Debunking the Top 4 Myths about Public Cloud Security

Lots of businesses are moving towards cloud but still, they are pretty confused on which cloud to choose. Where most of the small and medium-sized businesses prefer public clouds but, they still have a fear in mind about the privacy, security, and costs as it is a public cloud. A lot of confusion still lingers around about the data security when people choose cloud computing. Public clouds are the recommended solutions to the businesses for cutting down the IT costs and improve the scalability and flexibility. 

Security and control are two different and this difference is seen between the data security of cloud computing and data center. A company gets several benefits from cloud computing. Due to the public cloud, the companies can have quick provisioning, deployment, and IT resource scaling at much lower costs. A user can enter new markets easily and lessen the development time and wastage.

Actually, a public cloud can serve similar or better purposes than that of the traditional platforms like on premise. Even though there are several benefits, some myths still exist. We are here to debunk some of the myths about the public cloud so that the enterprises won’t get confused.

So, here are the top four myths about the security of the public cloud:

•        You can’t control your data location/residency

•        Customers on the same server are a threat to each other

•        There is a lack of inherent transparency in the public cloud

•        CSP (Cloud Service Provider) is only responsible for the security

You can’t control your data location/residency

Data residency/location is one of the prime concerns and therefore several countries have various laws which consider exporting of personal data in other countries as a criminal offense. Data residency is more of a concern when handling the personality identification data like financial information of any kind or health-related private information. In these cases, the cloud service provider should choose the locations from which it runs its data centers. The resellers that need to provide cloud services to their customers shall at least choose the service providers that can handle the location wise needs. So, it clarifies that this issue is not a matter to stress on. You can choose a quality cloud-service provider that can provide data residency as per your choice with accountability of data.

Customers on the same server are a threat to each other

This one is a constant myth about the multi-tenant cloud infrastructure that it is more vulnerable to attacks than that of the traditional IT infrastructure. Basically, in a public cloud, the tenants share all kinds of resources like storage, compute, and network. The sharing of all these physical resources arises the security concerns in the minds of the cloud tenants. They think that they are more vulnerable to attacks by the tenants of the same cloud. But, in actuality, it is very difficult for any tenant to attack the other tenant in the in the public cloud environment. The layer of hypervisor is primarily responsible for the separation between every tenant. If you don’t know then understand that hypervisors are very secure and therefore they are critical to attack. In addition, there are some cloud providers which provides more options to diminish the multi-tenancy risks at a greater extent. If you want to subscribe to a cloud service provider and get their offerings, then you should fully understand your requirements.

There is a lack of inherent transparency in the public cloud

Lack of transparency is liked by no one in any business as customers seek transparency everywhere. If there is visibility in any business, then it gets easier for the customers to trust you. Mistrust is the main reason that consumers back out from the cloud services because to build trust you should provide transparency and security. We can evaluate the cloud service provider by checking whether it has certain security compliances certifications or not. Further, you can validate if the service provider abides by the Could Trust Protocol or not. Through this protocol, the customers get the right information and it mentions that the data on the cloud is as it is and as per the rules mentioned. This protocol helps the customers by seeing the original information.

The companies can make correct choices about the data and processes. Which kind of data should go on which cloud and how to sustain the risk management decisions regarding the cloud services are the points which the company can work on confidently. Therefore, the visibility improves and the transparency gets affordable. Even though not every cloud provider will emphasize this and spend bucks over the maintaining 100% transparency, so every user can’t strictly demand this feature. Though, there will always be some kind of transparency maintained.

CSP (Cloud Service Provider) is only responsible for the security

Public cloud has an upper hand because the organizations can afford the resources like compute, space, RAM and several other features. Everyone can’t afford a personal server and hence the public cloud comes to the rescue.

The point is very easy, you don’t have to create everything from scratch as someone has already built it for you. It is not necessary for you to buy an individual server, or build a data center for that matter; unless that’s the only thing you have planned for your IT infrastructure.

