Cloud adoption isn't going away - but can your business deal with the security impact?

News
By published

It's even more complex now that multi-cloud is the norm

Cybersecurity ensures data protection on internet. Data encryption, firewall, encrypted network, VPN, secure access and authentication defend against malware, hacking, cyber crime and digital threat
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
  • Tool sprawl and visibility gaps are blocking companies from good security postures, report says
  • Around two in three agree they would prefer a unified security platform
  • Consolidation and automation are two of Fortinet's five recommendations

A new Fortinet report has confirmed cloud is now considered mission-critical for most businesses, underpinning many operations and their AI strategies - but it also comes with its downsides.

For example, cloud has massively expanded the attack surface beyond the scope of legacy cybersecurity tools.

As a result, more than two-thirds (69%) now blame tool sprawl and visibility gaps for creating cloud security barriers, and a similar number (66%) also admit they're not strongly confident in their ability to detect and respond to cloud threats in real-time, which marks an increase compared to the same data from one year ago.

Cloud has evolved, but have your security tools?

Further amplifying the increased attack surface, 88% of organizations use hybrid or multi-cloud environments, and 81% use two or more providers which only adds to the complexity and risk.

As for the current state of cloud-focused security, automation mostly serves as an alerting tool with only 11% having autonomous remediation. Three in five (59%) companies rate their maturity as 'early stage', with some of the biggest risks identified across identity and access (77%), misconfigurations (70%) and data exposure (66%).

Clearly money isn't the issue, because more than half (62%) expect cloud security budgets to increase compared with just 5% who expect it to decrease. In fact, a not-so-insignificant 34% of IT security budgets are allocated to cloud security on average.

What Fortinet calls for is the simplification of tools – 64% agree they would prefer a unified security platform, rather than stitching together multiple tools.

Looking ahead, Fortinet offers five key principles to improve the state of multi-cloud security: establishing unified visibility across all accounts, data stores and workloads; tool consolidation; connecting multiple risk domains rather than treating each element in isolation; adding a layer of automation to resolve low-risk, high-volume issues; and extending security beyond cloud to networks, SaaS and endpoints.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.

Craig Hale
Craig Hale

With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the decarbonisation of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value!

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.