6 Cloud Migration Security Holes That IT Leaders Overlook

With the range of cybersecurity threats expanding with each passing year, achieving the highest levels of protection for sensitive data and systems should be a priority for every IT leader.

This is particularly relevant when designing and executing a cloud migration - a demanding process that, without careful planning and risk mitigation, can expose your company to significant dangers.

Make sure you're fully aware of the following potential security concerns before embarking on this task, to give your business the strongest possible defenses during your migration.

1. Underestimating the scope of the migration

The scope and complexity of your cloud migration - and consequently the amount of time and budget required to do it properly, without sacrificing security - will depend on a number of factors, including:

The migration approach you're taking (refactoring will take longer and be more complicated than rehosting, for example)
How much data and how many processes, functions and workflows are being moved to a cloud environment
The amount of training and transition time required to get employees familiar with new technologies and working methods

It's all too easy to underestimate the practical and financial demands of these and other key elements of cloud migration. Before you sit down with senior company leaders to establish timelines and budgets, make sure you've done your research and thought carefully about what provisions you need to ensure the transition can be made securely.

2. Failing to take full responsibility for your own security

If you're using a major public cloud provider such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud, don't fall into the trap of assuming that your supplier's inbuilt security measures - robust as they may be - provide all the protection you need.

When you're migrating sensitive data and business-critical workflows, you should take full responsibility for keeping those resources safe. That could mean implementing measures such as multifactor authentication, strict password policies and user access controls.

You also need to maintain focus on compliance, to ensure your migration isn't putting you at risk of penalties under data privacy regulations such as PCI DSS and GDPR.

3. Not paying enough attention to user migration

It's often said that humans are the weakest link in any cybersecurity chain. While this might sound like a harsh indictment of your employees, it's impossible to deny that every person in your organization - however experienced or competent they are - is capable of errors or oversights that could raise serious security issues.

That's why it's essential to pay close attention to user migration when transferring data and applications from an on-premise environment to the cloud.

One mistake you should be particularly careful to avoid is not evaluating your users and their respective levels of access before making the move. This could lead to a situation where you have users with unnecessarily high levels of access, which is a big security risk, or people without the permissions they need to do their job properly once the migration has occurred.

4. Overlooking backup and recovery

You might be so focused on finding the right cloud migration strategy and managing the minutiae of the process that you overlook other vital considerations, such as your contingency plans should you encounter problems or security threats that put your data at risk.

Increased resilience and reliability are powerful reasons to shift from on-premise servers to cloud infrastructure, but don't make the mistake of assuming the cloud is immune to failure.

Make sure you put a clear backup and disaster recovery strategy in place as early as possible. This is something your cloud provider should be able to help you with. If you don't feel confident about your vendor's policies in this area, they might not be the right partner for you.

5. Failing to centralize your controls and monitoring tools

One possible consequence of cloud migration is finding yourself with a range of security and monitoring tools to manage - some tailored to the cloud, and others focused on the data and processes you've chosen to keep on-premises.

It's important to ensure you're accounting for any new vulnerabilities that arise following your migration, as well as continuing to protect your existing systems. One way to do this is by centralizing the use and management of your various security measures, which makes it easier for your team to take a unified approach when tracking threats and responding to them.

Cloud migration also provides an opportunity to examine your existing security protocols and ask whether they're still fit for purpose.

6. Not looking to the future

Moving vital resources and workloads to the cloud is a project that will have huge significance for your business not only in the short term, but for many years to come.

It's crucial, therefore, to have one eye on the future, particularly where security is concerned. Digital transformation, increases in remote working and the development of cloud computing show no signs of slowing down, but the same can be said of the constant evolution of business cybersecurity threats.

When planning your migration, devising your IT strategy and evaluating cloud providers, take the time to ensure your choices will lead to strong, lasting protection for your company and your customers.