According to the cloud security alliance (CSA) report 2018, the landscape for cloud services is expanding and so are the security options. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is overlapping with platform as a service (PaaS), while the software as a service (SaaS) market is also expanding. The increase in the number of cloud access security broker (CASB) providers and managed security services is also a sign that organizational security is going beyond the traditional business perimeter.

Training videos and handbooks may not be sufficient as enterprises are utilizing multiple cloud services and are unable to find a way in terms of ensuring security. As per the reports, businesses need to aim towards safe and secure default configurations ensuring proper use of the latest technologies. A minor data breach even due to some user error can impact customer trust and reliability of a product. User interface and behavior should be just as imperative as the features of the new technologies.

Technologies evolve faster than the organizations’ ability to adopt them. Therefore, the gap needs to be bridged by the industry professionals through partnership and collaboration. While cloud security still remains a ‘work in progress’, it is incumbent for the businesses to collaborate ensuring that their key security issues are addressed.

The board of CSA believes that the report will serve as a roadmap to developing best practices in the formation of baseline security requirements needed to protect organizational data.