FEATURE
THE DARK SIDE OF THE CLOUD COVID-19 HAS ACCELERATED CUSTOMER DEMAND FOR CLOUD-BASED TECHNOLOGIES, BUT SECURITY STILL REMAINS A TOP CONCERN.
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he pandemic-induced migration to the cloud is gaining traction in the Middle East. Major players such as Microsoft, AWS, Oracle, and IBM have set up their cloud data centres in the region, enabling businesses to be more agile and efficient. According to Gartner, the global enduser spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 23.1 percent this year. The research firm says the events of last year allowed CIOs to overcome any reluctance to move mission critical workloads from on-prem to the cloud. Though service providers claim the cloud is inherently more secure, some cloud security breaches have recently
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CXO INSIGHT ME
JUNE 2021
made news headlines. More than ever before, businesses are now far more concerned about data privacy and compliance, and many CIOs worry about the security of their data stored in the cloud. “Cloud security threats closely mirror current industry trends. With the pandemic driving remote work, and thereby the transition of employees to new environments, the main security issues pertaining to the cloud relate to application vulnerabilities, emailbased attacks, incorrectly configured firewalls, and authentication and secure access,” says Maroun Hashem, Manager, Public Cloud and Alliances Middle East, Africa, Pakistan & Turkey at Barracuda.
Frank Kim, a fellow instructor at SANS Institute, says whether it’s sensitive data that can be easily monetised, intellectual property that can be stolen, or business proprietary information the cloud now has it all. The business drivers for moving to the cloud are undeniable and organised crime, nation-states, and your competitors understand this. “They may target your cloud systems and infrastructure directly or, more often, go for the weakest link in your people, whether they be malicious or negligent insiders,” he says. According to a recent McAfee report, the number of threats from external actors targeting cloud services increased 630%, with
