Thinking About Security in the Cloud Era

As we are getting into the post times of the Covid-19, the world is obviously witnessing fast and better digital transformation. In regards to this, security has never been more critical than it is today.

Kunle Awosika, the Director, Small Medium and Corporates, Emerging Markets, introduced his talk at the Africa Cloud and Security Summit by reminding his audience that security is more critical today. Almost every organisation is thinking about security. How do we protect our data? How sure are we that we cannot be breached?

“The cost of breach is very high and this is why in every organisation, the risk and compliance team is always there to remind you of the importance of security. It’s clear that once you are breached it will cost you a fortune to rebuild and/or get back control of your application or software,” Kunle said.

He further noted that about 78% of organisations run a hybrid cloud. Most organisations are hesitant to fully jump into the cloud.

“When an industry is thriving, there are a lot of people who are looking to steal data from the organisations thriving in the industry. There are people who are looking to steal your data. These people are even willing to pay hackers to get your data. There are attackers for hire, these people have found different ways to hack you and get your data,” Awosika stated at the event held at Crowne Plaza in Nairobi.

“In our organisation, we are protecting over 6,000 organisations in 123 countries everyday. With the Intelligence Threat Centre that we have, there’s a team of experts in cybercrime and cloud security.”

Fortinet’s Gary Peel also joined the event online to give his thoughts on Security in the cloud era. Peel anticipates tremendous growth in cloud security.

“In 2021, Cloud spend totalled $385 billion and we will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 21% through 2025, reaching 809 million,” Mr Peel said adding that most companies today are actually starting to use the multicloud.

“We know that Multicloud is here to stay especially now that we are starting to see increase in attacks. Most companies are now seeing that the Multicloud can help protect data better. There will be growth for cloud security,” Gary said.

However, in all these, organisations are only trying to be careful and to shield themselves from possible attacks. Kunle Awosika says ‘There’s no such thing as perfect security’