More than a third (39%) of businesses have experienced a data breach in their cloud environment last year, an increase on the 35% reported in 2022, according to the 2023 Thales Cloud Security Study.
Some highlights:
- Three quarters (75%) of businesses said that more than 40% of data stored in the cloud is classified as sensitive, compared to 49% of businesses this time last year.
- More than a third (38%) ranked Software as a Service (SaaS) applications as the leading target for hackers, closely followed by cloud-based storage (36%).
- Only a fifth (22%) of IT professionals reported that more than 60% of their sensitive data in the cloud is encrypted. According to the findings, on average, only 45% of cloud data is currently encrypted.
- Only 14% of those surveyed stating that they controlled all of the keys to their encrypted data in their cloud environments.
- Almost two thirds (62%) say they have five or more key management systems – creating increased complexity when securing sensitive data.
- More than three quarters (79%) of organisations having more than one cloud provider.
- In 2021, 16% of respondents reported their enterprises utilising 51-100 different SaaS applications, while in 2023 this percentage increased to 22%.
- More than half (55%) expressed that managing data in the cloud is more complex than in on-premises environments – up from 46% compared to the previous year.
- Eighty three percent expressed concerns over data sovereignty, and 55% agreed that data privacy and compliance in the cloud has become more difficult.
- The adoption of robust multi-factor authentication (MFA) has risen to 65%, indicating progress in fortifying access controls.
- Only 41% of organisations have implemented zero trust controls in their cloud infrastructure, and an even smaller percentage (38%) utilises such controls within their cloud networks.
“The study shows that organisations are operating in a dynamic multicloud landscape, demanding seamless and efficient access to on-demand IT infrastructure and services,” stated Sebastien Cano, Senior Vice President for Cloud Protection and Licensing activities at Thales.
“Treating cloud environments as an extension of existing infrastructure while maintaining exclusive control and security of data, especially sensitive data, is key to cloud security. Customer control of encryption keys is essential as it allows organisations to leverage the scalability, cost efficiency, and accessibility benefits of the cloud while ensuring the utmost integrity and confidentiality of their valuable information.”