Cloud security ain't what it used to be

Simon Edward • 10 January 2025

Cloud security threats and solutions are developing all the time. Get up to date with our jargon-free rundown.

As the cloud changes, cloud security has to change, too. And change it has. The last few years have seen subtle but significant shifts in how IT systems worldwide are protected against cyber threats.

These changes are fascinating in themselves – from the rise in "zero-trust" security to the increasingly prominent role of AI in threat detection and neutralisation.

But they're not just interesting – they're also useful. Those who fail to learn from history, they say, are doomed to repeat it. Studying current trends in cloud security can help businesses prepare for the cyber threats of tomorrow.

But before we look towards the future, what have we learnt from the recent past?

What have we learnt?

The cloud landscape is always changing. But the fundamental questions for IT departments and consultants the world over remain pretty much the same.

Data breaches, hacked accounts, insider threats, DDoS attacks: none of these terms will be new to any cyber security professional. It's the methods used by both criminals and security experts that are changing.

In other words, the main lesson we've learnt in recent years is that cyber security can never sleep. Both internal and external threats remain present, and they can cause businesses big and small a huge amount of stress (not to mention financial losses).

The other lesson has been that speed is double-sided. It's never been easier to create and deploy apps. This dynamism is helping businesses innovate – but it's also leading to more frequent misconfigurations. This is a lesson that many businesses would do well to consider in the coming years.

What's changed?

To explain how cloud security has changed, you must first understand how society has changed.

Before the pandemic, most workforces were concentrated in office premises. Networks were contained within neat perimeters. Cyber threats were real – but it was relatively easy to keep a watchful eye over the network.

Today, hybrid working is the norm, bringing with it increasingly complex and sprawling decentralised networks. Devices and users enter and exit the network from multiple locations.

This has unlocked efficiencies for businesses and in some cases improved staff wellbeing. But it's also lifted the lid on a Pandora's box of novel threats.

Today, every access request is suspect. This is the number one reason for the recent upswing in zero-trust security models. When every device and user could be a threat, your cloud security posture must be ruthless and comprehensive.

Zero-trust security assumes the worst. Its core principle of "never trust, always verify" makes it harder than ever for threats to get through a gap in the chain.

It does away with the notion that once a user or device has been authenticated, it can make itself at home. Instead, it has to be re-verified each time it joins the network.

This zero-trust philosophy is often linked to tiered access permissions. Not everyone needs access to everything. Tiered access permissions, sometimes called granular permission management, give people the access they need and keep them away from workloads above their pay grade.

How is AI changing cloud security?

AI is now so firmly embedded in IT that it's hard to imagine life without it. It's even penetrated the mainstream, with text and image generators like ChatGTP and DALL-E becoming household names.

It's a hugely complex and varied field. When it comes to cloud security, it can be both a threat and a form of protection.

AI-generated phishing emails, for instance, are good at slipping past filters into people's inboxes. Many of us have become adept at spotting spam – those telltale signs such as poor spelling, punctuation and grammar, appeals to sympathy, and so on.

But AI has a way of sounding more human than some humans. This means that cybersecurity has to become more vigilant than ever to stop people from getting scammed or company security from being compromised.

It's not all doom and gloom. AI is also being harnessed as a tool for fighting cybercrime. With its superhuman ability to spot patterns, it's well-placed to identify and neutralise threats.

DevSecOps: putting security at the centre

Finally, recent years have seen many businesses put the "Sec" into "DevOps", automating security with DevSecOps.

This is to address a significant problem – the so-called "pace gap" that occurs when businesses create apps too quickly to effectively secure.

DevSecOps integrates security automation into the production process. Done well, this means businesses can quickly spin up apps without exposing them to security risks.

What new security challenges do enterprises face?

The cyber security landscape is changing all the time. Today's "new security challenges" could fade into insignificance or be replaced by some newer, more challenging threat.

At the time of writing, however, there are three main challenges that enterprises face.

The first is the seemingly unstoppable rise of diverse cloud environments. Very few medium- to large-sized businesses now rely on a single cloud. Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are the norm. More complexity can mean better performance and improved cost-effectiveness. It can also introduce new security risks.

Then there's the sheer speed at which new cyber threats can emerge. We predict that many enterprises will use AI more and more to identify, contain and neutralise these threats.

But for our money, the biggest threat is internal, not external. Many enterprises don't have the skilled personnel they need to implement and manage cloud security solutions that are fit for today's threats.

It's not surprising, really. State-of-the-art security solutions are highly technical and highly specific. Even well-trained IT personnel can struggle to keep up.

This is where a cloud consultant can make all the difference. By leveraging external expertise, you're freeing up time and resources for yourself and putting your company in the best possible position to deal with cloud security threats.

So, if you're looking for a cloud security consultant, don't hesitate to contact Ascend Cloud Solutions for a no-obligation consultation. We've been securing clouds since the cloud was born – and with our agile, solution-focused approach, we keep one step ahead of new risks.

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