In 2014, WinMagic surveyed over 200 IT decision makers, asking about their company’s cloud storage policy…Here’s what we found:
-48% of IT decisions makers only allow the use of a cloud storage solution that the company has implemented.
12 months later, we surveyed over 2,000 adult consumers, 18 and older, about their confidence level in storing personal data to the cloud – here’s what they told us:
-76% of consumers are confident in the security of data both saved and accessed to and from a cloud storage service.
What do these two data points show us? That regardless of high-profile breaches on unencrypted data in the cloud, consumers aren’t losing any sleep at night about their personal information stored in DropBox. However, it does show us that IT decision makers know better and understand the repercussions of storing unprotected corporate (and personal) data in the cloud by only allowing for company-mandated storage solutions to be used.
The current state in understanding cloud data security is a bit foggy – consumers aren’t fully aware of the potential risk involved. That’s why we here at WinMagic are taking it upon ourselves to educate the masses on why encrypting your data before it makes its way to the cloud is vital to a sound security strategy. When it comes to cloud data encryption, it’s all about key management.
The challenge in today’s market comes down to who owns access to the encryption key. For those looking to secure their data in the cloud the smart way, make sure a solution is intact that will grant users full access to their encryption key. As long as the key is managed within the enterprise, and not by the external cloud providers, a user’s data will be rendered useless (i.e. encrypted) to a cyber-criminal looking to access sensitive information if the cloud is breached.
If you’re interested in learning more about the importance of data encryption as it relates to the cloud, feel free to reach out to a WinMagic representative.
