Cloud Security Challenges Today: Expert Advice on Keeping your Business Safe
This October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month in North America and the European Union. The purpose of this month is to educate people around the world about online security risks and the steps they can take to protect their personal information.
Cybersecurity awareness helps protect enterprises, employees, and customers. That’s why, more than ever, enterprises are working hard to protect sensitive data against breaches and hacks. Likewise, consumers want to change unsafe habits, so they can better protect their personal and vulnerable information.
One answer may be a cloud-based customer identity and access management (CIAM) solution, like the one we have built at LoginRadius. This would enable more security features like single sign-on, passwordless logins, and multi-factor authentication.
How safe is cloud computing?
Cloud security (AKA cloud computing security) is a set of policies, technologies, applications, and controls used to protect data and other material that is stored or run in the cloud.
To benefit from using cloud-based services, enterprises must also invest in industry-standard cloud security. Luckily, SaaS companies like LoginRadius specialize in cloud security that keeps customer data secure and private. That’s why we’re also an Identity as a Service (IDaaS) company.
What is IDaaS?
IDaaS is a software platform that focuses on protecting and managing digital identities. At LoginRadius, cloud security is at the core of our customer identity and access management (CIAM) platform. Cloud security is built into the foundation of everything we do—and we have the credentials to prove it.
Which security credentials matter?
LoginRadius has successfully passed multiple audits and earned several certifications in recognition of our commitment to security. These include SOC 2® and ISAE 3000 Type II audits, which we completed in July and August. The SOC 2, issued by the American Institute of CPAs, is considered to be the highest standard for ensuring the security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality of customer data. Meanwhile, the ISAE 3000, issued by the International Federation of Accountants, is a standard for assurance over non-financial information.
In August, we also achieved the ISO 27001 Information Security Standard Accredited certification, which sets the international industry-standard for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an information security management system.
Our Privacy Shield compliance certification recognizes our compliance with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the EU and Switzerland to the US.
In addition, we hold a Security Trust Assurance and Risk (STAR) certification issued by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). CSA describes the STAR program as the most powerful cloud security assurance program, “encompassing key principles of transparency, rigorous auditing, and harmonization of standards.”
Why is certification important?
Recently, on the CSA Security Update podcast, LoginRadius CTO and co-founder Deepak Gupta was asked why STAR certification is so important. Deepak replied:
“CSA STAR frameworks contain the best practices for any software service platform vendor. It combines all of the various compliances an organization needs (with a specific focus on) cloud providers.”
In the podcast, Deepak went on to say that certification “provides a level of assurance and transparency, not only for our customers but for their end-users, as well.”
Mr. Gupta also explained that since LoginRadius gets certifications, they are “setting the standards (so that) customers don’t need to worry about security policies and frameworks.”
How is certification conducted?
Certifications are conducted through strict third-party audits. These audits examine everything from the development of the LoginRadius Identity Platform to our data security management systems. For us to receive certification, we must first undergo annual audits and inspections, practice reviews, and many other organizational standards and assessments.
Our certifications allow you to enjoy data security, along with time and cost savings from avoiding the development, installation, and auditing of your on-premises computing.
As Deepak puts it: “(It’s not) just a certification; it’s something that protects every single portion of this company and our customers.”
The podcast’s host agreed. “That’s a great approach that everyone needs to take to heart. It’s about people and process, on top of technology—not just technology alone.”
Why choose cloud computing?
Cost-effectiveness
Typically, on-premises security solutions require a substantial investment to engineer and maintain.
By contrast, with cloud computing, you don’t need to pay anything upfront. That’s because cloud security tools are built and operated by a third-party vendor. You only pay for what you need or use through a monthly or annual subscription.
Maintenance
With cloud security, a third-party vendor is responsible for maintaining the system, not you. This vendor is the one spending their money and time on upgrading, integrating, and optimizing the system. The vendor also keeps the technology up-to-date, leaving you free to focus on growing your business.
Scalability
As your business grows, so will your security needs. That’s why cloud applications are becoming more popular. The more popular a site or media station, the more crucial scalability is to prevent outages. Cloud servers are made to support massive sign-ins and sudden, dramatic surges of user actions (during a major sports game or popular TV voting system).
In fact, the LoginRadius Identity Platform was designed with service provider-class scale in mind. The distributed CIAM network has regularly experienced peak transaction volumes in excess of 150,000 logins per second, and typically handles 10,000 requests per second with less than 500 milliseconds latency. Check our live status to see more.
Unlike on-premise systems, cloud security is easily scalable by your third party vendor as your customer base expands. Cloud security is also easily configured, quickly implemented, and fully functional. Cloud computing also provides a high level of availability with less downtime, so your customers’ needs are consistently met. In fact, LoginRadius provides 99.99 – 100% uptime. In case of a service interruption, we have an active failover to Amazon Web Services. And our application is hosted on Microsoft Azure with 35+ data centers worldwide.
Compliance
Any enterprise that stores customer data must comply with global privacy regulations. These regulations govern how you seek customer consent to use their data and what you do with that data.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is just one example of this kind of legislation, but similar rules are coming into force all over the world. With cloud security, your third-party vendor is responsible for compliance and has the expertise to do so.
At LoginRadius, our Identity Platform complies with all significant data security and privacy laws and with the terms of various social networks. We monitor these laws regularly for changes or updates. And being that our cloud data centers are in over 35 locations worldwide, you can choose where your customer data is stored to comply with local data regulations.
Secure Data Access
Customer access to their data is a requirement of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and non-compliance can result in hefty fines. However, data stored on cloud services is instantly available to authorized users. On the cloud, centralized data can be backed up regularly and restored quickly in case disaster recovery is ever necessary.
Cloud Security Alliance
The Cloud Security Alliance is the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of cloud security best practices. LoginRadius is a member, along with other experts in cloud security. Together, CSA members share up-to-date developments about the cloud computing environment. We recognize emerging security risks so that we can improve cloud security for everyone.
CSA members also work together on developing tools and methods for ensuring data governance and security. Data security is especially important to enterprises during this age of sophisticated data breaches and crippling fines. Members like One Trust and LoginRadius share vital tools and expertise that benefit the cloud community.
As mentioned earlier, one way that LoginRadius recently shares expertise with the CSA is through their podcast, CSA Security Update. To hear Deepak’s interview with them, visit the CSA Security podcast on iTunes.
For more insights on cloud security or compliance, contact Deepak on LinkedIn, Twitter, or email the CSA at [email protected].
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Identity Blog authored by LoginRadius. Read the original post at: https://www.loginradius.com/blog/2019/10/cloud-computing-security-challenges/
