking of making a move to the Cloud?
In addition to the security aspects, the Cloud offers other benefits, from being able to work remotely, to lower IT costs. If you’re looking to make a move, beware of “Cloud pretenders” – vendors offering products that aren’t actually true cloud solutions. We’d recommend reading Bullhorn’s “Is It Really a True Cloud Solution?’ ebook, before committing to a specific vendor.
About Kyloe Partners
Kyloe Partners are recruitment industry, and Bullhorn, experts. We help recruiters get the right people into the right role as quickly as possible by offering clients of all sizes a real technology advantage in this fast-paced and ever-evolving industry.