Cloud assets are a major target for cyber attacks, with more than a third of Australian businesses and two thirds of New Zealand firms experiencing a data breach in their cloud environment last year, a new survey from Thales says.  

On average, only 45% of sensitive data is encrypted globally. 

Regional Director ANZ Brian Grant says Australia has a “dynamic multicloud landscape,” and as organisations continue their digital transformations, more and more sensitive data will move to the cloud.  

This data remains the responsibility of the enterprise customer and not the cloud service provider, and data encryption, data access control and data-at-risk alerts are three essential security measures every organisation should have in place. 

"The growth and success of a cloud-first business today relies as much on great data security as on protecting its cash flow,” Mr Grant said. 

“If businesses and their executive leadership team do not take action to embed effective data security in their cloud environment, the consequence can be catastrophic.” 

Thales is calling for greater adoption of comprehensive security measures to safeguard sensitive data and enhance cybersecurity resilience.   

Identity and access management is a crucial measure in mitigating data breaches. However only 40% of organisations have implemented zero trust controls in their cloud infrastructure. 

Thales says data encryption, access control and data-at-risk alerts are three essential security measures every organisation should have in place if they are to successfully leverage the cloud while ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of their valuable information.  

“While cloud environments offer many benefits, the reality is that they are complex; it takes only one small oversight to open the door to a skilled attacker,” Mr Grant said.  

"When this occurs, sensitive cloud information can be stolen or compromised, costing organisations hundreds of times more than the investment to secure the cloud data in the first place.”