Cloud Computing: Companies Unaware of the Data Loss Risk in Virtual Storage

Grazed from Infosecurity Magazine. Author: Editorial Staff.

Gaps between the perception of cyber-risk (or cyber-safety) and the reality of a given situation seem to persist despite high-profile discussions of emerging threats. The latest concern revolves around storing data in the cloud or virtualized environment: Research reveals that 80% of companies believe that storing data in that way decreases or simply does not impact their organization’s chance of data loss. Yet, two in five companies leveraging virtual storage experienced data loss from these types of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) environments in the last year.

This disconnect is of particular concern considering that the survey, from Kroll Ontrack, indicated that virtual storage has certainly crossed the chasm into the mainstream: 84% of corporations are using it, and nearly one-third of respondents have 75% to 100% of their current environment stored virtually. IT departments like the IaaS model because it reduces capital expenditures on in-house servers and maintenance, and allows them to move to an opex-based model that is usually more cost-efficient and offers less administrative overhead…

But, as noted, that convenience comes with a security price tag: Of those that store data in a virtual environment, 52% of corporations believe virtualization software decreases the chance of data loss, but 40% surveyed said that they experienced at least one data loss event in the past 12 months within a virtualized environment…

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