A Research about Cloud Security Issues 2020

The Systems Security Laboratory (SSL) of the University of Piraeus and Professor Christos Xenakis participated in a research conducted by the company Pylones Hellas in the context of the effort for a continuous and thorough understanding of the conditions prevailing in digital security on the subject of cloud computing security.

The aim of the research “The State of Cloud Security 2020” was to assess the changing sense of security related to cloud computing and to shed a light on the IT decision makers regarding the conditions, the reasons, but also the risks, related to work and cloud security. Cloud services allow end users, but also small businesses and large organizations to increase flexibility and speed up their processes while reducing costs.

The research was conducted in the period July-September 2020 between upper management company executives, IT and digital security managers, as well as procurement managers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many turned to cloud services (companies and end users) and secure remote access to continue working remotely.

In the research involved more than 350 professionals and executives of IT and its conclusions were:

  • 67.06% of the participants in total are in a key position in the IT sector, with 27.84% stating that they are specialized in IT security, while 13.47% are in the field of IT Networking. 25.75% are employed in other branches of IT. Regarding the educational level, 53.89% of the participants hold a postgraduate / doctoral level of knowledge in IT. It is also noteworthy that over 57% of the respondents is employed mainly in large & medium enterprises while a 20% in small & medium enterprises.
  • 37.54% of the participants who have already faced a cyber threat or cyber security breach without serious problems. However, 10.81% stated that they had serious consequences from cyber-attacks on their systems or data. To address the problems, the executives interviewed conclude that the primary measure to be taken is training (IT security awareness training) at a rate that reaches 26.28%. Respectively follow the proposals for bigger investments in Network & Firewall protection25.38% and Cloud security 19.64%.
  • The 87.5% of respondents, stated that they use some form of service / application in the cloud. 82% state that uses a cloud service in their company such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), or Platform as a Service (PaaS). The 64% of executives say that the company or organization in which they work plans to launch applications in the cloud within the next 12 months while 28% say that the implementation plan will be completed by the end of the year with the pandemic playing a significant role in this.
  • For cloud security, 50% of the participants claim that the cloud security provided by the provider is not enough! The biggest concern regarding the use of cloud services seems to be the lack of skills to understand the impact on security by 51.80%. While a significant percentage of 52.91% declare as the biggest challenge in cloud security the detection and response to security incidents that come as a result of lack of visibility in the cloud and ignorance of cloud security.

In conclusion, we would say that according to the research findings, the field of digital security and especially in the cloud, needs, in addition to infrastructure, training of the technical staff, the users themselves, and the management of each company. With many companies continuing to work in telecommuting, education and information are more important than ever.

 

Source and entire article here

© 2022 University of Piraeus, Department of Digital Systems, Systems Security Laboratory. All Rights Reserved.
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