Ninety per cent of cloud services 'putting European enterprises at risk'
Ninety per cent of cloud services 'putting European enterprises at risk'
Nine out of 10 cloud services are putting European businesses at risk, according to new research.
A report by Skyhigh Networks, a provider of cloud security software, found that 91 per cent of cloud solutions in Europe do not offer enterprise-grade security. The study, entitled 'Cloud Adoption and Risk Report', examined usage data from over one million users in more than 40 companies.
The research revealed that European enterprises were heavily invested in the cloud with an enterprise using an average of 588 cloud services. However, just nine per cent of these came with adequate security, with the others posing medium to high risks on the companies.
Data privacy and compliance were major issues with only one per cent of the cloud solutions offering both enterprise-grade security and assurances that cloud-stored data would remain within the Europe’s geographical boundaries.
Furthermore, ownership was also exposed as being a problematic area. Many of the cloud solutions were acquired without the say so of the CISO or CIO, leading to widespread uncontrolled services. When they examined the situation, CIOs revealed that shadow IT – as this is known – was around 10 times more prevalent than they thought.
The report found that just five per cent of cloud services are ISO 27001 certified. Meanwhile, there are 49 different services in use which track a users’ online activity – this in turn can lead to ‘watering hole attacks’, wherein a culprit will lure employees to click on links by sending them things from the sites they have visited, thus compromising security.
Rajiv Gupta, CEO Skyhigh Networks, was keen to stress the value and importance of cloud computing solutions though. He said: "Cloud services certainly enable agile, flexible, and efficient businesses, and employees should be encouraged to use services that best suit their working style and enhance their productivity.”
However, he stated that employees must be educated more over security risks associated with cloud while greater ownership must be taken to ensure compliance issues are negated.
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