The study reveals that spending on cloud security has now outstripped all other security expenditures
A new report by Thales highlights a significant shift in cybersecurity priorities for Indian organizations, with cloud resources becoming the prime targets for cyberattacks. The 2024 Thales Cloud Security Study, which surveyed nearly 3,000 IT and security professionals across 18 countries and 37 industries, emphasises the urgent need to enhance cloud security.
The study reveals that spending on cloud security has now outstripped all other security expenditures. This is largely due to the fact that nearly half (46 percent) of corporate data stored in the cloud in India is sensitive. Alarmingly, 37 percent of Indian organisations have experienced a cloud data breach, with 14 percent occurring in the past year alone. The main targets of cyberattacks in India are cloud storage, SaaS applications, and cloud management infrastructure, each making up around 30 percent of attacks. This has put protecting cloud environments at the top of security priorities.
Human error and misconfiguration are identified as the leading causes of these breaches, accounting for 34 percent. This is followed by the exploitation of unknown vulnerabilities (32 percent), known vulnerabilities (21 percent), and the failure to use multi-factor authentication (11 percent).
Globally, the increased use of cloud services has expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals. With 66 percent of organizations using more than 25 SaaS applications and nearly half of all corporate data being sensitive, managing compliance and privacy in the cloud is seen as more challenging than in on-premises environments. Despite these risks, data encryption rates remain low, with less than 9 percent of enterprises encrypting 80 percent or more of their sensitive cloud data.
Ashish Saraf, VP and Country Director of Thales in India, stressed the importance of strong cloud security measures. “The scalability and flexibility of the cloud are compelling, but the expanding attack surface requires a firm grasp on data management and encryption. As India progresses in digital technology, addressing cloud security challenges is vital for a secure future.”
To safeguard their cloud environments, 35 percent of Indian organizations are focusing on digital sovereignty initiatives. These include refactoring applications to securely store and process cloud data, rather than repatriating workloads to on-premises systems. This reflects a broader trend towards prioritizing data sovereignty and privacy.
The findings from the Thales study underscore the need for Indian organizations to prioritize cloud security to protect their sensitive data and maintain trust in their digital operations.
