Thales: 63% of enterprises using cloud, big data, IoT and container environments without securing sensitive data

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Fears about cloud decreasing, SaaS usage increasing

While concerns about data security in cloud environments remain high, they've dropped off since last year. In 2016, 70 percent of respondents voiced worries about security breaches from attacks targeting cloud service providers (CSPs); in 2017, 59 percent expressed fears. The second biggest concern, cited by 57 percent of respondents, is "shared infrastructure vulnerabilities," followed by "lack of control over the location of data" (55 percent). On the SaaS side, 57 percent of respondents report they are leveraging sensitive data in SaaS environments – up from 53 percent in 2016. When it comes to SaaS insecurities, respondents are most fearful about online storage (60 percent), online backup (56 percent) and online accounting (54 percent).

Garrett Bekker, principal analyst for Information Security at 451 Research says:

"Most major cloud providers have larger staffs of highly-trained security professionals than any enterprise, and their scalability and redundancy can provide protection from the kinds of DDOS attacks that can plague on-premises workloads. Perhaps, as a result of the recognition of these public cloud security realities, security concerns overall for public cloud are waning."

Big data and IoT: big hype, big security threat?

Big data is a big topic of conversation – so it might be unsurprising to learn 47 percent of respondents are using sensitive data in big data environments. When it comes to security, respondents cite their top fear as "sensitive data everywhere" (46 percent), followed by "security of reports" (44 percent) and "privileged-user access" (36 percent).

IoT adoption is even higher, with 85 percent of respondents taking advantage of IoT technology and 31 percent using sensitive data within IoT environments. Despite IoT's popularity, and despite the personal or critical nature of many IoT tools (medical and fitness devices; video cameras and security systems; power meters), only 32 percent of respondents report being "very concerned" about their data. When pressed about their top fears, 36 percent of respondents cited "protecting the sensitive data IoT generates," followed by "identifying sensitive data" (30 percent) and "privacy concerns" (25 percent).

Containers: the new (risky?) technology on the block

Although less than five years old, container environments have proven exceptionally popular. Eighty-seven percent of respondents have plans to use containers this year, with 40 percent already in production deployment. But similar to the emerging IoT environment (and owing to their relative immaturity), there remains a lack of enterprise-grade security controls in most container environments. Security is cited as the number one barrier to container adoption by 47 percent, followed by "unauthorized container access" (43 percent), "malware spread between containers" (39 percent), and "privacy violations resulting from shared resources" (36 percent).

Encryption the security strategy of choice for advanced technologies

While advanced technologies show great promise and business benefits, they are relatively young and in some cases, untested. Understanding this risk, respondents are gravitating towards a proven security control – encryption. According to the report, 60 percent of respondents would increase their cloud deployments if CSPs offered data encryption in the cloud with enterprise key control. Data encryption (56 percent) and digital birth certificates with encryption technology (55 percent) are also listed as the two most popular security options for IoT deployments. Rounding out the list is containers, with 54 percent of respondents citing encryption as the number one security control necessary for increasing container adoption.

Peter Galvin, VP of strategy, Thales e-Security says:

"The digital world we live in, which encompasses everything from cloud to big data and IoT, demands an evolution of IT security measures. The traditional methods aren't robust enough to combat today's complicated threat landscape. Fortunately, adopters of advanced technologies are getting the message – as evidenced by the number of respondents expressing an interest in or embracing encryption. Putting an 'encrypt everything' strategy into practice will go a very long way towards protecting these powerful, yet vulnerable, environments."

Organizations interested in both taking advantage of advanced technologies and keeping data secure should strongly consider:

• deploying security tool sets that offer services-based deployments, platforms and automation;
• discovering and classifying the location of sensitive data within cloud, SaaS, big data, IoT and container environments; and
• leveraging encryption and Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) technologies for all advanced technologies.

Please download a copy of the new 2017 Thales Advanced Technology Report for more detailed security best practices.

Industry insight and views on the latest key management trends can be found on the Thales e-Security blog at www.thales-esecurity.com/blogs.

Follow Thales e-Security on Twitter @Thalesesecurity, and on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

About Thales e-Security

Thales e-Security is the leader in advanced data security solutions and services that deliver trust wherever information is created, shared or stored. We ensure that the data belonging to companies and government entities is both secure and trusted in any environment – on-premise, in the cloud, in data centers or big data environments – without sacrificing business agility. Security doesn't just reduce risk, it's an enabler of the digital initiatives that now permeate our daily lives – digital money, e-identities, healthcare, connected cars and, with the internet of things (IoT), even household devices. Thales provides everything an organization needs to protect and manage its data, identities and intellectual property, and meet regulatory compliance – through encryption, advanced key management, tokenization, privileged-user control and high-assurance solutions. Security professionals around the globe rely on Thales to confidently accelerate their organization's digital transformation. Thales e-Security is part of Thales Group.

About Thales

Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 64,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14.9 billion in 2016. With over 25,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Its exceptional international footprint allows it to work closely with its customers all over the world.

Positioned as a value-added systems integrator, equipment supplier and service provider, Thales is one of Europe's leading players in the security market. The Group's security teams work with government agencies, local authorities and enterprise customers to develop and deploy integrated, resilient solutions to protect citizens, sensitive data and critical infrastructure.

Thales offers world-class cryptographic capabilities and is a global leader in cybersecurity solutions for defence, government, critical infrastructure providers, telecom companies, industry and the financial services sector. With a value proposition addressing the entire data security chain, Thales offers a comprehensive range of services and solutions ranging from security consulting, data protection, digital trust management and design, development, integration, certification and security maintenance of cybersecured systems, to cyberthreat management, intrusion detection and security supervision through cybersecurity Operation Centres in France, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Hong Kong.

SOURCE Thales

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