The Price of NOT Having a Cloud Security Tool in 2022: 6 Costly Risks

DO I REALLY NEED A CLOUD SECURITY TOOL FOR MY BUSINESS?

The short answer is, if your company relies on the cloud for its major computing operations, then Yes — you need a cloud security tool.

But let’s dig deeper into ‘Why?’

With increased adoption, comes increased threat. That’s almost always the rule, especially when it comes to security.

Today, as cloud computing dominates the way we work amid a continued acceleration of hybrid and remote work, cloud security threats have also remarkably spiked.

From ‘sneakier than usual’ phishing scams, to costly ransomware and DDoS attacks, we’re seeing it happen every day. This makes cloud security the number one concern for organizations with cloud-first environments in 2022.

To better understand some of the common threats a reliable cloud security tool protects you against checkout our six top risks below:

1. HIGHER CHANCE OF BEING CYBERATTACKED

In fact, in June 2021, the U.S. decided to give ransomware hacks a similar priority as terrorism.

Meanwhile, according to a UK government survey, 39% of UK businesses came under attack in the first quarter of 2021, with many incidents causing significant damage.

That reflects the staggering level of cyber threats out there today, and how important it is to shield up using a powerful cloud security tool.

SO HOW MUCH CAN A CYBERATTACK REALLY COST?

That considerably varies based on things like organization size and the type of successful cyber attack.

However, Hiscox’s 2019 Cyber Readiness Report states that the average cost of a successful cyber attack has soared to $200,000 per single incident (That’s just the average cost per incident, of course)

Now let’s factor in the University of Maryland’s findings; Hackers attack every 39 seconds, on average 2,244 times a day — Now you can get a more complete picture.

In fact, if we dig deeper into cloud security, we’ll find that the most chilling security breaches that make it to news headlines usually come from malicious outsider attacks.

2. LOST (OR STOLED) CLOUD DATA ASSETS:

Your company’s data and resources are one of its most valuable assets. When you store such assets in the cloud you need to make sure that your cloud environment is 100% protected from things like data theft and loss risks. 

In fact, Data Loss Prevention (DLP) failure and data theft incidents are shockingly common in today’s hyper-connected cloud world.

Every day we see them happen in different ways, bringing even the mightiest businesses to a crippling halt. 

To that, a powerful cloud security tool works as a fortified DLP ‘safe’ with a titanium lock and a security alarm. It protects your databases and resources 24/7 from damage, loss, theft, or hijacking.

3. HACKED USER LOGIN CREDENTIALS:

Over a year ago, Google issued an urgent warning explaining that billions of username and password combinations have been hacked, sparking a major security scare for organizations worldwide. 

Even Two-Step Authentication, which goes beyond the simple username and password verification, was recently bypassed by a group of hackers nicknamed APT20. 

This only reflects how zero-trust authentication tools offer the strongest protection against unauthorized access for all your cloud-based operations.

Comprehensive cloud security tools like GAT’s ActiveID take the authentication process literally to users’ fingertips. ActiveID continuously monitors users’ typing style to actively verify their identities for all cloud-based applications — at all times. 

4. MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR INSIDER THREATS:

According to Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigation Report, 34% of data breaches involved internal actors. 

You can train your employees on the best data security practices and policies, yet that doesn’t totally eliminate the possibility of negligence or insider incidents happening. 

24/7 access to cloud data and resources by everyone in your company is great when it comes to ease of collaboration, especially in our current ”more remote” world.

However, things like accidental deletion of important data or insider security attacks can always happen.

A comprehensive cloud security tool like GAT+ enables you to control things like sensitive file sharing and audit everything happening in your domain. You can set file-sharing policies across your organization and review suspicious activities more granularly to detect and halt insider data breach threats in their tracks.

5. DATA COMPLIANCE PAINS:

A strong cloud security tool helps you enforce data compliance throughout your organization and apply robust breach containment measures RIGHT AWAY. 

According to RiskBased, Data breaches exposed 4.1 billion records in the first half of 2019 alone.

Every company today operates under some sort of Data Protection Law. Unauthorized disclosure of personal information like email accounts, SSNs, and credit card information can have catastrophic after-effects that can go on for years. 

Additionally, penalties accompanying data compliance breaches or violations are extremely costly. In fact, GDPR fines totaled $63 million in its first year alone. 

Cloud Security tools like GAT Shield, for instance, provide powerful real-time DLP alerting for all Chrome activities and shared out Drive files. This in return enables admins to take immediate action and effectively address unauthorized exposures of sensitive data.

6. LOSS OF REPUTATION (AND CUSTOMER TRUST)

All of the above risks can (and usually) lead to critical data violations. They of course lead to reputation damage, loss of customer trust, and sometimes even pricey lawsuits — the last thing any company needs.

In fact, based on the above numbers alone, it’s safe to say that investing in a powerful and comprehensive cloud security tool is vital to protect every other aspect of your business’s endeavors and efforts.

Verdict: A robust cloud security tool is both your best radar and weapon to detect and halt these ever-present risks.