Cloud Usage Up to 97 Percent But Data Theft Still An Issue

(May 16, 2018) The use of cloud services is nearly ubiquitous with 97 percent of worldwide IT professionals surveyed using some type of cloud functions in their organization, a new survey issued by McAfee reports.

“Heading directly for the cloud is still the strategy for the majority of organizations worldwide,” the report finds.

However, one-in-four of the professionals surveyed have experienced data theft from the public cloud both for Software-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service, and one-in-five surveyed have experienced an advanced attack against their public cloud infrastructure.

“Malware continues to be a concern for all type of organizations, and 56% of professionals surveyed said they had tracked a malware infection back to a cloud application, up from 52% in 2016. When asked how the malware was delivered to the organization, just over a quarter of the respondents said that their cloud malware infections were caused by phishing, followed closely by emails from a known sender, drive-by downloads, and downloads by existing malware,” McAfee said.

“More than 90% of respondents trust the cloud more now than they did last year, even after a wide range of publicized security incidents. This may be the result of organizations thinking differently about cloud security, and realizing the benefits of shared security responsibility,” the report found.

In addition, 10 percent of the organizations anticipate decreasing cloud investment as a result of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which goes into effect on May 25, 2018.

McAfee surveyed 1,400 IT professionals in late 2017 to prepare the report titled “Navigating a Cloudy Sky, Practical Guidance and the State of Cloud Security.”