66% of information security specialists believe that cloud protection technologies do not work

Check Point experts presented the Cloud Security Report 2019 on the security of cloud storage.

According to a Check Point study, 66% of information security specialists believe that traditional security tools cannot provide sufficient protection in the cloud or do not protect at all.

“The findings in the report suggest that information security specialists need to review security strategies and replace outdated solutions ASAP. Criminals seek to exploit cloud vulnerabilities in organizations – as many as 15% of respondents report cloud security incidents,” – says Zohar Alon, head of the cloud solution business at Check Point Software Technologies.

Cloud service providers strengthen security measures to protect their platforms, but the responsibility for protecting data and applications on these platforms lies on the customers themselves.

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Despite the fact that more than half of the organizations (54%) stated that their cloud storages have never been attacked, a quarter of the respondents could not accurately answer this question, and another 15% confirmed that their clouds suffered from any security incidents.

The main findings of the Cloud Security Report are:

1. The four most vulnerable places in the public cloud: unauthorized access to the cloud (42%), insecure interfaces (42%), incorrect configuration of the cloud platform (40%) and account theft (39%).
2. Key security concerns while working with the cloud: IT professionals are struggling with insecurity and for compliance with the regulatory requirements of the cloud infrastructure (67% of respondents noted these problems). Installing consistent security policies in the cloud and on the organization’s computers, as well as shortage of qualified security personnel, account in sum for 31%.
3. Legacy security solutions: 66% of respondents said that the technologies they use either do not work at all or provide limited protection in cloud environments.
4. Organizations do not use clouds due to security issues: data security is the biggest barrier to the introduction of public cloud systems, according to almost third (29%) of respondents. Second place occupies risk of disclosing classified information (28%), third is the problem of compliance with regulatory requirements (26%) and lack of experience and qualified personnel to ensure security (26%).

“Companies need to ensure full transparency in all their public cloud environments, which will be supported by the automation of cloud policies, regulatory compliance, protection of privileged users and threat analysis to make cloud storage more secure and manageable”, – advises Zohar Alon.