Companies Lack Cloud Security Policies and Standards – Study

A recent study, conducted by the Symform, the cloud backup provider, found that 20% of companies have no security policies or clear usage standards, to guide employees when using cloud applications or access corporate information from other devices.

The survey queried nearly 500 companies including 18 percent representing enterprises, 34 percent from small and midsize organizations, and 48 percent representing IT service providers or small businesses across a wide range of industries and organizational size were asked about cloud security, concerns and benefits, current cloud use, security policies, applications and devices.

The research validates how cloud applications and services are being purchased and managed increasingly by non-IT departments, and illustrates the need for IT to reclaim control from a policy and governance standpoint while still enabling the business to benefit from the cloud’s agility and cost-effectiveness.

Overall, the survey concluded that there is a gap between the use of cloud and attention they have given to companies developing policies or usage behavior. More than 61 percent of respondents, who use cloud, reported that their cloud services are not up to-date.

However, within this 39% that does not use cloud services, 65% allow employees to use these services. To make matters worse, the other 35% also let workers climb corporate information to cloud applications. Symform think one of the problems is that the IT department does not participate in these decisions, in whose implementation should play a central role.

The number one cloud concern stated by IT managers was Access Control followed by auditing and tracking, securing data both in motion and at rest, vulnerability management and maintaining strong security service level agreements (SLAs). The most trusted vendors to gain advice and learn best practices on cloud security were Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and IBM. Microsoft and Amazon shared an equal 46 percent vote as the top trusted sources on cloud security.

But customers are making slow progress toward a more secure cloud environment. The survey revealed that secure cloud backup is gaining credibility; with 50 percent contending that even sensitive data (except credit card information) can be placed to store in the cloud. This aligns with the belief that the highest perceived benefit of the cloud is data protection. For those using the cloud, nearly 50 percent stated secure cloud storage services allow them to spend less time managing data protection and on IT security overall, the report noted. For those not in the cloud, over 50 percent believe that better data protection would be the top benefit gained by moving services to the cloud.