Ever wonder why cloud data is so secure when compared to its traditional counterparts. How come the global cloud service providers claim that their platform is one of the most secure platforms? Even when the number of cyber-attacks and cybercriminals is growing at a staggering rate. Let’s understand this topic in a detailed way to understand whether the cloud offers robust security or not and if they offer, how are they able to? If you are looking to advance your career in Cloud Security, check out this CCSP Course.
What is Cloud?
Before understanding Cloud Security, let’s just recap a bit about what exactly is a cloud? So, a Cloud or Cloud Computing is basically a service offered by Cloud Service Providers to customers (Businesses or individuals) that is in the form of computing power, data storage, networking, analytics, etc., in the form of a pay-as-you-go pricing model based on customer consumption.
In simple words, I can explain it as Cloud Computing refers to the software or service that is not stored on your computer, but you can access via the Internet. Now every file you store in these Clouds is stored on a 3rd party server offered by service providers like AWS, Azure, GCP, etc. Read also: Future of Cloud Computing
How secure is Cloud?
Now let’s understand how secure your data is stored in the cloud. If you store some files on your personal computer and upload another set of files into the cloud. It’s for sure that files stored in the cloud will be safer compared to your personal computer one. Why?
Personal computers don’t possess the advanced protection that cloud service providers offer to their client’s data. These companies employ thousands of Cloud Security professionals who work round the clock to protect data stored on their platform from Cybercriminals. They do so by implementing many steps to ensure that data breach doesn’t happen at whatever cost. The same level of dedication is missing when it comes to storing files on a personal computer. If you are a novice to certifications read this CCSP Tutorial for Beginners to get a better understanding.
Why is security so robust in the Cloud?
In this section, we will discuss exactly how security professionals keep the cloud secure from outside manipulations. Some of the major steps that these professionals take are:
Install security updates
Cloud Service Providers take the Data Security responsibility and the most essential task they undertake is to update and upgrade everything that is associated with data. They don’t ignore these notifications, because these updates may contain a patch to some new vulnerabilities or loopholes. So security professionals always ensure that they use updated systems.
AI tools and Auto-Patching
Security professionals are turning their focus to AI to help them protect their customer’s data. These tools have built-in algorithms that seek and identify vulnerabilities and patch up issues immediately.
Firewalls
Firewalls were always a very underrated security measure. Cloud providers rely on them too to get added advantage to filter out traffic and keep the data secure from threats. This makes it difficult for hackers to slip malware into the cloud.
Redundancy
What if a cloud service provider faces a power outage? or a failure? Will you be able to access your files? Yes! But how? Cloud Providers follow a simple concept of data redundancy, by which they copy data multiple times and store them in different locations and data centers. So, if a data center goes down, backup is always there.