52% of companies use cloud services that have experienced a breach

Seventy-nine percent of companies store sensitive data in the public cloud, according to a McAfee survey.

Anonymized cloud event data showing percentage of files in the cloud with sensitive data

While these companies approve an average of 41 cloud services each, up 33 percent from last year, thousands of other services are used ad-hoc without vetting. In addition, 52 percent of companies use cloud services that have had user data stolen in a breach.

By leaving significant gaps into the visibility of their data, organizations leave themselves open to loss of sensitive data and to regulatory non-compliance.

Cloud services have replaced many business-critical applications formerly run as on-premises software, leading to a migration of sensitive data to the cloud. Use of personal devices when accessing cloud services, the movement of data between cloud services, and the sprawl of high-risk cloud services drive new areas of risk for companies using the cloud.

For organizations to secure their data they need a thorough understanding of where their data is and how it is shared – especially with the rapid adoption of cloud services.

As part of this report, McAfee surveyed 1,000 enterprise organizations in 11 countries and investigated anonymized events from 30 million enterprise cloud users to gain a holistic view of modern data dispersion.

Shadow IT continues to expand enterprise risk

According to the study, 26 percent of files in the cloud contain sensitive data, an increase of 23 percent year-over-year. Ninety-one percent of cloud services do not encrypt data at rest; meaning data isn’t protected if the cloud provider is breached.

Personal devices are black holes

Seventy-nine percent of companies allow access to enterprise-approved cloud services from personal devices. One in four companies have had their sensitive data downloaded from the cloud to an unmanaged, personal device, where they can’t see or control what happens to the data.

Accessing cloud services: Intercloud travel and risk

Collaboration facilitates the transfer of data within and between cloud services, creating a new challenge for data protection. Forty-nine percent of files that enter a cloud service are eventually shared.

One in 10 files that contain sensitive data and are shared in the cloud use a publicly accessible link to the file, an increase of 111 percent year-over-year.

Anonymized cloud event data showing percentage of files shared in the cloud with sensitive data using a public access link

A new era of data protection is on the horizon

Ninety-three percent of CISOs understand it’s their responsibility to secure data in the cloud. However, 30 percent of companies lack the staff with skills to secure their Software-as-a-Service applications, up 33 percent from last year. Both technology and training are outpaced by the rapid expansion of cloud.

“The force of the cloud is unstoppable, and the dispersion of data creates new opportunities for both growth and risk,” said Rajiv Gupta, senior vice president, Cloud Security, McAfee.

“Security that is data-centric, creating a spectrum of controls from the device, through the web, into the cloud, and within the cloud provides the opportunity to break the paradigm of yesterday’s network-centric protection that is not sufficient for today’s cloud-first needs.”