Learning Cloud Security

Chapter 4. Cloud Data Security

Topics covered in this chapter include:

• Cloud data concepts: types, location, lifecycle, and dispersion

• Cloud data storage architectures

• Data protection technologies and strategies

• Information rights management

While information security itself can be an exciting and fascinating topic, the reason we engage in the practice, at least with respect to working with organizations, is to protect resources. Without that protection, businesses and other organizations can be put into dire circumstances, which could result in existential events, meaning they could be put out of business. This is a worst case scenario, of course, but it’s entirely possible, especially with catastrophic incidents if the organization doesn’t have the right contingencies in place. So, why bring this up? Because data is an important resource to any organization. In most cases, it is foundational to running the business, agency, or nonprofit.

Since data is such a significant and important asset, protecting it should be an important part of the job of an information security professional. Unfortunately, understanding the complete data lifecycle is not always very common, and many organizations may not do a good job fully protecting data, especially as data has moved outside of the traditional perimeter where there is more control over it. We will also discuss how to protect data using cloud services, including encryption, as well as asset tagging and monitoring data as it ...