Cloud security is becoming increasingly important. The cloud has changed technological and business paradigms with the promise of greater skills, flexibility and distribution, as well as representing the center of organizations’ strategies today. At the same time, cloud environments – precisely because of their decentralized nature – represent a goal sought after by malicious third parties: it means that fueling virtuous processes that combine development and security can consolidate cloud security from its foundations.
Approaching development and security as an indivisible combination means ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of the importance of security and that, even more importantly, security is always involved in the development of applications and updates, right from the beginning of the software development cycle: this is why we talk about DevSecOps (Development, Security, Operations). Cloud security emerges enhanced by the marriage between the development team and the security team.
Cloud security relevance
Cloud security embraces everything related to the protection of data and applications residing in the cloud; and it also represents the new front for defense against hackers.
In 2021, 40% of organizations (2,600 in all) registered at least one data breach, according to an elaboration by Statista: precisely the lack of organizational cloud security tools and processes are the basis of these. It is evidence of the importance of strengthening cloud security. And the effects are evident.
49% of the 720 respondents (IT professionals) said that the main consequence is unexpected spending to fix security flaws following an attack on cloud infrastructure; but it is much more: compliance costs; loss of competitive advantage over competitors; decline in company valuation; loss of customers.
But other effects – albeit less widely seen by organizations – must also be taken into account, such as the replacement of prominent individuals, lawsuits, and a decline in sales following the attack.
49% of 720 respondents (IT professionals) said that non-preventive spending to fix security flaws following an attack on cloud infrastructure is the main consequence; but they are much more: compliance expenses; the loss of competitive advantage over competitors; the decline in company valuation; the loss of customers.
But other effects, although less encountered by organizations, must also be taken into account, such as a replacement of top figures, lawsuits and a decline in sales following the attack.
DevSecOps for cloud security: the new frontier
However, cloud security should not be understood as a repair to be made ex post to a damage, to an intrusion into the cloud infrastructure: when this happens, in fact, it is late and it means that the organization has not done enough to protect it.
Security must be integrated from the beginning in the development and management of the software development cycle so that development teams and security teams have a dialogue from the beginning.
The benefits of the DevSecOps approach are manifold:
- by integrating security from the beginning, you prevent security issues;
- because the development team and security team talk right away, the organization saves time and costs associated with the software development cycle;
- cloud security is strengthened because the sharing of responsibilities, intrinsic in an organization where security is an integral part of processes, increases the generalized awareness of how to approach data and applications in the cloud.
Organizations that are able to interpret cloud security in a new and advanced way obtain added value that reduces time-to-market, allows them to better monetize data and applications in the cloud and above all brings together the skills present in the company. Cloud security is not just an extra: it is the priority. And it must be treated as such.