Best Cloud Data Security Software & Tools

Cloud Data Security Software Definition: What is a Cloud Security System?

The term "Cloud Security" or "Cloud Data Security" refers to a branch of cybersecurity that focuses on securing cloud systems. In the case of Cloud Data Security, the focus is specifically on data organized in the cloud, whereas Cloud Security also affects other cloud computing solutions. The security approaches can overlap, however.

Essentially, the field of cloud data security aims to provide ideal conditions for the encryption, secure or authorized access, qualified use, and legal compliance of information in the cloud. The goal is to rule out both external and internal threats as much as possible. This also includes the development of specific strategies for these points.

Therefore, Cloud Data Security includes the following must-haves:

• Data backup - acute and preventive
• Identity and access organization
• Policies for data storage and use
• Ensuring legal compliance
• Development, establishment or enforcement of security strategies

Although the technical security of cloud data is largely in the hands of the respective cloud provider, companies must themselves take action for comprehensive protection. It is therefore not enough to choose a cloud provider with a modern and effective security concept. Cloud Data Security Software supports those responsible in implementing the corresponding tasks across the board. Depending on the setup, it can secure access and the use of information and/or add an additional layer of encryption to the provider's protection.

Why should companies use a cloud security tool?

According to the Federal Statistical Office, as early as 2020, 33 percent of German companies with at least ten employees were using paid cloud services. Assuming the increase of about ten percent over two years that had been observed up to that point, the diffusion today should be well above 50 percent. Among these businesses, 65 percent were already using the cloud for data storage at that time. This number should have increased significantly by now.

In view of the rapidly increasing use of the cloud, a comprehensive understanding of the requirements for data security within such systems is of vital importance. While cloud providers do take on a large part of the protection, not all relevant responsibilities are included. In particular, access management and legal as well as company-related correctness of data usage are usually not covered.

By default, most cloud providers provide reliable security measures that primarily focus on the integrity of their servers. However, for comprehensive protection of their data, companies must also make their own preparations on top.

This is because with the steadily increasing digitization, security risks have also intensified. Many current threats are explicitly aimed at cloud systems. The providers' standard security procedures are thereby specifically and quite successfully targeted. Without additional cloud data security measures, companies are taking considerable risks. In case of data theft, for example, central operational processes can be massively affected or high data protection-specific penalties can be imposed.

The dangers affect not only the technical security of the respective systems. Also, the user side access and handling of cloud data is an important issue. Because even the best encryption achieves relatively little if employees handle the stored information inappropriately and perhaps even dangerously. This becomes even more critical if these individuals then have access to data that they should not be able to see. Violations of compliance at various levels are particularly at risk, but also additional points of attack for criminals.

To effectively counter all these uncertainties both on a technical level and at an employee level is undoubtedly a major challenge. However, good cloud data security software can provide very efficient remedies here. With it, additional encodings or masking of the data can be set up, accesses can be limited and obligations can be established that regulate the company-friendly and legally compliant use of information.

How does cloud data security software work?

Cloud Data Security software can come with diverse features. These largely determine how such a solution works or which areas and processes can be secured with it. Here are the most typical features.

• Data masking: Data masking functions protect sensitive information by obfuscating them. This ensures, in addition to the security measures of the cloud provider, that the data remains usable only for the company and authorized parties.

• Data encryption: Encryption functions go a step further compared to masking. Here, a special algorithm and a corresponding key ensure that access can only be made by authorized individuals.

• Data loss prevention: These functions ensure that data is securely and regularly stored. This is especially important to avoid the loss of important information due to carelessness.

• Anomaly detection: Anomaly detection functions serve to monitor user behavior. They compare activities with benchmark patterns. This way, dangers arising from improper use of data can be safely ruled out.

• Data Protection Compliance: Cloud Data Security software can support those responsible and end users in complying with applicable legal standards - especially the GDPR. It then provides, among other things, models, instructions and warnings for correct handling.

• Compliance Monitoring: Compliance monitoring functions are closely related to data protection features. However, they regulate more the securing of policies set by the company. Tools for monitoring data quality and sending warnings in case of violations are possible. In addition, some solutions offer some strategic support in establishing corresponding regulations.

• User Analysis: User analysis functions enable the creation of reports and the documentation of behavior and the permissions of individual users. They form an optimal basis for improving data security policies.

• Identity and Access Management: With these functions, administrators can manage user access and authentication for their cloud system. This gives them the opportunity to precisely control what users can see, do and access.

• Virtual Private Network (VPN): Some cloud security solutions offer VPN features, allowing companies to securely connect remote users or devices via an encrypted tunnel with end-to-end protocols. This ensures that the risk of unauthorized data access remains low even via external devices.

• Backup and Disaster Recovery: Cloud security solutions often offer backup and disaster recovery functions. These allow companies to quickly restore their information in the event of a system failure or other emergency. This ensures that important data is never lost.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Cloud Data Security platforms?

Basically, a suitable system to ensure Cloud Data Security is extremely important for a comprehensive protection of information organized in cloud systems. This requirement is at the same time the main advantage of corresponding solutions: they provide reliable protection of cloud data against external and internal threats. The following summarises the detailed benefits associated with this.

• Increased Efficiency: With cloud security software, companies can automate routine tasks. In the "simplest case", accesses are automatically restricted or warnings are issued when specific regulations are not adhered to. However, some solutions also offer malware scans and patches that are regularly executed. This saves time and resources and ensures that important security regulations are consistently applied.

