What Is Cloud Security?
Cloud Security protects sensitive data in the cloud through tools and technologies that block unauthorized access. These can include encryption, which scrambles data into an indecipherable format that can only be deciphered with a key. This is important for both protecting data in transit between storage locations or between the cloud and on-site systems, as well as to safeguard archived data from unauthorized access by attackers.
The speed and agility of cloud-centric IT demands unique attention when securing data and applications, as well as for maintaining access permissions at the end-user device level and across multi-cloud setups. Cloud security solutions should also seamlessly integrate with your existing infrastructure and applications to make it easier for your teams to implement and manage. In addition, look for solutions that support zero trust strategies with continuous authentication and least privilege access principles to limit lateral movement by attackers.
Other components of cloud security include network security, including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, secure configurations, and other measures to protect data and communications in a local or public-cloud hosted network. This can involve implementing network segmentation using Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and security groups, and ensuring that data is protected from unauthorized access at every point in its journey. This can include encryption, as mentioned above, but also techniques like data loss protections such as end-to-end encryption that ensures that even if data is intercepted on its way to or from the cloud, it cannot be read without the associated encryption key.