2020 2021 CLOUD SECURITY REPORT om c . 5 b u h t i g INTRODUCTION Cloud security concerns remain high as the adoption of public cloud computing continues to surge, especially in the wake of the 2020 COVID crisis and the resulting accelerated shift to remote work environments. The 2021 Cloud Security Report has been produced by Cybersecurity Insiders to explore how organizations are responding to the evolving security threats in the cloud and the continued shortfall of qualified security staff. Key survey findings include: • Despite rapid adoption of cloud computing, security remains a primary issue for cloud customers. Virtually all surveyed cybersecurity professionals (96%) confirm they are at least moderately concerned about public cloud security, a small increase from last year’s survey. m o c . 5 • We asked survey participants about the biggest barriers holding back faster cloud adoption. Among the key barriers to cloud adoption, organizations mention lack of qualified staff (39%) as the biggest impediment to faster adoption, followed by data security issues (34%) and legal & regulatory compliance (32%). b u • A majority of organizations (57%) expect their cloud security budget to increase over the next 12 months. On average, organizations allocate 28% of their security budget to cloud security. h t i g • We asked organizations how they would rate their overall security readiness. A majority of 73% rate their security readiness average or below average. Only half as many say they are above average (27%). • As in previous years, the continuing shortage of not only qualified cybersecurity staff but also the lack of security awareness and skills among all employees remains the number one security challenge for organizations. To alleviate this shortage, cybersecurity professionals agree that 6 out of 10 employees would benefit from security training and/or certification for their jobs. Many thanks to (ISC)2 for supporting this important research project. We hope you find this report informative and helpful as you continue your efforts in securing your cloud environments. Thank you, Holger Schulze 2021 CLOUD SECURITY REPORT Holger Schulze CEO and Founder Cybersecurity Insiders All Rights Reserved. ©2021 Cybersecurity Insiders 2 SECURITY IN PUBLIC CLOUDS Despite rapid adoption of cloud computing, security remains a key issue for cloud customers. Virtually all surveyed cybersecurity professionals (96%) confirm they are at least moderately concerned about public cloud security, a small increase from last year’s survey. Cloud users are particularly concerned with risks arising from misconfiguration of the cloud platform, exfiltration of sensitive data, and unauthorized access (see page 8). How concerned are you about the security of public clouds? m o c . 5 96% ub h t i 23% g 41% Of organizations are moderately to extremely concerned about cloud security. 1% 3% Extremely concerned Not at all concerned Not at all concerned 32% Slightly concerned 2021 CLOUD SECURITY REPORT Moderately concerned Very concerned Extremely concerned All Rights Reserved. ©2021 Cybersecurity Insiders 3 CLOUD SECURITY CONFIDENCE The heightened concerns about cloud security have a negative impact on organizations’ confidence in their own cloud security posture. A majority of organizations are at best only moderately confident in their cloud security posture (72% - up from 66% in last year’s survey). While confidence has been declining over time, we still see an alarming degree of overconfidence not supported by the backdrop of security incidents and challenges presented in this report. The biggest challenges causing loss of confidence in cloud security include concerns around data loss/ leakage, data privacy/confidentiality, and accidental exposure of credentials (see page 5). m o How confident are you in your organization’s cloud security posture? c . 5 72% hub t i g Of organizations are not at all confident to moderately confident in their cloud security posture. 8% 12% 52% 6% Extremely confident Not at all confident Not at all confident 22% Slightly confident 2021 CLOUD SECURITY REPORT Moderately confident Very confident Extremely confident All Rights Reserved. ©2021 Cybersecurity Insiders 4 CLOUD SECURITY CONCERNS While cloud providers offer increasingly robust security measures as part of their cloud services, it is the customer who is ultimately responsible for securing their workloads in