To put it bluntly, March in the New York metro area is not a golf-friendly month. Luckily, Kelly Communications Systems and security partner, Netskope, scored a “Double eagle” on Thursday, March 30 during their roundtable discussion on cloud security. Not only did attendees relish the mild temperatures, but information security professionals enjoyed an in-depth conversation on addressing their own cloud security risk.

The event, “What’s Driving Your Cloud Security,” brought together CIOs, CISOs, and a variety of additional information security titles from New York and New Jersey to TopGolf in Edison, NJ. The highly-sophisticated venue was the perfect setting for an engaging lunch and learn on cloud security; TopGolf features microchip-embedded golf balls that score themselves and climate-controlled hitting bays allow year-round play on the most innovative outdoor simulators.

 

A ‘Stroke’ of Genius and Innovation

The discussion during the event was led by Bob Gilbert, Vice President of Product Marketing at Netskope, a California-based cloud security company. He reviewed a variety of topics related to: cloud app usage risk, compliance in the cloud, visibility and control over cloud spend, and cloud malware and threats, among additional exciting threads.

While there’s no doubt Bob’s talk was an impressive ‘hole in one,’ his “Six Steps to Addressing Cloud Risk” were his most prescient. As per his presentation, more and more companies are adopting cloud-based data storage and likewise cloud-based security monitoring via Cloud Access Security Brokers, or CASBs. According to Gartner’s latest research, in fact, 85% of large enterprises will be using CASBs by 2020.

Step 2 was probably the most interesting. While Bob’s slide simply read: “Safely enable cloud apps instead of blocking them outright,” like a pro golfer assessing a difficult Par 4, there was plenty to un-package. At a preliminary level, what Bob was saying was this: “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” acknowledging the degree to which a growing whirlwind of clouds apps have emerged on the business landscape. (Again, as per his slides, today there are some 22,000 cloud apps and the clear majority of them – 95 percent – are unknown by IT specialists, nor are they enterprise-ready.)

So the question is, how exactly do you “join ‘em” safely? Consider the case study Bob was kind enough to reference:

A large financial services company wanted to use social media as part of their marketing strategy; however, executives were (rightly) afraid that employees would use language such as “guarantee” or “recommend” in their posts, which would obviously conflict with rules and guidelines established by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, (FINRA).

Recognizing challenges such as these, the Netskope solution has filters that search for keywords along with every stock symbol. Filtering keywords in such a fashion empowers management with the knowledge of when an employee is preparing to make a post that contains such “red flag” language. Additionally, the software also produces a warning or disclaimer that inhibits the employee from posting.

 

A ‘Rough’ Patch for Businesses and Cloud-based Security

In my view, innovation like this needs to be cultivated. And businesses, with whatever means at our disposal, must be incentivized to appreciate two realities:

  • Cloud-based data storage isn’t the wave of tomorrow; it’s the wave of today
  • Failure to properly secure this data from unintentional internal data breaches or external hacking is becoming a pressing concern

Regarding this last point, one can scarcely read the morning headlines without coming across some news related to data security. And, as if to underscore the point, on the day of Bob’s talk, March 30, a recent report in Health Data Management indicated that cyber attackers launched 1,792 data breaches in 2016, resulting in some 1.4 billion data records being compromised globally.

In golf, it’s usually never wise to “swing for the trees.” Doing so suggests a lack of seriousness or precision. The same holds true when it comes to cloud-based data solutions. “Intelligent” software that can detect specific word choices is a great way to help employees help themselves, while also ensuring that large companies don’t run afoul of the law.

Instead of swinging for the trees, we commend Netskope for its own precision “game play” and welcome the opportunity to co-sponsor future events. Bob clearly “aced” his talk and left the virtual fairway in Edison master of the greens.

Interested in finding out more about the gaps in your organization’s cloud security? Take advantage of our free Cloud Application Risk Assessment here.