Cloud Security Best Practices for 2020

Protect Your Cloud Data

1. Determine which data is the most sensitive. While applying the highest level of protection across the www.mcafee.com/activate board would naturally be overkill, failing to protect the data that is sensitive puts your enterprise at risk of intellectual property loss or regulatory penalties. Therefore, the first priority should be to www.mcafee/activate gain an understanding of what to protect through data discovery and classification, which is typically performed by www.mcafee.com/activate product key a data classification engine. Aim for a comprehensive solution that locates and protects sensitive www.mcafee.com/activate download content on your network, mcafee.com/activate product key endpoints, databases and in the cloud, while giving you the appropriate level of flexibility for your organization.
2. How is this data being accessed and stored? While it’s true that sensitive data can be stored safely in the cloud, it certainly www.mcafee.com/activate isn’t a foregone conclusion. According to the 21 percent of all files in the cloud contain sensitive data— mcafee.com/activate product key a sharp increase from the year before¹. While much of this data lives in well-established enterprise cloud services such as Box, Salesforce and Office365, it’s important to realize that none of these services guarantees 100 percent safety. That’s why it’s important to www.mcafee/activate examine the permissions and access www.mcafee.com/activate download context associated with data in your cloud environment www.mcafee.com/activate product key and adjust appropriately. In some cases, you may need to remove or quarantine sensitive data already stored in the cloud.
   
3. Who should be able to share it, and how? Sharing of sensitive data in the cloud has increased by more than 50% year over year.¹ Regardless of how powerful your threat mitigation strategy is www.mcafee.com/activate product key, the risks are far too high to take a reactive approach: access control policies should be established and enforced before data ever enters the cloud. Just as the number of employees who www.mcafee/activate need the ability to edit a document is much smaller than the number who may need to view it, it is very likely www.mcafee.com/activate download that not everyone who needs to be able to access certain data needs the ability to share Defining groups www.mcafee.com/activate and setting up privileges so that sharing is only enabled for those who require it can drastically limit the www.mcafee.com/activate product key amount of data being shared externally.
4. Don’t rely on cloud service encryption. Comprehensive encryption at the file level should be the basis of all your cloud security efforts. While the encryption offered within cloud services can www.mcafee.com/activate product key safeguard your data from www.mcafee.com/activate outside parties, it necessarily gives the cloud service provider access to your encryption keys. mcafee.com/activate product key To fully control access www.mcafee.com/activate download, you’ll want to deploy stringent encryption solutions, using your own keys, before uploading data to the cloud.

Minimize Internal Cloud Security Threats  

5. Bring employee cloud usage out of the shadows. Just because you have a corporate cloud security www.mcafee.com/activate product key strategy in place doesn’t mean that your employees aren’t utilizing the cloud on their own terms. From cloud storage accounts like Dropbox to online file conversion services, most people www.mcafee/activate don’t consult with IT before accessing  www.mcafee.com/activate download the cloud. To measure the potential risk of employee cloud use, you should first check your web proxy, firewall and SIEM logs to get a complete picture of which cloud services are www.mcafee.com/activate being utilized, and then conduct an assessment of their value to the
   
   employee/organization mcafee.com/activate product key versus their risk when deployed wholly or partially in the cloud. Also, keep in mind that shadow usage doesn’t just refer to known www.mcafee.com/activate download endpoints accessing unknown or unauthorized  www.mcafee.com/activate product key services—you’ll also need a www.mcafee/activate strategy to stop data from moving from trusted cloud services to unmanaged devices you’re unaware www.mcafee.com/activate of. Because cloud services can provide access from any device connected to the internet, unmanaged endpoints such as personal mobile devices www.mcafee.com/activate download create a hole in your security strategy. You can  www.mcafee/activate restrict downloads to unauthorized devices by making device security verification a prerequisite to downloading files.
6. Create a “safe” list. While most of your employees are utilizing cloud services for above-the-board purposes, some www.mcafee.com/activate of them will inadvertently find and use mcafee.com/activate product key dubious cloud services. Of the 1,935 cloud services in use at the average organization, 173 of them rank as high-risk services.¹ By knowing which services are being used at your company, you’ll be able to set policies 1.) Outlining what www.mcafee/activate sorts www.mcafee.com/activate product key of data are allowed in the cloud, 2.) Establishing a “safe” list of cloud applications  www.mcafee.com/activate download that employees www.mcafee.com/activate can utilize, and 3.) Explaining the cloud security best practices, precautions and tools required for secure utilization of these applications.
7. Endpoints play a role, too. Most users access the cloud through web browsers, so deploying strong mcafee.com/activate product key client
   
   security www.mcafee.com/activate tools and ensuring that browsers are up-to-date and protected www.mcafee.com/activate product key from browser exploits is a crucial www.mcafee/activate component of cloud security www.mcafee.com/activate download. To fully protect your end-user devices, utilize advanced endpoint security such as firewall solutions, particularly if using IaaS or PaaS models.