How Secure is Cloud Storage? 6 Features to Help Protect Your Data

Cloud storage has revolutionized how data is managed and used, offering widespread scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency benefits that traditional storage methods struggle to match. Adopted initially to wrangle an explosion in digital data, cloud storage has become a keystone for organizations, serving as a platform for advanced technologies, streamlined operations, and transformational growth.

However, with its enormous benefits came new data management challenges—from compliance and disaster preparedness to cyberthreats and accessibility. The dynamic and increasingly complex nature of cloud environments requires a new approach to security, one that leverages a greater understanding of potential risks and best practices to protect valuable and sensitive data.

This article explains the common misconceptions about cloud security, and details the account security, data security, and advanced compliance standards that build cyber resiliency and can give you confidence about the safety of your data in the cloud.

Common misconceptions about cloud security

Despite its rapid ascent, many organizations are skeptical that cloud storage can better protect their data online than keeping it locked away in brick-and-mortar onsite in their data center. Common myths include that:

1. Cloud storage is inherently insecure

2. Cloud providers are solely responsible for data security

3. All cloud storage options offer the same level of security

Organizations are also wary about turning over responsibility for security to third-party providers that might not be focused on their unique best interests. Read on to learn fact from fiction and explore strategies and tools that will help you build cyber resiliency and cloud security confidence.

Myth #1: Cloud storage is inherently insecure

With the right tools and policies, cloud storage is a robust, secure option for organizations that want all the advantages of modern data management platforms.

Cloud security has evolved significantly since the first storage provider required a login password that users likely kept written on a piece of paper taped to their computer monitor.

Initially considered an extension of traditional perimeter defense, cloud storage security has grown to encompass its own set of frameworks, integration policies, and advanced encryption techniques as understanding of its unique security needs has deepened.

Standards like ISO/IEC 27017 and ISO 2701, along with cloud control frameworks, offer guidelines for implementing and auditing cloud security, establishing a solid foundation to begin from.

Organizations then began to address security vulnerabilities by embedding best practices in their design, development, and deployment cycles. As cyberthreats grew and bad actors found more nuanced ways to attack systems, companies have adopted end-to-end encryption and enacted Zero Trust models that begin all operations with security as their focus.

While the humble password remains a key element of protection, the walls of the data fortress are even more fortified today. For example, the integration of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools have enabled real-time threat and anomaly detection and automated security responses.

Beyond encryption, organizations are moving toward even more granular data and account protections, including advanced access tools customized for cloud data and automation for continuous compliance management.

All of these layers create an inherent approach to security and cyber resilience that enable organizations to recover quickly from and move past disruptions like cyberattacks, natural disasters, and power outages without any break in operations.

Myth #2: Cloud providers are solely responsible for data security

The fact is cloud providers and users share security duties. Providers focus on securing their infrastructure while users focus on protecting their data and applications.

Account and data security directly impact mission-critical functions and compliance. Users must understand how to leverage these key tools when working with a cloud provider to secure their accounts and data.

Cloud providers can implement comprehensive, expert security measures to meet large-scale demands for immediately accessible cloud data storage solutions, powerful protection for your data, and address emerging threats. Partnering with an experienced public cloud provider can make security more cost-effective than maintaining a physically intensive on-prem security infrastructure or building your own private cloud from scratch. Hybrid (public/private) cloud solutions borrow security practices from the best of both worlds.

Myth #3: All cloud storage options offer the same level of security

Cloud storage options are not a one-size-fits-all, and neither is cloud security. The need for scalability, the use of data within the virtual environment, and how much is stored in cold archives all factor into cloud storage development. How data is used and who has authorized access features heavily in that system’s security needs.

And not all cloud providers are created equal, either. The evolving nature of cyber threats means organizations have to find providers who take a proactive, adaptive, and shared approach to secure cloud storage while offering cost-effective, efficient cloud security solutions. Hyperscalers that offer immutable storage while charging hefty egress fees to access data might blow up your budget and make you wonder what the real theft is.

Not so with Wasabi single-tier, immutable cloud storage solution, which offers a streamlined, cost-effective data management option. This multi-faceted security approach blends advanced tools and features that enable impenetrable layers of protection, meaning data can’t be deleted or tampered with. And Wasabi never charges for egress or API requests. Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest on the Wasabi cloud storage platform. Wasabi supports the HTTPS protocol and server-side encryption with customer-provided encryption keys (SSE-C). You can also prevent unauthorized account deletion with the first-of-its-kind Multi-User Authentication feature that requires multiple security admins to sign off on an account deletion request.

