Protecting Data in Cloud Requires ‘Very Different Toolset,’ Reports Sophos

The biggest threat to securing data stored in the cloud “is the cloud itself,” reported Sophos Tuesday. “Some businesses have found that pouring all their most precious information into a virtualized data store led to inadvertent, gigantic breaches of that data, sometimes in the most public and damaging ways possible,” said the cybersecurity company. The “threat model” of protecting data stored in the cloud is “quite different” from that of physical workstations or servers, and requires “a very different" tool set, it said. “The very thing that makes the cloud a great platform for computing and business operations also creates some of its greatest challenges.” Identifying and controlling threats to cloud data “becomes exponentially more difficult,” it said. “Flexibility” is key with cloud computing, but it can “come back to bite you later,” said Sophos. “One false step can lead to an administrator inadvertently opening up their entire customer database to exposure.”