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Secure cloud access.

Securing cloud access deals with access control and threat detection in cloud applications, such as G Suite or Office 365. Information security managers secure cloud access in two kinds of cases:

Access from the local networks to authorized or unauthorized cloud services.Access from anywhere to an organization’s cloud resources

What Does it Mean to Secure Cloud Access?

Cloud access security covers issues such as risk assessment, policy violations, shadow cloud applications, and account misuse. Unlike a firewall, it concerns itself with application-specific policies and the actions of apparently legitimate users.

The difference is important. Weaknesses in security aren’t limited to malware but can also include improper use of accounts, malicious mobile apps, and more. This type of activity will not be caught with traditional firewalls alone.

As more organizations move to the cloud, access to email, files, and databases needs to be secured within the cloud environment, as well as on entry and exit.

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section 3 - how to secure cloud access

How to secure cloud access

One common challenge that almost all companies face when they outsource
their Internet hosting is how they will connect their offices, stores and remote
employees to their outsourced hosting infrastructure in the data center.

It is essential to stay productive and not waste time on slow or unreliable connections when accessing company applications running in the data center.

First, it is most likely that your private network is already linked to the internet, and so is the data center or cloud. You can interconnect these two locations through the following options:

TYPES OF VPN CONNECTIONS

Site-to-site Virtual Private Network (VPN) link through the internet.

The single-host-to server or point-to-point VPN is probably the safest type. It provides an encrypted tunnel from the client to the host for a multiplicity of services. Even so, it is not devoid of a few security issues and is much similar to a network-to-network VPN when it comes to layer three or lower. Fortunately, most cloud service providers utilize service-to-host models via SSL, SSH, or other dedicated services.

Pros:

  • Cost: VPN is by far the cheaper option. It usually does not require additional hardware and has a low usage fee.
  • Easy to set up: VPN is widely available and can be set up in a matter of minutes.

Cons:

  • Performance: Though VPNs are cheap and safe, their performance is heavily dependent on the reliability of the VPN link.

Point-to-Point / Dedicated Connections

The second alternative is the point-to-point connections. A point-to-point connection is essentially a dedicated connection between your private network and the data center or cloud.

Pros:

  • Speed: businesses with dedicated connections enjoy faster speeds because they bypass the internet. Connection speeds vary depending on the provider and the package and can range from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps.
  •  Reliability: Before the arrival of direct connections, the only way of accessing the cloud was through standard internet connections. This added a fair share of concerns, including broken connections, extra costs, and hacking. Point-to-point links have since eliminated such issues and dramatically increased reliability.

Cons:

  • Cost: A dedicated connection cost much more than a VPN.
  • Rigid contract: Service providers typically require long lead time for initial setup and at least one year of commitment.

Benefits of Cloud Access Security

Using a cloud access security solution provides a number of benefits:

User monitoring and compliance: Monitoring users will catch deviations from normal behavior, such as logging in from a different place or at an unusual time, a jump in data usage, or a qualitative change in account usage.

Such shifts may indicate a hijacked account or an insider threat.

Data loss prevention: If sensitive data is being exported in an unusual way, that may be a sign of data theft. A cloud application security solution will report anomalies so that administrators can take a closer look. Such as an employee accidentally sharing a file containing credit card numbers with users who shouldn’t be able to access it.

It will also catch unintentional data leaks

 

Malware and threat protection: malware and phishing schemes are evolving with the trend toward cloud computing. These threats now go beyond infected email links to include malicious cloud/mobile applications and file sharing. Which a firewall or gateway would never be able to detect.

Cloud security tools will detect and quarantine all types of malware in the cloud environment

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The Need For Cyber Security

Despite how comfortable we have become with the digital spectrum, the internet remains a vulnerable place for most of us. In the online world, our data is prone to outside attacks. There are millions of laymen putting their data on-line. Such internet users are not aware of the threat of privacy breaches and how it may affect them. This is exactly why cyber-security is a necessary step for every Internet user. The potential for damage is far too high.

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