Cloud account compromises costs organisations £4.5m annually

An open padlock.

The average cost of cloud account compromises reached $6.2 million (£4.5m) over a 12-month period according to more than 600 IT and IT security professionals in the US.

This finding is the most revealing of many from a new report on ‘The Cost of Cloud Compromise and Shadow IT’ released by Proofpoint, a cybersecurity and compliance company, and the Ponemon Institute, an IT security research organisation.

Of the respondents, 68% believe cloud account takeovers present...

6 July 2021 | Data & Analytics

Human rights activists urge Google to halt cloud computing work in Saudi Arabia

View over Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Human rights groups and activists have called on Google to halt plans to establish a Cloud Region in Saudi Arabia until the company can publicly demonstrate how it will mitigate risks to human rights.

In December 2020, Google announced an agreement with Saudi Aramco to set up a Google Cloud region in Saudi Arabia and offer Enterprise Cloud services there “with a particular focus on businesses in the Kingdom”. The Google Cloud Platform is one of the largest data storage and...

26 May 2021 | Google Cloud

Why you should look at a global footprint for your cloud: A 10-point guide

With the increased awareness around cloud solutions, most organisations immediately think about reducing cost and shortening time-to-market. As more ideas around cloud are discussed, other criteria like performance, security, compliance, workload segmentation, and how to integrate the cloud become more relevant to an existing environment. The profile of a global cloud footprint; however, is an equally important consideration. 

It may be time to think about why having a...

26 November 2020 | Cloud Migration

How IONOS is looking towards privacy and Europe for a solid share of the cloud market

The hyperscale providers continue to dominate the cloud infrastructure and hosting market. According to industry watcher Synergy Research in May, the combined market share of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google alone was 56%.

Yet one area has the potential to cause concern - and it has pricked the ears of other players looking to capitalise.

In August, CloudTech reported on the ending of the Privacy Shield agreement by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The...

6 November 2020 | Infrastructure

The US trade war extends from 5G to cloud – with more disinformation and distraction

Comment We have already witnessed how the US administration’s campaign against Huawei succeeded in reversing the UK government’s original decision to allow Huawei to participate in the UK 5G rollout. Even as questions are being raised about the necessity and the economic consequences of this ban, the US is now stepping up its campaign by focusing on Huawei’s cloud business as well. This comes as a strangely welcome distraction for US cloud players that have recently been found to all...

5 November 2020 | Data & Analytics

The next steps for the EU and US post-Privacy Shield: How can Europe win the digital race?

Opinion It has been seven years since Edward Snowden exposed the level of surveillance by US intelligence agencies that one might have rather expected from totalitarian countries. Petabytes of private or company data – no matter from which country – are made available to US authorities by default without suspect or a court decision.

While little is known publicly about current practice, it would certainly be more than surprising if the powers and capabilities of the US...

19 August 2020 | Cloud Computing Privacy News. Read the latest news and insights on privacy in cloud computing here at Cloud Tech News.">Privacy

Privacy Shield ruling could lead to dark clouds ahead for hyperscalers, advocates warn

The ending of the Privacy Shield agreement by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) could have serious ramifications for the major hyperscale cloud providers, according to privacy activists.

Privacy Shield is an EU-US agreement which 'provides companies on both sides of the Atlantic with a mechanism to comply with data protection requirements in support of transatlantic commerce', in the words of the framework's website statement.

Max Schrems, a leading privacy advocate,...

7 August 2020 | Data & Analytics

Why machines protecting themselves is the future of cybersecurity

Bottom Line: Existing approaches to securing IT infrastructure are proving unreliable as social engineering and breach attempts succeed in misdirecting human responses to cyber threats, accentuating the need for machines to protect themselves.

Any nation's digital infrastructure and the businesses it supports are its most vital technology resources, as the COVID-19 pandemic makes clear. Cybercriminal and advanced persistent threat (APT) groups are attempting to capitalise on the...

15 May 2020 | Cloud Computing Privacy News. Read the latest news and insights on privacy in cloud computing here at Cloud Tech News.">Privacy

Q&A, Simon Cuthbert, Tenfold: On the problem of over-privilege and IAM best practices

To misquote Benjamin Franklin, in this world nothing can be certain except death, taxes, and security being the biggest concern for cloud migration. Flexera's most recent State of the Cloud report last month laid it bare; more than four in five (81%) enterprises said security was the main challenge, ahead of managing spend and governance.

The latter two areas are, naturally, also linked to security. But as cloud workloads become increasingly complex, and as multi-cloud moves from...

12 May 2020 | Cloud Computing Privacy News. Read the latest news and insights on privacy in cloud computing here at Cloud Tech News.">Privacy

The rise of obfuscated VPN servers and their use cases: A guide

VPNs continue to be used extensively as tools to protect data security and user privacy. Yet, as to be expected, there are many providers available, and many options within those providers – so buyer confusion can reign.

A virtual private network, by itself, is the secure, private connection between your device and your intended destination. When dealing with VPN servers, the options start to...

24 October 2019 | Cloud Computing Privacy News. Read the latest news and insights on privacy in cloud computing here at Cloud Tech News.">Privacy