The Importance of Keeping Government Data Safe in Cloud Storage

Throughout the globe, cloud computing is increasingly becoming a popular way for governmental organizations to store their data, systems, and solutions. In the U.S., this is certainly in the case. According to a FedRAMP Study, around half of all federal, local, and state governments in the U.S. have either most or some of their solutions or systems in the cloud.

If you work as a decision-maker in the government, then you might be alarmed when considering this statistic about Government Data Safe Cloud. There have been many cloud security breaches and hacks occurring recently in recent news.

And if you’re responsible for sensitive, confidential information—in the financial, healthcare, or government sector—these types of security problems can be a real danger.

In the past, IT professionals were curious about how secure the cloud was. Now, there’s a more important question that must be asked: When people within these sectors are using the cloud, are they using it securely to keep data safe?

Understanding Responsibility

To understand the security of government data on the cloud, it’s necessary to see what predictions are for how secure it will be in the future. A source that has many insights is this article by Gartner. In it, the speculations they make are troubling. Between 2021 and 2025, 90% of organizations that don’t have the right security strategy for cloud systems will end up having some of their sensitive data exposed. During this same period of time, 99% of these security failures in the cloud will the fault of customers, according to Gartner. These predictions demonstrate two things. First of all, that people using the cloud don’t actually understand how secure it is. Second, they don’t know who is responsible for the safeguarding of data.

In their Shared Responsibility Model, AWS explains this distinction on how to keep data safe well. There are two types of security: Security in the Cloud and Security of the Cloud. When it comes to the Security of the Cloud, the cloud provider AWS is responsible for the protection of the infrastructure upon which they run all the services they offer. This includes all of the facilities, networking, software, and hardware that belong to AWS Cloud. However, Security in the Cloud is a different story. When it comes to keeping this element of the cloud secure, it’s the customer’s responsibility to keep it secure. Even though the cloud provider is responsible for configuration, patches, and security on its own infrastructure devices, it’s the customer who is responsible for the security of their own guest applications, databases, and operating security. When security lapses occur in these places, this is completely unrelated to the actual security of the cloud that AWS is providing. AWS provides its customers with a safe but locking it up properly is the customer’s responsibility. This leads us to one of the most powerful statements shared in the Shared Responsibility Model by AWS: “AWS trains AWS employees, but a customer must train their own employees.”

In other words, the cloud is already ready to use and safe on its own. But once a customer starts using the cloud, they need to ensure that they do all the proper training processes so that they don’t have any security breaches on their end.

Defending Your Data With Training

In our modern world, actors with ill-intent are constantly changing their strategies so that their attacks against secured data are more effective and sophisticated. Governmental organizations, unfortunately, haven’t been able to defend themselves consistently to keep government data safe. This is because cloud strategies aren’t put into place as quickly as they should be, so the cloud is used without a security strategy in mind. As a result, organizations tend to be more effective when it comes to responding to security breaches instead of anticipating them. However, your best defense against an attack is being prepared. To do this, you need to be aware of the threat before it occurs so that you can prevent it from happening in the first place. The best way to develop this understanding and awareness among your team members is to commit to training them. At ExitCertified, you can find almost 300 security courses, including ones that are specifically for preparing your team to use the most popular cloud platforms securely:

Microsoft Azure Security Technologies

Security in Google Cloud

Security Engineering on AWS

Even now, when cloud solutions are so popular, people still ask this question in online forms: Is using a cloud safe data solution safer than the on-promise solution I already have? The answer varies because it depends on your position on security and how well you carry it out. However, keep this in mind: When it comes to resiliency, reliability, and security, it’s unlikely that you’ve invested as much time and money as the biggest cloud providers have. The reason the use of the cloud has grown so exponentially is in large part because cloud providers understand how virtual secured data is. This customer-focused service can be an incredibly effective tool for any government organization. What you need to do to use this tool securely is to invest in your team’s training now.

Through ExitCertified, you can find training programs that are designed and priced specifically for government agency customers. To find out more about these programs, check them out now.

ExitCertified is a worldwide leader when it comes to providing vendor-approved, award-winning IT training. Since we began the business in 2001, we’ve been making it possible for our customers to build up their skills so that they can be successful in our modern era of constant digital change. We have over 9,500 courses that are authorized, and we deliver them to over two dozen brands.