It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone reading this article that there has been a major shift towards businesses hosting their critical applications in the cloud. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as well as cloud-based servers from Amazon or Microsoft, have changed the way we build networked business systems for any size organization.

Previously we introduced the concept of cloud leaks, and then examined how they happen. Now we’ll take a look at why they matter. To understand the consequences of cloud leaks for the organizations involved, we should first take a close look at exactly what it is that’s being leaked. Then we can examine some of the traditional ways information has been exploited, as well as some new and future threats such data exposures pose.

The insurance industry has been consistently targeted for cyber attacks as of late, for good reason: sensitive data is at the heart of every process—from handling health insurance claims to archiving medical histories. And because medical records are worth ten times more than credit card information on the black market, firms handling said data are required to take extra precautions in bolstering information security.

Back in the good old days, we used to have to order physical servers to run our applications. When servers became too expensive, we found efficiency in virtualization. Why have one box running one server when I could have 10 or more on a single box? Who would have thought I could simply push a button and have a server ready in minutes as opposed to weeks?

A multi-cloud network is a cloud network that consists of more than one cloud services provider. A straightforward type of multi-cloud network involves multiple infrastructure as a service (IaaS) vendors. For example, you could have some of your cloud network’s servers and physical network provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), but you’ve integrated that with your servers and physical networking that’s provided by Microsoft Azure.

Data generated by various devices connected in a network and operations being carried out on them is called as log data and we have already discussed why log management is important, considering the exponentially increasing number of attacks and their sophistication. Further, in the last blog post, we dealt with questions that you must your cloud-based log management service provider.

The log management service is often outsourced to a third-party service provider due to the complexity of the process involved in the collection of logs. When a business plans for outsourcing log management to a service provider, business requirements must be given a top-most priority. To start with, a business must identify the goals it desires to accomplish through log management. After locating the required resources, the decision-making body should select a vendor for availing its services.