No matter what, it is still your data and applications and therefore, you are responsible for it. It is your duty to select a perfect cloud vendor that caters your needs and seriously takes care of the security, disaster prevention, and post-disaster recovery. You should not just take a casual or mild approach while choosing the service provider and then the package which the provider offers. Things won’t work like that. Even if the vendor knows how to take care of the security part, you should also be knowledgeable enough to understand the risks, and make decisions.

Conclusion

Anyhow, the fact is that the public cloud provides more security than a conventional data center. Nowadays, cloud service providers are providing various levels of security by having some great tools and scanners. All of this is because the increasing number of threats and therefore growing cyber threats have forced them to become more attentive for preventing the attacks.

Importance of SOC (Security Operations Center) for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

With an increasing number of threats in the world, small and mid-sized businesses are facing numerous issues. They are keen to find security services which fit their budgets and yet provide proper security services. An important problem that SMBs (small and mid-sized businesses) face is lack of personnel to build and function their own SOC (Security Operation Center). Due to this, the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) process is out of reach. Eventually, many such organizations are turning towards the way of outsourcing SOC as a Service which can suit their organization's needs and improve the security posture. Several small to mid-sized companies face the "trio of the cyber security troubles" as follows:

· Recent ransomware like Petya and WannaCry caught the world in their evil grip but in a more modern way. 

· With the increasing number of cyber threats, there is an increase in the security expertise scarcity creating over 3.5 million cyber security openings by 2021.

· As per the Verizon’s DBIR report, hackers are targeting on small and mid-sized businesses and creating a havoc in them as they lack proper SOC (Security Operations Center) services.

As a consequence, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are finding ways on how they can deal with so many upcoming challenges. Therefore, they are going to the reputed security service providers who can implement SOC as a Service. Although, this is a right decision, yet exploring and choosing the correct SOC service provider is not that easy. If your vendor lacks proper and mandatory amenities for the effective SOC with a plain focus on managed detection, then this can turn to a bigger loophole in your security posture.

If you too are stuck on how to choose a smart security provider, then you can follow the below checklist. It guides you to search for a comprehensive SOC service. The checklist includes:

Complexity level

A recent Gartner study identified that MDR (managed detection and response) is a fast-growing market. The detection is obviously used to recognize the threats, but the SOC should also provide prevention and IR (incident response) in case of a disaster. 

A comprehensive security package like decisive and effective IR, protection from DDoS attack, ransomware, data breach, and disaster recovery is all you need when you consider a SOC. If the vendor doesn't provide 24/7 SOC and IR services, then it should not be termed as SOC. 

Real-Time Threat Analysis

Monitoring the threats in real-time with the use of detection services and forensics is a crucial task for SOC. It should be for all the security incidents on the basis of 24/7. The scanty staff in the security team can't handle the noisy and complex SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) tools. They can't strain out the false alarms and hence the performance level doesn't stay up to the mark for vital security matters.

You have to make sure that the SOC provider has the abilities of smart detection of the threats round the clock so that you can sleep peacefully.

Armed Threat Hunting

With the burgeoning techniques of hacking and hackers getting smart, it is very tedious to detect every single type of attack. Staying armed means, the network has to stay prepared in advance and search for the threats proactively. This would result in auto-adjustment of the network as per the latest cyber-attacks which could be just a few hours ago. This is a huge responsibility of the security specialists. It calls for learning the different and unique requirements of the client's network and hunt down the threats which can still pass on through the detection process. For this method to work, we need relevant and efficient threat-intelligent sources, machine learning techniques, and choosing everything which can help in one or the other way to find valid security incidents impacting the consumers.

Compliance Control

Compliances are a vital factor while implementing the SOC. Every SOC should compulsorily have some compliances like PCI DSS, HITECH, HIPAA, GLBA, FFIEC, and some other standards that high-quality industries must bind to. The compliance organizations must provide templates for recommended security checks and vulnerability assessments and see whether the businesses are abiding by the given regulatory measures.

Not just hackers can cost you big bucks, but not having required compliances can lead you to pay penalties as well! You must make sure that all these things are handled by your SOC service provider.

