Majority of businesses not protecting their sensitive data in the cloud

The latest cloud security study from Thales shows that 83 percent of businesses are still failing to encrypt half of the sensitive data they store in the cloud.

This is despite the fact that 40 percent of organizations have experienced a cloud-based data breach in the past 12 months.

In the survey of over 2,500 IT executives, conducted by 451 Research, 57 percent of respondents globally report that they make use of two or more cloud infrastructure providers, whilst almost a quarter (24 percent) of organizations say that the majority of their workloads and data now reside in the cloud.

According to the study, 21 percent of businesses host the majority of their sensitive data in the cloud. There are some common trends as to where companies turn when considering how to secure their cloud infrastructure, with 33 percent reporting multi-factor authentication (MFA) as being a central part of their cybersecurity strategy. However, only 17 percent of those surveyed have encrypted more than half of the data they store in the cloud. This figure drops to 15 percent where organizations have adopted a multicloud approach.

Even with encryption, 34 percent of organizations leave the control of keys to service providers rather than retaining control themselves. If data is not encrypted limiting potential access points becomes even more critical, yet 48 percent of business leaders globally admit their organization doesn't have a zero trust strategy, and 25 percent aren't even considering one.

Sebastien Cano, senior vice president for cloud protection and licensing activities at Thales says, "Organizations across the world are struggling to navigate the increased complexity that comes with greater adoption of cloud-based solutions. A robust security strategy is essential to ensuring data and business operations remain secure. With nearly every business reliant on the cloud to some extent, it is vital that security teams have the ability to discover, protect, and maintain control of their data."

The full report is available from the Thales site.

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