Some Businesses Do Not Understand Risk of Moving to Cloud

A new study commissioned by Thales and conducted by Ponemon Institute suggests that business may be negligent when moving their data into the cloud.

The study found that two-thirds of the companies surveyed said they have no idea what the cloud provider does to secure their data and almost as many said that they believe the cloud provider carries the responsibility of protecting their data.

The survey included a substantial respondent base of 4,000 business, half of which are apparently moving confidential data into the cloud. Only 36 percent of those who replied to the survey said that their organization has the primary responsibility of managing encryption keys, while 22 said this responsibility lies within the service provider.

“It’s a rather sobering thought that nearly half of respondents say that their organization already transfers sensitive or confidential data to the cloud even though 39 percent admit that their security posture has been reduced as a result," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute. "This clearly demonstrates that for many organizations the economic benefits of using the cloud outweigh the security concerns."

Ponemon added that "organizations that have a strong overall security posture appear to be more likely to transfer this class of information to the cloud environment – possibly because they most understand how and where to use tools such as encryption to protect their data and retain control." Of course, a major concern is that nearly two thirds of those that move sensitive data to the cloud "have little or no knowledge about what measures their providers have put in place to protect data."

Ponemon said that there is "an enormous opportunity for cloud providers to articulate what they are doing to secure data in the cloud and differentiate themselves from the competition.”

Wolfgang Gruener is a contributor to Tom's IT Pro. He is currently principal analyst at Ndicio Research, a market analysis firm that focuses on cloud computing and disruptive technologies, and maintains the conceivablytech.com blog. An 18-year veteran in IT journalism and market research, he previously published TG Daily and was managing editor of Tom's Hardware news, which he grew from a link collection in the early 2000s into one of the most comprehensive and trusted technology news sources.

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