As more and more businesses migrate to the cloud, the question, “How safe is it?” has become an incredibly important one. Comprehensive research from Crowd Research indicates that 90% of business owners said that they were moderately concerned to very concerned about public cloud security.1 How justified are these worries about security and the cloud?

Ever since the cloud came into being, people have expressed concerns about its security. While many of the worst fears about the security of the cloud haven’t come to pass, it is still true that the cloud presents security challenges that some companies struggle to manage, creating the potential for compromised systems and data breaches.

While the cloud will never be completely impervious to security breaches, the security risk involved is often overstated and storing data on a private server does not guarantee that data will be safer.2 According to business owners who have migrated to the cloud, only 28% said that their security risk was higher. The rest reported their security had improved, remained the same, or they did not keep track.

Perhaps surprisingly, malware and hacking are not the biggest risks to cloud security. Instead, the most prevalent cloud security issues are unauthorized access (63%), accounts being hijacked (61%), and malicious insiders who purposely compromise organizational security from within (43%). Comparatively, malware and denial of service (DoS) attacks were considered to be relatively smaller risks (33% and 39%, respectively).

As the previous data shows, the biggest threat to cloud security often comes from inside an organization, rather than without. Lax internal security policies, employee carelessness, and malicious insiders can all compromise the safety of data irrespective of where it’s stored – in the cloud or internally.

To help organizations keep their data safe, cloud service providers can provide them with tools that help maintain cloud security and which effectively monitor their systems to catch potential threats as soon as possible. Here at frevvo, we help businesses keep their data secure with multiple levels of security features.

Some of the ways that frevvo keeps information shared safe on its cloud-based web forms include:•Keeping all processing and storage contained to private subnets with no Internet access.•Maintaining strict firewalls between all subnets.•Daily security patches.•Secure storage access auditing.•Individual user verification for all sessions and data transfers.

To keep the cloud secure, businesses and service providers need to work together. When service providers give organizations access to a robust and effective set of security tools, those organizations become empowered to protect the security of their data from within.

frevvo’s mobile electronic web forms and workflow approvals allow businesses to harness the power of the cloud. frevvo’s enterprise-ready web forms are easy to build, and can be accessed 24/7 on any device.

To learn more, visit www.frevvo.com today.

1. http://www.crowdresearchpartners.com/portfolio_item/cloud-security/

2. http://www.cio.com/article/2922374/cloud-security/20-of-the-greatest-myths-of-cloud-security.html

Summary

The biggest security threats to the cloud include unauthorized access, malicious insiders, and employee accounts being hijacked. To combat these threats, organizations need a strong internal security policy, as well as access to security tools from service providers.