More Cloud Data Breaches ‘Inevitable’ in 2015, Forrester Says

If a new analysis holds true, cloud computing will continue to be the most disruptive technology around -- but get ready for more ugly data breach headlines.

The inevitability of breached data in the cloud is the most provocative of 10 forecasts from Forrester Research in a new report, Predictions 2015: The Days of Fighting the Cloud are Over.

The findings should raise eyebrows particularly for government customers, who put a premium on protecting sensitive information.

“You can attempt to blame the software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider or the cloud platform for not protecting your data, but the breach won’t happen because a hacker broke through their protections,” the report stated. “You are a much easier target. The culprits will likely be common process and governance failures such as poor key management or lack of training or perimeter-based thinking by your security department. A breach of some form is inevitable. Whether the perpetrators find anything worthy of their effort is up to you.”

To help combat critical data breaches, IT managers should exercise caution and practice intelligent cybersecurity hygiene regardless of the cloud service provider and its standardized protections. One open port or bone-headed password is enough to get “owned.”

Forrester’s other nine predictions for 2015 include:

• Microsoft earning more money from cloud than on-premises solutions;
• RESTful interfaces becoming important to back-office applications;
• Docker containers becoming a slam dunk;
• Maturation of hybrid cloud management;
• The death of managed private clouds;
• A surge in industry-specific, software-as-a-service products;
• Software-as-a-service vendors creeping toward hybrid rollouts;
• Major repercussions from the cloud storage pricing wars.

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