Is Data Protection A Special Concern For Cloud Services?
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What risks is your data exposed to? This cloud security study by McAfee provides detailed insights. The provider of security software surveys 1,400 IT decision-makers every year on security issues in their organisations. Impressively, 97 percent of the organisations surveyed rely on cloud services, with 88 percent storing sensitive data in cloud servers.
To be clear, data protection and security risks are not only issues for cloud services. Even organisations that rely on conventional in-house solutions repeatedly report incidents related to their IT infrastructure. What is changing, however, is the nature of the risks.
Viruses, Trojans and DDoS attacks are classic security breaches where external intruders modify or steal data, and may even completely paralyse IT operations. Neither in-house IT solutions nor cloud services are completely immune to these types of attacks. However, with the growing use of cloud services, the spectrum of data protection and security risks is changing.
Cloud technology users are exposed to different risks than are in-house IT departments. The organisations surveyed by McAfee report the following risks and incidents:
The second point is a challenge for any organisation. External actors with malicious intent are a problem that all IT managers have to deal with – whether they run their IT themselves or use cloud services.
However, the other points are much more exciting, since here we are dealing with new security aspects that relate primarily to questions of configuration, guidelines, usage and competence. In a recent report, Gartner asserts that by 2022, 95 percent of all cloud security failures will be the user’s fault.
That sounds like an accusation, but it is not. Gartner simply wants to emphasise that cloud services are secure from a technical point of view. We can confirm this from our own experience as a provider of cloud communications services – we are well aware of our responsibility in this regard.
Like many other leading cloud communications service providers, NFON relies on security measures to ensure the best possible protection of your data:
Legal security: We operate our services in accordance with GDPR requirements, the worldwide pioneer regulation in data protection.
Data protection is part of our DNA at NFON. Since we were founded in 2007, we have committed maximum security in the processing of our customers’ and partners’ data.
Reliable cloud service providers develop their solutions according to the principle Security by design. Unlike self-developed IT and communications systems, cloud service providers have completely different possibilities and resources to provide their services with the greatest possible data protection and security mechanisms.
As Gartner confirms, the security issue of cloud services will be decided less by the technical security of the solution and more by the way people use cloud services. A data protection policy for cloud services should answer the following questions:
Your cloud service provider has a special responsibility to advise you on these issues in a professional manner. After all, they process huge amounts of confidential data on behalf of your organisation, every day.
Strict data protection regulations have been in force in Germany for many decades. They are a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution.