Many businesses are moving customer data to the cloud. Still, when common security measures aren’t followed, security breaches are more likely. By addressing security gaps sooner than later, SMBs can better protect themselves (and their customers) from the growing number of cyberattacks worldwide.

Even though the interest in migrating customer data to the cloud has increased rapidly over the years, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated cloud adoption. While many IT professionals consider the cloud to be secure, there have been plenty of instances when cybercriminals could successfully breach the networks and systems of SMBs.

In fact, 54 percent of organizations that store customer data in the cloud had security incidents in 2020, according to the 2021 Netwrix Cloud Data Security Report, which surveyed nearly 1,000 IT professionals across the globe.

The types of cyberattacks businesses face in the cloud aren’t new; however, many companies, especially SMBs, aren’t prepared for cyberattacks, even the more common ones, which is concerning.

The most common types of cloud security incidents in 2020 were the following, according to the report:
• Phishing (40 percent)
• Ransomware or other malware (24 percent)
• Accidental data leakage (17 percent)

Educating yourself and your employees on the most common cyberattack types certainly helps prevent cyberattacks on your company, especially when you’re facing some of the top data security challenges, many of which often completely destroy businesses (and the livelihood of business owners).

While the reasons why cybersecurity incidents occur vary, many businesses are up against some of the same limitations. According to the report, the top data security challenges are lack of IT staff (52 percent), lack of budget (47 percent), and lack of cloud security expertise (44 percent).

Despite limitations, businesses do have some security measures in place (even though they’re not enough). The most popular cloud security controls that organizations already have in place are encryption (62 percent), auditing of user activity (58 percent), and employee training (58%).

Additionally, nearly 50 percent of businesses already classify sensitive data in the cloud or plan to classify (31 percent).

The cloud isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The cloud computing industry is expected to grow from $371.4 billion in 2020 to $832.1 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 17.5 percent. If businesses want to thrive and survive in 2021, they must step up their cloud security measures.