More than half (54%) of organizations that store customer data in the cloud experienced security incidents in 2020. As a result, 62% of them plan to delete sensitive data from the cloud or have already done so to ensure the security of their data.

These are the findings of a new report from Netwrix which shows that the most common types of cloud security incidents in 2020 are phishing (reported by 40% of businesses), ransomware, or other malware ( 24%) and accidental data leaks (17%).

Data theft has caused massive damage to businesses in other ways as well. Incidents involving insider data thefts negatively impacted business valuation for 33% of organizations, while data thefts by hackers resulted in loss of business and competitive advantage (35 % in each case).

The main challenges in terms of data security cited by the respondents are:

• lack of IT staff (52%)
• lack of budget (47%)
• lack of expertise in cloud security (44%).

Interestingly, 48% of CISOs note that the organization’s desire for growth is hampering efforts to ensure adequate data security in the cloud.

“The top three challenges organizations face in securing data in the cloud are a lack of personnel, financial resources and expertise. These challenges force security teams to operate in the reality of the “new day, new breach”.” said Ilia Sotnikov, vice president of product management at Netwrix.

“To continuously identify, detect and protect against threats in the cloud, companies should invest in solutions that prioritize risk and automate security routines, such as tools that allow data discovery, audit activities and issue alerts. In this way, security teams can better manage risks, respond quickly to attacks and minimize negative outcomes for the business.

Among other findings, one in ten large organizations (over 1,000 employees) that experienced a cloud data breach changed direction as a result of the incident. Five percent of companies with cloud data theft by hackers have taken years to detect it, but organizations that classify data and audit user activity are 1.5 times more likely to discover problems. incidents in the cloud in minutes.