Three lessons learned about the future of cloud security at RSA

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Last week, I had the privilege of attending the RSA Conference in San Francisco. RSA is an annual event that brings together professionals across the security industry to discuss the latest trends and challenges in cloud security. The conference provides a platform for attendees to learn from experts, network with peers, and explore new products and technologies.

These are three lessons in cloud security I took away from RSA 2023:

Innovation in cloud security will democratize the path to becoming a security expert

As cloud security innovation progresses, it will facilitate the journey for individuals to become security professionals. Microsoft Security Co-pilot serves as a starting point, offering proactive threat hunting and response capabilities to aid organizations in identifying and managing security incidents. Through leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze data, Co-pilot reduces the burden on security professionals. To best empower our customers with tooling such as Co-pilot, we must build solutions that are user-friendly security and enhance human knowledge. Augmenting human intelligence with security tooling will not only help solve the cyber skills gap, but also make it possible for all organizations to invest in security.

Securing the data pipeline is a priority

In 2019, the average cost of a data breach was $4M. Today, 88% of organizations still report lacking the confidence to prevent sensitive data loss. Securing the data pipeline has become a critical priority for organizations in today’s digital landscape. As data moves through various systems, devices, and networks, it is vulnerable to cyber threats, making it essential to have robust security measures in place. The data pipeline consists of multiple stages, including data collection, processing, storage, and distribution, and each stage presents unique security challenges. Protecting data at each of these stages is a growing priority for customers, often spurred by increasing regulatory or compliance requirements. Measures such as data encryption, access controls, and threat monitoring are required to secure the end-to-end data flow and protect against unauthorized access, data breaches, and other cyber threats.

We need a strong security ecosystem, including startups and partners, to build out a holistic security posture

Cloud environments are dynamic. To stay up to date, we must prioritize continuous monitoring to match the speed of deployments at cloud-scale. On top of this, our customers face the challenges of an ever-growing attack surface. To match these challenges, we need to lean on a robust security ecosystem. No security company can solve all the challenges in this space; we must invest in partnerships to best protect our customers. In today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, organizations must also adapt to keep up with attackers who are continually devising new and different approaches. Start-ups propel the entire industry forward through their innovative approaches to security. Similarly, partner solutions fill holes in our ecosystem and ensure we are addressing security holistically for our customers. Security is a team sport. While no single company can do it all, together we are unstoppable. Building and nurturing a security ecosystem is vital to staying ahead of the constantly evolving threat landscape and ensuring a secure digital environment.

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