Essential account security protections

Secure cloud storage begins with knowing who is using your account and what they’re doing with it. Only authorized users should have access, and only robust authentication practices help you enable the right users.

Countermeasures such as Multi-User Authentication, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and single sign-on (SSO) offer unique identity and access management methods that play a critical role in modern cybersecurity, adapting to the increasing complexity of digital environments while maintaining a balance between security and usability.

1. Multi-User Authentication

Multi-User Authentication provides an additional layer of protection on top of Multi-factor authentication. It ensures that storage accounts or buckets cannot be deleted either by a malicious actor that has gained access to your credentials or by accident. With it, you can designate up to three members of your organization as security contacts that must sign off on any account deletion request.

2. Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

The humble password gets another boost with multi-factor authentication. Users need more than one method to provide their authentication before they can log in or complete a task in a secure system. Typically, the second credentialing is sent as a text to a mobile device, through an authentication app or hardware token, or is ensured with biometrics. MFA significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access even if one factor is compromised.

3. Single sign-on (SSO)

Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication process that allows a user to enter one set of login credentials to access multiple applications. SSO relies on central authentication, making it easier for an organization to enforce strong password and MFA policies across the system while streamlining the implementation of security updates and making it more convenient for users to remember only one login. 

Key data security protections

How secure cloud storage is depends on more than just account security. Pivotal data security technologies serve integral purposes in protecting sensitive information, maintaining privacy and availability, and complying with data protection regulations.

There are three main data security protections that help ensure operational continuity and compliance while boosting organizational trust:

• Object lock

• Replication

• Encryption

4. Object lock

Object lock prevents data from being tampered with, deleted, or overwritten for a specified period of time, providing robust governance controls for record integrity and data immutability. Object lock is especially useful in meeting legal and financial requirements, and other compliance standards, across a range of industries.

5. Replication

With replication, exact copies of your data are maintained across multiple storage locations or servers to ensure availability, redundancy, and backups for use in disaster recovery. Ensuring data is always accessible from at least one location protects against hardware failures, electrical outages, natural disasters, or cyberattacks.

6. Encryption

Encryption converts data into a code to prevent unauthorized access—whether data is at rest, protecting against theft where it’s archived or stored; or it’s in use, safeguarding data from interception as it moves over cloud networks. Encryption is crucial because it ensures that even if data is accessed or intercepted, it remains unreadable without the decryption keys.

Advanced security compliance standards

Resilient organizations will adopt all these key features and go even further to build a culture of security and privacy that instills confidence in their customers, stakeholders, and government. Organizations can leverage cloud storage compliance standards like Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2), demonstrating an even greater commitment to data protection and risk mitigation.

• PCI-DSS compliance is a set of standards that govern how payment, transaction, and other personal financial data are stored and processed in secure cloud environments. All organizations that handle financial data must follow PCI-DSS regulation to ensure cardholder information is protected from data breaches, unauthorized access, and loss. Conduct regular audits, develop incident response plans, implement data security tools, and ensure your cloud service provider is PCI-DSS compliant to meet regulations.

• GDPR is a required European regulation aimed at protecting EU citizens' personal data. Companies worldwide that operate in the EU are bound by its strict data privacy and security requirements.

• HIPAA is the U.S. law mandating the protection of patients’ personal health information.

• SOC 2 is a framework for how organizations should manage customer data, organized around five key criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

Adopting continuous compliance strategies, developing robust authorizations documents and accountability policies, and embedding account and data protection tools in cloud deployments will help you better protect your cloud environments.

So, how secure is cloud storage? Learn more from Wasabi. 

How secure cloud storage is goes beyond protecting valuable data; it's about safeguarding operational integrity, trust, and compliance. By adopting advanced account and data security features, implementing zero trust policies and real-time, continuous monitoring, organizations can reduce their security risks. Constant vigilance is the moat around your impenetrable data fortress. 

You shouldn’t ever have to pay anyone to access your own data. Not a hacker. Not a hyperscaler. Learn more about how Wasabi can help you quickly and affordably bounce back from cybersecurity incidents or accidental data loss.