With the prevalence of technology in today’s society, the idea of a cyberattack occurring and accessing highly personal information is very alarming to many technology users. While cloud security and cyber security sound alike, there are a lot of differences between the two.
What are the differences between cyber security and cloud security? Cyber security is different to cloud security as it encompasses securing all of the Information Technology domains while Cloud Security is only focused on securing the cloud computing environments. Cyber security actually includes cloud security in its remit of securing the different IT domains.
Of course there is a lot more to Cyber security and cloud security and I’ve come up with ten differences between the two in the list below.
- Different definitions
- How they maintain the security of personal information
- Liability
- Responsibility of the security
- Benefits
- Who has the data
- How they detect security threats
- Prevalence of each security
- How they backing up data
- How they store data
Understanding the differences between cyber security and cloud security will help you make the best choice possible when it comes to choosing where and how you should store your information. It can help you become aware of what exactly to be careful of when digitally keeping information.
1. Definitions of Cyber Security and Cloud Security
Before I dive into the smaller differences between cyber security and cloud security, let’s take a look at the main difference between the two by analyzing each definition.
The US Department of Homeland Security[1] defines cyber security as “the art of protecting networks, devices, and data from unauthorized access or criminal use and the practice of ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information”.
Because cyber security involves individual device owners taking security measures to ensure the security of their personal information, it differs from cloud security.
According to McAfee’s[2] definition of cloud security, cloud security is defined as, “the procedures and technology that secure cloud computing environments against both external and insider cyber security threats.”
The main difference in the two forms of security is that cyber security involves ensuring personal devices stay free of hacking while cloud security is ensuring that data stored in the cloud is not accessible to unauthorized servers.
2. Maintenance of the Security of Personal Information
Many people will use the cloud to add more storage on their phones. But, many people wonder about the security of their photos that they have taken over the years.
The cloud maintains its security by filtering out traffic trying to access information stored in the cloud. The traffic is directed straight to the cloud instead of going through other servers that may collect its users’ information. It filters out the traffic by letting authorized users access information while blocking unauthorized traffic from accessing it.
Cyber security does security differently. It involves users directly taking measures themselves to protect their personal information. Cyber security can be maintained through:
- Avoiding clicking suspicious links in emails. Personal emails are often filled with suspicious-looking emails posing as a well-known company. These links will lead to viruses or ask for information.
- Using strong passwords and changing them often. Malware can steal your passwords if they can access your computer system. Constantly changing your password can prevent hackers from accessing your information.
- Setting up two-factor authorization. Verifying a special code every time you log in to an account can be frustrating, but setting up two-factor authorization gives extra security. In addition to being more difficult to get into, users will get a text if someone other than themselves attempts to log into my account.
3. Liability
Cyber security is essential because of the precautions people have to adapt to protect devices from malware that could steal personal information. It will protect devices from being hacked, leaving users vulnerable to private data being stolen and sold on the dark web.
Cloud service providers use technology protection to protect data in the cloud from theft or the leakage of personal data. Cloud services are widely used around the world. Hackers have adapted their methods to accessing the cloud since a lot of people use it.
Companies need to keep cloud users’ data secure and private since they have a lot of liability on them if customers’ cloud data is stolen and sold. Cloud security is an important concept when storing personal information in the cloud.
4. Responsibility of the Security
With cyber security, the device owner is responsible of maintaining the security of private personal information. You are responsible for the monitoring of your information, with responsibility resting at the device owner to use measures to secure their data from being stolen by hackers.
Cloud security is generally a shared security model where the services provided fall under the scope of the vendor but how these services are configured and used, is up to the user. So using a cloud service and setting an easily guessable password will mean the user of the service is at fault instead of the provider of the cloud service.
5. Who Has the Data? Benefits of Each
To ensure you are using the best method to keep your data protected, it is important to be aware of the benefits of each form of security.
Cloud security is beneficial to keeping data safe for the following reasons:
- Keeping threats away from businesses
- Avoiding the risk of loss of data and information
- Ensuring the prevention of lost data
- Low infrastructure investment cost
- Security is handled by a third-party vendor instead of yourself
While cloud security calls for less of a chance of ordinary individuals messing up, cyber security allows you to customize your security the way you prefer it and the level of security you would like.
