Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Blamed for Halt in Cloud Adoption

Though virtually all organizations are moving some assets to the cloud, a lack of cybersecurity talent is slowing migration for 40 percent of IT professionals, according to the third annual report on cloud security from cybersecurity firm, McAfee.

Craig Young, computer security researcher at Tripwire, said: "Cloud is just a fancy way of saying you rely on someone else’s hardware. This is not a decision which should be made lightly and while there are many firms advertising turn-key cloud solutions, I don’t think organizations should rush into the cloud without understanding enough to have confidence in the security model. This data is demonstrating that enterprises are rightly concerned about the risks of putting their customer data on systems they do not physically control.

"There are however some things organizations can do to improve the situation. Penetration testing is always a good first step, but, it is crucial to engage the cloud provider in this process to avoid legal trouble. Penetration tests of a cloud environment could inadvertently affect the provider’s other customers.

"Businesses serious about moving into the cloud will also want to build up internal skills to better assess concerns about cloud security. Hacker conferences like Black Hat and DEF CON are a great place to learn about offensive and defensive security techniques related to the cloud."