Over the past few weeks, we have discussed about cloud computing, ranging from how to migrate to the cloud to each available type of cloud computing services, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The benefits of IaaS deployment are abundant and thus it is not unexpected that a 2017 research by Synergy Research Group revealed that IaaS and Platform as a Service (PaaS) had the highest growth rate at 47%. In fact, industries such as healthcare and manufacture are starting to utilize IaaS for their businesses. (3 industries that could benefit from IaaS)
The continuous rise of IaaS adoption must be accompanied with the advancements of security measures and practices, as being inadequate in securing your data and applications in IaaS may lead attackers to launch denial of service (DoS) and steal enterprises’ credentials or cause a data breach. These incidents would not only result in financial loss but also may cause years of legal proceedings and loss of customers’ trust.
According to eSecurity, here are six security measures that can be taken by businesses to minimize the possibility of IaaS security breaches:
- Encrypt your data and network, which means that all the data transmitted through a network is not shown in text, but a coded one. Only the person with the right decryption key can unlock the codes and view the data properly.
- Utilize access control management and multi-factor authentication, such as tokens and smart cards to ensure that only the right people can access to critical data. By doing so, it decreases the possibility of unauthorized access.
- Implement a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), which is a unified security tool that allows administrators to identify potential data loss risks and ensure a high level of protection. It lets users to monitor shared files and prevent data leakage.
- Reinforce vulnerability management procedures to solve vulnerabilities in software. Along with regular software updates, the risks pertaining to information security may be reduced.
- Track standard indicators of infrastructure performance and identify abnormalities related to system and service security by doing monitoring and auditing of systems regularly. By deploying a deep packet inspection (DPI) or intrusion detection and prevention solutions (IDS/IPS), businesses will be able to detect network anomalies and attacks.
- Conduct staff training on a regular basis to enhance staff’s competence while dealing with IaaS. This is important, especially given the fact that in 2016 Gartner predicted that by 2020, 95% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault. Thus, staff training is essential for every enterprise.
CTI Group with its subsidiaries, Blue Power Technology, Helios Informatika Nusantara, and Virtus Technology Indonesia, will help you to not only chose which type of cloud service or IaaS provider that is right for you but also the proper IaaS security measures, so that you can fully acquire the benefits of IaaS deployment.
