Threat monitoring and incident response
Many large organisations leverage cloud managed services to handle threat monitoring and incident response. By using a cloud-based solution it aggregates all alerts and threat information and filters out events that are not considered a security threat. Large managed service providers also often have access to global security operations centers and threat intelligence centers which are critical in aggregating data and filtering out false positives.
Replacing passwords with advanced authentication
Advanced authentication as a cloud services helps manage access and improve trust among customers and business partners. Compromised credentials is the starting point for a lot of high profile hacks and by relying solely on passwords, you are exposing yourself to risk. There are many different cloud-based authentication platforms available which uses a combination of one-time passwords and hardware tokens which are more secure.
Identity and access management
Organisations employing cloud-based services to tackle identity and access management is a growing trend. Data analytics for identity and access management can be used to monitor employee usage patterns and flag any unusual behaviour. The solution looks for patterns around the employee access entitlements and then identifies unwanted access.
System updates, patching and hardening
Updating software is a timely task and often organisations can leave it fall through the cracks. The benefit of using the cloud is system updates are facilitated by the cloud service provider. As soon as the latest versions and patches are available, the organisation will have them. Each virtualised operating system can be secured by using hardening software.
Cloud providers take responsibility for risk of threats
Cloud service providers use stricter security measures for their infrastructures than most businesses. Their business and reputation is at stake and so they need to ensure everything is secure. These providers often have a global incident response team that works around the clock to mitigate against attacks. Organisations using cloud providers are often operating in a more secure environment.
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning
Artificial Intelligence equips cloud computing with massive power and immense capabilities from a cyber security prospective. It helps analyse and learn from historical data, identify patterns and make real time decisions. It can take many organisations several months to identify a breach. Combining cloud and AI could help identify breaches the day they happen. A lot of time is spent by cyber security professionals gathering and processing information. IBM’s Watson supercomputer can currently ingest four million security related documents in an hour. This highlights the potential capability of using AI in the cloud to improve security.
