INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
Oracle expert on how
Nigerian businesses can
be secure in the cloud
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Cloud technology has
opened up numerous
opportunities for
businesses but there are
some concerns about the
level of security it offers.
Adebayo Sanni, MD of
Oracle Nigeria, looks at
how businesses can stay
secure while leveraging
the benefits of the cloud.
H
igh-profile breaches have propelled
security to the top of the agenda
at many organisations as the
combination of faster, more-damaging
attacks, increasingly complex technology
environments and demanding regulatory
requirements continue to create new
challenges. Deloitte’s 2018 Nigeria
Cybersecurity Outlook highlights a rise in
several cyber Ponzi schemes during 2017
as well as evolving ransomware attacks.
Ponzi schemes promise incredible financial
returns on investment while the Wannacry
ransomware attack affected more than 150
countries, including Nigeria.
cloud. The cloud is rapidly proving itself as
easier to manage, maintain and secure than
traditional IT environments.
In particular, cloud services are vastly more
secure than many on-premise alternatives,
spurred on by leading cloud vendors such
as Oracle, creating highly robust security
infrastructure that is continually patched
and kept up-to-date. This level of investment
in security can never be matched in an
on-premise environment. The key is to
choose the right cloud technology – one
that is designed to protect users, enhance
safeguarding of data and better address
requirements under privacy laws.
Autonomous services
That said, industry estimates put nearly half
of all security breaches down to human error
and educating employees on how to spot
suspicious emails is crucial. The hackers only
need to be successful once to break in but
businesses need to be successful all the time
in order to prevent a data breach. The only
way to do this and keep data safe is through
defence in depth – with multiple controls,
security on by default, automation, best
practices and a secure infrastructure.
Turning to the cloud Ensuring that a full range of effective
controls is in place can be challenging. An
autonomous cloud platform addresses this
challenge as it starts with built-in self-securing
features. A number of recent large-scale
security breaches occurred when companies
failed to apply a patch that was available for
their software. Autonomous services apply
patches without a person having to schedule
them, requiring no system downtime.
Moving to the cloud is still deemed to be
risky by some IT leaders, but the reality is
that the bigger risk is not moving to the In addition, through the application of
Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities such
as real-time auto cyberthreat detection and
Today’s attacks are wide and varied. They
range from targeting infrastructure and
databases to applications and users. This
means that to protect vital information
assets, companies need controls at multiple
levels across their entire environment – both
in the cloud and on-premise.
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remediation and user behaviour analytics,
security risks are lowered. Improved security
is among the most critical advantages of an
autonomous cloud platform.
Shared responsibility
There is a marked shift in the security
landscape and in customers’ needs. Not
only do cloud vendors need to protect their
own cloud, but customers are looking for
modern techniques to help them provide
consistent security controls across cloud and
on-premise environments.
Security is a shared responsibility, although
functions such as encryption and patching
are automated, organisations are still
responsible for business-specific security
functions such as securing users and
ensuring sensitive data is appropriately
protected. Companies should have a clear
understanding of the security responsibility
they share with their cloud providers,
including having a comprehensive service
level agreement in place.
In addition, all businesses need to focus
more efforts on training end-users as
they’re the most vulnerable point of attack.
Some of the most successful attacks
leverage social engineering, including those
luring unsuspected people to invest in fake
cryptocurrencies and specifically in Nigeria,
those conducted via emails, SMS and
phone calls.
In response to the increased threat
landscape, more and more organisations
are transitioning their information systems
to the cloud to achieve better security for
sensitive data and critical business processes.
Security used to be an inhibitor to moving
to the cloud, now it’s an enabler to get
businesses where they need to go. n
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