Strategic Advising

After monitoring the network and hunting for the upcoming threats, the security engineers will get an in-depth understanding of your company's network. This knowledge of network topology, places of the vital assets will help them to protect those with a proper defense strategy. You should demand this from the outsourced SOC provider as this contributes to designing and improving the security posture.

Instead of having a just scalable cloud-based technology, an outlined IR (Incident Response) process and a team of well-trained security specialists shall persuade the clients to get insights into their organization's security posture. Further, this helps in improving and running the business processes more effectively.

Defined Pricing

Pricing is the issue which everyone faces. Make sure that your prices don't fluctuate every single time because this would deteriorate the trust of your consumers. The SOC service provider should make fixed pricing plans. The rates shall vary on the number of sensors and users instead of log data's volume and servers monitored. Such predictable and defined pricing models are essential for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). These organizations struggle with the fluctuating costs and can't afford highly expensive managed services. Therefore, the SOC providers should not have unpredictable costs.

To summarize

All these factors are important to consider while choosing the SOC provider. This checklist will guide you to know which things you should not compromise when you want to outsource the SOC provider. You can further read why SOC is important here.

Benefits of Managed Colocation

Organizations these days do not believe in investing heavily in building a data center facility mainly because of the costs associated with purchasing expensive IT infrastructure assets. Building a data center is not an easy task and it costs organizations a fortune to have all the aspects of a data center in place like storage, power, cooling, facility space, security and minor assets which can be a heavy investment on their pocket. It’s like owning an apartment and being responsible for cleaning, maintenance, repairs and security. Instead of having an in-house data center, they opt for colocation services which are offered by data center service providers.

It is difficult for organizations to have in-house servers mainly because of the power they consume, expertise they need and special cooling which needs to be in place to ensure optimum environment. As maintaining and managing servers is not any non-IT company’s strongest suit, they go for colocation. Colocation is the best option which is offered by data center service providers where an organization can house their IT assets in the service provider’s data center facility where power, cooling, backups and basic services will be provided by the data center company. 24/7 monitoring is offered by security experts who are there to provide any emergency assistance. Another part of the colocation service is the managed colocation service where the service provider offers continuous 24/7 monitoring, power and all the related services so that the organization need not worry about taking care of their IT equipment.

There are certain benefits which an organization receives if they choose to opt for managed colocation service. Below are some of the benefits mentioned regarding managed colocation.

1. Flexibility

This service provides tailored IT infrastructure to organizations which are designed according to their business requirements. Customers can customize their IT assets through various configurations which can match their day-to-day demands and is a suitable choice for their business. 

2. Backups

In a managed colocation service, the data center service provider will take care of customer’s important data by maintaining multiple backs. The service provider regularly takes data backups in order to keep the data safe in any event which might result in the loss of data. There are multiple locations where this data has been backed up and so the customers do not need to worry about losing their business critical data even in an event of a disaster.

3. Cost-effective

As previously discussed, there isn’t a massive investment while opting for managed colocation service due to the fact that the service provider will provide location, power, cooling, storage and many other facilities depending on the colocation plan a customer chooses for his organization. If a customer tries to set-up his IT infrastructure on-site, then he will need to be technically sound to handle all types of road blocks along with having all the other facilities in place which are needed to successfully run a data center. Opting for managed colocation service saves huge costs for organizations.

4. Security

One of the main reasons a customer prefers managed colocation over in-house hosting is the levels of security available in managed colocation service. Physical security is the most important aspect among other levels because of the security guards present in the facility. Other levels might include cameras, closed cabinets, bio-metric or fingerprint authentication, etc.
5. Top-most quality services are provided under great prices by managed colocation service as compared to colocation hosting or in-house facility.

6. If an organization demands increases due to their business requirement, then they have an option to not only rent one server but rent as many as servers they need along with an IT team to care of their assets and provide different services.

Conclusion

Managed colocation is the best option in the market because it takes care of various factors in its environment. Big or small, an organization can be of any size in order to reap the benefits of the colocation service.