New Intel Security Cloud Report Reveals IT Departments Find It Hard to Keep the Cloud Safe
February 13 2017 - 12:00AM
Business Wire
Close to 40 Percent of Cloud Services Are
Commissioned Without the Involvement of IT, Leading to More
Security Risk for Companies
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
- Trust now outnumbers distrust for
public clouds by more than 2-to-1.
- 49 percent of professionals slowed
cloud adoption due to a lack of cybersecurity skills.
- 65 percent think Shadow IT is
interfering with keeping the cloud safe and secure.
- 52 percent indicate a malware infection
can be tracked to a cloud application.
- 62 percent store sensitive customer
information in the public cloud.
RSA SECURITY CONFERENCE – Intel Security today announced its
second annual cloud security report, “Building Trust in a Cloudy
Sky.” The report outlines the current state of cloud adoption, the
primary concerns with private and public cloud services, security
implications, and the evolving impact of Shadow IT of the more than
2,000 IT professionals surveyed.
This Smart News Release features multimedia.
View the full release here:
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Intel Security on Monday, Feb. 13, 2017,
announced its second annual cloud security report, “Building Trust
in a Cloudy Sky.” One finding of the more than 2,000 IT
professionals surveyed showed that the trust and perception of
public cloud services continues to improve year over year. (Credit:
Intel Corporation)
“The ‘Cloud First’ strategy is now well and truly ensconced into
the architecture of many organizations across the world,” said Raj
Samani, EMEA chief technology officer, Intel Security. “The desire
to move quickly toward cloud computing appears to be on the agenda
for most organizations. This year, the average time before
respondents thought their IT budgets would be 80 percent
cloud-based was 15 months, indicating that Cloud First for many
companies is progressing and remains the objective.”
Trust in the Cloud on the Rise
The trust and perception of public cloud services continues to
improve year over year. Most organizations view cloud services as
or more secure than private clouds, and more likely to deliver
lower costs of ownership and overall data visibility. Those who
trust public clouds now outnumber those who distrust public clouds
by more than 2-to-1. Improved trust and perception, as well as
increased understanding of the risks by senior management, is
encouraging more organizations to store sensitive data in the
public cloud. Personal customer information is the most likely type
of data to be stored in public clouds, kept there by 62 percent of
those surveyed.
Risks Also Rise: Shadow IT and the Cybersecurity Skill
Shortage
The ongoing shortage of security skills is continuing to affect
cloud deployments. Almost half of the organizations surveyed report
the lack of cybersecurity skills has slowed adoption or usage of
cloud services, possibly contributing to the increase in Shadow IT
activities. Another 36 percent report they are experiencing a
scarcity but are continuing with their cloud activities regardless.
Only 15 percent of those surveyed state they do not have a skills
shortage.
Due to the ease of procurement, almost 40 percent of cloud
services are now commissioned without the involvement of IT, and
unfortunately, visibility of these Shadow IT services has dropped
from about 50 percent last year to just under 47 percent this year.
As a result, 65 percent of IT professionals think this phenomenon
is interfering with their ability to keep the cloud safe and
secure. This is not surprising given the amount of sensitive data
now being stored in the public cloud and more than half (52
percent) of respondents reporting they have definitively tracked
malware from a cloud SaaS application.
Data Center Progression
The number of organizations using private cloud only has dropped
from 51 percent to 24 percent over the past year, while hybrid
cloud use has increased from 19 percent to 57 percent. This move to
a hybrid private/public cloud architecture requires the data center
to evolve to a highly virtualized, cloud-based infrastructure. On
average, 52 percent of an organization’s data center servers are
virtualized, 80 percent are using containers and most expect to
have the conversion to a fully software-defined data center
completed within two years.
Recommendations:
- Attackers will look for the easiest
targets, regardless of whether they are public, private or hybrid.
Integrated or unified security solutions that provide visibility
across all of the organization’s services could be the best
defense.
- User credentials, especially for
administrators, will be the most likely form of attack.
Organizations need to ensure they are using authentication best
practices, such as distinct passwords, multi-factor authentication
and even biometrics where available.
- Security technologies such as data loss
prevention, encryption and cloud access security brokers (CASBs)
remain underutilized. Integrating these tools with an existing
security system increases visibility, enables discovery of shadow
services, and provides options for automatic protection of
sensitive data at rest and in motion throughout any type of
environment.
- Organizations need to evolve toward a
risk management and mitigation approach to information security.
They should consider adopting a Cloud First strategy to encourage
adoption of cloud services to reduce costs and increase
flexibility, and put security operations in a proactive position
instead of a reactive one.
Find More Information:
- To download the full report, visit
www.mcafee.com/cloudsecurityreport.
- RSA Security Conference attendees can
view panelist Raj Samani at the session titled, “Security in the
Cloud: Evolution or Revolution.” The session will take place at
2:00 p.m. Pacific time on Feb. 13 at the Marriott Marquis, San
Francisco.
- Read Raj Samani’s blog, “Cloud Ubiquity
– it’s coming, but not yet!”
- Twitter: Follow @IntelSecurity for
cloud security updates and tips.
Survey Methodology
In fall 2016, Intel Security surveyed over 2,000 IT
professionals across a broad set of industries, countries and
organization sizes. Research participants were senior technical
decision-makers from small, medium and large organizations located
in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Saudi
Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and
the United States.
About Intel Security
Intel Security, with its McAfee product line, is dedicated to
making the digital world safer and more secure for everyone. Intel
Security is a division of Intel Corporation. Learn more
at www.intelsecurity.com.
Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in
the United States and other countries.
No computer system can be absolutely secure.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170212005011/en/
Intel SecurityTracy Holden,
650-245-8466Tracy.Holden@intel.com
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