Digital Transformation is Growing but May Be Insecure for Many

Trend Micro survey finds 88% of surveyed organizations have accelerated their cloud migration, but only 55% are adding security tools to protect it

HONG
KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 17 December
2020 – Trend Micro
Incorporated (TYO: 4704;TSE: 4704),
the
leader in cloud security, today
released survey results confirming that the pandemic has accelerated digital
transformation for 88% of global organizations. However, this increase in cloud
adoption may leave business data insecure.

Trend Micro
commissioned Sapio Research to interview 2565 decision makers in 28 countries,
across several industry sectors, and from organizations of all sizes, with a
focus on large enterprise.

“It’s a very
positive sign that a majority of organizations around the world are embracing
digital transformation and adopting the cloud,” said Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president of cloud research for
Trend Micro. “But the survey findings also highlight the challenges
remaining with understanding security in the cloud. Cloud adoption is not a
‘set it and forget it’ process, but takes ongoing management and strategic
configuration to make the best security decisions for your business.”

The survey confirms a
simple misconception that can lead to serious security consequences. While
cloud infrastructure is secure, customers are responsible for securing their
own data — which is the basis of the Shared Responsibility Model for cloud.

Nearly all (92%) of
respondents say they are confident they understand their cloud security
responsibility, but 97% also believe their cloud service provider (CSP) offers
sufficient data protection.

Of those surveyed, only
55% of respondents use third-party tools to secure their cloud environments.
This suggests that there may be significant coverage gaps and confirms that the
shared responsibility is not understood. Trend Micro Research has found
that misconfigurations
are the number one risk to cloud environments, which can happen
when companies don’t know their part of the Shared Responsibility Model.

The surveyed
organizations seem to be confident in their cybersecurity posture in the cloud,
as:

• 51% claim the
  acceleration in cloud migration has increased their focus on security best
  practices
• 87% believe
  they are fully or mostly in control of securing their remote work environment
• 83% believe
  they will be fully or mostly in control of securing their future hybrid
  workplace

Despite this confidence,
many respondents also admitted to experiencing security related challenges:

• 45% said that
  security is a “very significant” or “significant” barrier
  to cloud adoption
• Setting
  consistent policies (35%), patching (33%), and securing traffic flows (33%)
  were cited as the top three day-to-day operational headaches of protecting
  cloud workloads
• Data privacy
  (43%), staff training (37%) and compliance (36%) were reported as significant
  barriers in migrating to cloud-based security tools

“The good news is
that by using smart, automated security tools, organizations can migrate to the
cloud headache-free, ensuring the privacy and safety of their data and
overcoming skills shortages as they do,” Nunnikhoven added.

Security solutions for
cloud environments rated most important to responding organizations were
network protection (28%), Cloud Security Posture Management (26%) and Cloud
Access Security Broker (19%) tools.

Download the
infographic: https://resources.trendmicro.com/rs/945-CXD-062/images/1.pdf

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity,
helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Leveraging over
30 years of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous
innovation, Trend Micro enables resilience for businesses, governments, and
consumers with connected solutions across cloud workloads, endpoints, email,
IIoT, and networks. Our XGen™ security strategy powers our solutions with a
cross-generational blend of threat-defense techniques that are optimized for
key environments and leverage shared threat intelligence for better, faster
protection. With over 6,700 employees in 65 countries, and the world’s most
advanced global threat research and intelligence, Trend Micro enables
organizations to secure their connected world www.trendmicro.com.hk.