Study: IT Decision Makers Keep Sensitive Data In The Cloud
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
A study from Vormetric reveals 60 percent of U.S. IT decision makers surveyed keep sensitive data in the cloud. The 2015 Vormetric Insider Threat Report (ITR) is based on a survey conducted online on its behalf by Harris Poll in fall 2014 among 818 IT decision makers globally, including 408 in the United States, and analysis was performed in conjunction with analyst firm Ovum.
“The cloud and Big Data survey results demonstrate that there is both hope and fear when it comes to cloud and Big Data technologies,” Andrew Kellett, lead analyst for Ovum and author of the 2015 Vormetric Insider Threat Report – Global Edition, says in a press release.
“This fear can lead to slow implementation of these platforms, which stymies innovation and growth. But, there are steps enterprises can take and changes providers can make that will increase adoption. For example, more than half of global respondents would be more willing to use cloud services if the provider offers data encryption with key access control.”
The study finds that almost half (46 percent) are concerned about market pressures to adopt cloud services, while cloud environments (46 percent) is seen as by far as the location with the greatest risk faced by enterprise organizations, trailed by databases (37 percent) and file servers (29 percent). And perhaps more unsettling, IT decision makers view Big Data environments as being slightly more at risk than file servers, at 31 percent vs 29 percent, respectively.
Among the top data security concerns regarding cloud services were lack of control over the location of data (82 percent); increased vulnerabilities from shared infrastructure (79 percent); and privileged user abuse at the cloud provider (78 percent).
And when it comes to increasing the likelihood of cloud adoption, respondents cited encryption of data with enterprise key control on their premises (55 percent); encryption of their organization’s data within the service provider’s infrastructure (52 percent); service level commitments and liability terms for data breaches (52 percent); and explicit security descriptions and compliance commitments (48 percent) as most significant factors.
“The data shows that U.S. IT decision makers are conflicted about their cloud deployments,” said Alan Kessler, CEO of Vormetric. “Market pressures and the benefits of cloud service use are strong, but enterprises have serious security concerns around these environments. There is enormous anxiety over how sensitive data and systems can best be protected, with lack of control listed as the number one worry among U.S. respondents.”
“For cloud service providers to increase their footprint in the enterprise, they must address enterprise requirements around security, data protection and data management. More specifically, cloud service providers need to provide better protection and visibility to their customers.”