A few benefits of cyber security are:
- Both physical and network security are provided
- You remain in control of your data and what happens to it
- Configuration of your device’s system the way you like it
6. The Downsides of Cloud Security and Cyber Security
Being aware of the cons of each form of security can also help you pick the best option for your data.
Cyber security can be essential to keeping your personal information protected; however, there are also several cons to it, such as:
- It can be a challenge to correctly install a firewall
- Certain cyber security programs can make the computer system slower
- Constantly being required to update the settings to ensure they are up to date
- Programs can be very costly
- You are responsible for managing the security
There are a lot more responsibilities you would have to take on with cyber security, but cloud security is less responsibility that you have to take on. Even though cloud security is less personal responsibility, there are disadvantages to it as well. Some of the disadvantages include:
- Systems may be pre-configured, so if you don’t like the system, you can’t change it
- Loss of control of how the security works
- Data loss can occur if a natural disaster happens
- Restores and backups can be slower
- More internet usage
7. Detection of Security Threats
To detect and eliminate security threats, traditional cyber security methods use antivirus tools. The problem with using antivirus tools is that they usually lag changing threats, and they need to update constantly to keep up with the evolving tactics of hackers. Traditional cyber security methods cause people’s devices to be at a higher risk for an attack.
Threats are detected as signatures. There is a lag with traditional cyber security software, but there is no gap with cloud security as threats are detected by the signatures.
Cloud security uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect and perceive threats. It doesn’t require updates like traditional methods use. Artificial Intelligence stays on top of the hackers’ methods as they occur, so they are more protected from cyber-attacks, and the risk of one occurring is lower.
8. Prevalence of Each Security
With technology continuing to improve and evolve, it is important to know which security is widely used and trusted among individuals and companies around the world. Many people are turning to use the cloud.
More and more people each year are trusting the cloud to store their information in data. In fact, according to 451[3], “90% of companies are on the cloud”. More companies are expected to use the cloud each year, but it is important to know how many companies trust the cloud to store their data.
People are turning away from traditional cyber security methods to store all of their information in the cloud; however, traditional cyber security methods are still being used by individuals to add more protection to their information from hackers.
It is important to still engage in traditional cyber security methods because of the risk of your device being infected with malware. This puts your device at risk of being hacked. Malware continues to rise.
According to purplesec.us[4], “92% of malware is delivered by email”. Email continues to be essential for communication. It is important for companies and businesses to communicate with others. A lot of companies are targeted by hackers because they want to access the company’s financial information.
9. How Data is Backed Up
Some people believe that traditional cyber security backups are better because you know who is accessing your data, but these backups can be both manual and expensive. Either you or an IT person will have to maintain a recurring backup schedule.
Along with this, more storage will need to be purchased so these backups can be stored. If this doesn’t happen, data can become permanently lost, so it is important that backups are maintained frequently.
Cloud security backups differ from cyber security backups because they are automated and not manual like traditional cyber security backups are. Backups are not conducted by an IT person, they are conducted automatically by a vendor. Because of this, cloud security backups are way cheaper than traditional cyber security backups.
You wouldn’t have to continue to purchase more computer storage for backups. iCloud has an option to purchase more iCloud storage.
10. Data Storage
As you probably know by now, storing data through traditional cyber security methods is a manual and expensive process. Storing data through these methods relies heavily on proximity. People who choose to store data through these methods may often be more satisfied with these methods because of the ability to control how things are organized.
There is a lot of human responsibility involved, so it is easier for human error to mess up the security of data storage. This means that there is a higher risk of data getting harmed. People also like these methods more because they can choose who can access their data and who cannot.
Cloud security does not store data onsite. This means there is a lower risk of data having the possibility of going through physical harm since it is harder for people to access the cloud. A lot of cloud service providers have highly technically and secure data centers to make sure your data is secure.
They also make sure that your data is in one place and not being exposed to hackers. Unlike cyber security, cloud security means that you will be sharing your data with other providers. This could be seen as a huge flaw with cloud security.
References:
[1] https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips/ST04-001
[2] https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-us/security-awareness/cloud.html
[3] https://go.451research.com/what-is-on-mind-of-cloud-focused-CTOs.html
[4] https://purplesec.us/resources/cyber-security-statistics/