• Lower Costs: Of course, manual or multiple systems that implement parts of the security strategies can be used for cloud data security. However, this is quite costly. A fully equipped cloud data security program offers a central platform for regulating all important measures. This saves working time and, eventually, money.

• Better Transparency: Cloud security solutions provide security-specific transparent insight into data activities at both the infrastructure and user level. Administrators can thus see what is going on in their entire cloud environment and respond quickly to threats or optimize their long-term strategies based on specific reports.

• Optimized GDPR Conditions: Many cloud security programs come with integrated GDPR compliance checks. These automatically monitor the compliance with corresponding regulations. This allows companies to meet legal requirements quickly and easily.

However, even with the many significant advantages - as well as the need for cloud security software under today's conditions - there are no downsides. However, these are more possible problems in using a corresponding solution than actual shortcomings of the programs themselves. The following challenges are typical.

• Lack of Strategy and Wrong Mindset: Cloud Data Security Software comes with various features to effectively protect cloud information. In particular, the features that relate to the exclusion of internal threats cannot be used to their fullest advantage without some preparatory work. So, it is necessary to set up suitable data access and data usage strategies that can then be implemented with the respective solution. Ideally, those responsible establish measures that deeply sensitize the relevant employees to relevant data security matters. A software alone can never achieve this. The work involved is often unrecognized and underestimated.

• Underestimated Effort: In general, the utilitarian use of a cloud data security program is not self-sustaining. Although the solution helps those responsible, among other things, to consider the latest risks and enforce usage policies, many important impulses still come from humans. Particularly in smaller companies, individual data protection officers often have to catch all security to-dos. This can lead to a significant but often unconsidered increase in workload, especially when introducing new cloud security software.

How to choose the right cloud security software?

Different companies often have quite different requirements for their cloud data security. In the market, there are indeed programs that can better serve some needs over others. In addition, the selection of cloud data security software is now quite large. All this makes it difficult to get an overview and to do the research.

In order to achieve the aim, i.e., the perfect cloud security tool, more simply and to be as efficient as possible on the way there, those responsible should primarily consider the following tips.

Identify needs The main goal of cloud security software is to ensure that only authorized users have access to the system. The following measures and related functions contribute to this:

• Verification of user login credentials.
• Granting/denying permissions based on user roles/policies.
• Checking user activities within the system for suspicious behavior or anomalies.
• Detection of and appropriate response to potential threats within the system in real-time.
• Additional protection against attacks from the outside (for example, distributed denial-of-service attacks).
• Securing against internal threats by malicious insiders (for example, the expansion of privileges or data export).
• Extra securing of storage locations where very confidential data is stored (for example, special databases).
• Implementation of multi-factor authentication for additional in-depth protection.

Not every company needs all these elements for sufficient cloud data protection. However, everyone should weigh the respective advantages and possible requirements thoroughly.

When selecting cloud data security software, it is very important to consider the specific needs and goals of the company due to the far-reaching consequences of a possible successful attack. On the other hand, you can often save a lot of money by defining them precisely.

Those responsible are well advised to first determine the type of data they will be storing in the cloud and the degree of security required to protect this information. Based on this, you can then specifically research various providers of cloud protection solutions that best meet the respective requirements in their product.

Also to be considered are of course the general costs of the suitable packages in comparison. Moreover, those interested should keep an eye on the scalability, the user-friendliness for administrators and users, and the customer service or support options included in the individual software applications.

Ideally align system focus There are many types of cloud data storage services. Each variant can place special requirements on protection. Public, private, and hybrid cloud systems do not have the same level of protection.

As a result, many specialized security solutions are available. These are indeed often best suited to secure the respective cloud variant in focus. However, numerous providers also offer universal programs with which data can be secured and compliance with certain regulations can be ensured, regardless of where they were stored.

If only one type of cloud is used, it is worthwhile to examine the specialized applications in detail. A more widely usable security solution can quickly bring many features that are not needed at all in such a case. This makes work with it inefficient and creates considerable barriers in the worst case. If several cloud variants are in use, a universal solution is often optimal.

Check integrations For Cloud Data Security software to work effectively, it often needs to be integrated into existing infrastructure components.

These include, in particular, firewalls/IPS/IDS, Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), and Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

So, those interested should definitely analyze their current security stack and see how or if the cloud security solutions being considered can be integrated.

Check future-proofing It is also important that cloud data security software can keep pace with changing technology trends. Only in this way can it be ensured in the long term that it protects the cloud information against new threats, such as zero-day exploits.

Innovative attack possibilities might one day be able to penetrate the traditional defense mechanisms easily. Usually, a weak link in the chain of security features is enough for this.

What does Cloud Security Software cost?

The costs for cloud security software can vary greatly depending on features, complexity, and the scope of the cloud environment. For small businesses or individuals who only want basic protection and monitoring, prices start at around 20 euros per month.

Medium-sized businesses usually need more comprehensive protection that includes identity and access management, security scans, data encryptions, and advanced analysis features. The prices for these types of packages are between 50 and 100 euros per month.

For larger companies with more complex requirements, typical costs rise to several hundred euros per month. Here, special authentication protocols for multiple devices and different operating systems often need to be considered. In addition, advanced threat detection functions and continuous monitoring of compliance with regulations often make sense.

In addition to the monthly subscription fees, setup costs may be incurred when implementing the cloud security software. These should always be included in the budget planning of a corresponding solution.