How Cloud-Based Automation Can Keep Business Operations Secure

The massive data breach at Capital One – America’s
seventh-largest bank, according to revenue – has challenged many
common assumptions about cloud computing for the first time.

Ironically, the incident, which exposed some 106 million Capital
One customers’ accounts^[1], has only reinforced the
belief that the cloud remains the safest way to store sensitive
data.

He wasn’t the only voice defending cloud computing in the wake of a
hack attack. In an article titled “Don’t Doubt the Cloud,” Fortune
columnist Robert Hackett,
wrote: “The cloud is undeniably convenient and, more importantly,
better in terms of security than what the majority of companies can
achieve alone.”

The problem, experts said, was not cloud computing but rather
the tendency for companies to become overly-reliant on cloud
computing services like Amazon Web Services to oversee all aspects
of security, instead of taking full responsibility for their data
security.

Security Advantages of Cloud-Based System

After taking the necessary steps to ensure the safety of their
data, companies benefit in numerous ways from the collective
security of the cloud.

1. Services such as SaaS (Software as a Service) are hosted on
cloud servers

With the collective power of the cloud, the changes are extremely
high that the servers hosting your data are better protected than
your on-site servers would be. In addition, the cloud service
provider handles all maintenance, updates, and support. That takes
a great deal of pressure off the IT department.

This is both the biggest benefit of cloud computing and possibly
the biggest area of risk. While a service such as Amazon Cloud
Services has security resources few companies can match, it must be
remembered that placing data in on the cloud is to take it out of
complete control by your company. The firewalls protecting the data
are no longer your own.

But since your company is still working with the data, it must
be secured at a high level on your end. That means compliance with
SOC 2 and ISO/27001.

2. Greatly Reduce Human Error – the Single Biggest Threat to
Data Safety

With fewer people having access to the data, there are fewer
opportunities for errors that lead to data breaches. Too often,
hackers can get through the most secure firewalls because someone
on the other side carelessly clicked through a link that was
planted by a hacker, usually in an email.

But since the data is stored on servers in the cloud, not
on-premises, those types of hacks will not result in data
breaches.

In addition, adding a layer of automation could reduce the
amount of human interaction even more. Start-ups such as PapayaGlobal^[4]
offer automation in global payroll ears renowned for being the
target of hackers, whilst other companies have developed solutions
involving robotic process automation (RPA)—software bots that are
capable of mimicking human actions.

Those bots are already being employed in areas such as
book-keeping. The fewer people interacting with sensitive data, the
safer the data will be.

3. Data Transfers Only Through Secure channels

Some of the most common data breaches are carried out through the
most mundane methods. Hackers create “spoof” versions
of popular email programs.

During tax season, when emails between financial departments and
accounting firms are most intense, it’s easy to fall for the crafty
spoofs and wind up sending data directly to a cybercriminal.

Email is widely recognized as one of the worst ways to send
private and sensitive data for a variety of reasons. Not
surprisingly, the strict standard for data privacy set by the EU’s
GDPR forbids transferring private information through email.

With cloud computing, data is sent only through secure,
encrypted channels. That eliminates the possibility of spoofs and
other common ploys by hackers. It also keeps the data out of sight
from hackers, significantly reducing the possibility that they
would try to hack your data by other means.

4. Separation between work environment and storage
environment

Another great advantage of the cloud is the networking segmentation
between computing and storage. The obvious benefit of this
separation is the reduced risk that all data will be compromised,
even if a hacker manages to breach all the sophisticated defenses.

Other forms of segmentation include limiting the number of
people who can access certain data. Keeping sensitive information
in the hands of only those individuals who need it, and staggering
access so that the smallest possible number of people have access
to the whole is an excellent way to mitigate potential
breaches.

Avoiding the Next Capital One Breach

Few companies were as committed to the benefits of cloud computing
as Capital One. While this did not protect the company from
suffering one of the largest data breaches in history, it may help
the next company avoid the same fate.

It has brought greater awareness to the field of cloud security
and data protection and identified areas that were exploitable by
crafty hackers.

The breach did not prove that the cloud was less secure than
previously believed. It showed that it is never a good idea to
outsource data security entirely to a third party.

Companies need to remain on guard at all times, take measures to
ensure their own part of the data equation remains up to date with
the most advanced technology, and keep a watchful eye on their data
even when it is stored in the safety of the cloud.

^[3][5]