Cloud Security Risk Management and Assessment

Regulatory compliance and cloud security risk management

Cloud technology offers many advantages to businesses, from faster deployment times to reduced capital costs. Organizations pay for the application only while they use it, while cloud technologies can offer increased reliability to help businesses manage growing online activity.

But new technology comes with risks. Many technology projects fail to deliver the anticipated results, and rising concerns about data privacy, cloud security risks and operational integrity and the need to stay compliant with various regulations mean organizations have to be more diligent than ever about managing potential risks triggered by cloud transformation.

By addressing cloud security risks and controls ahead of your cloud implementation, you can meet your compliance obligations and achieve or potentially surpass your transformation goals.

Our cloud security risk assessment and management approach

When introducing a new system, the implementation team’s focus tends to be on launching it on time and on budget. Because the team many not include people who can help address compliance and controls issues, the organization may face reputational, operational and financial risks and decreased stakeholder trust.

Some organizations try to replicate the existing control framework from legacy environments, but this may fail to address new risks and may prevent them from making full use of the cloud technology.

Whether you’re looking at Oracle, SAP, Workday, Salesforce or other cloud technologies, we have cloud security risk assessment experts who can help you address risk and control needs early on in your journey. Our globally connected local team has strong relationships with leading software providers and can help you successfully navigate transformational change and cloud security risks.

Learn more about our cloud security risk assessment and management services

We’ve made investments in proprietary tools that help drive the results you’re aiming for by finding, extracting, analyzing and reporting on the cloud security risks and controls of your systems. We can help you integrate governance and controls into the transformation life cycle—from technology selection to the post-implementation stage—and support continuous controls monitoring and compliance (CCM) while taking a broader view of the impact of your cloud transformation.

Control optimization

Integrate control optimization into design of processes, functionality and interfaces

Realize the cost savings of public cloud solutions by making the best use of native functionality for cloud security risks and controls.
Take advantage of improved analytics speed and capabilities to replace expensive or inadequate preventive controls with more practical options, such as preprocessed reviews of exception-based activity logs.
Automate interface controls, which govern the movement of information between systems or technologies, especially in hybrid landscapes that combine multiple on-premise and cloud specialty solutions.
Enable efficient and cost-effective continuous control monitoring through implementation of the right CCM processes and cloud security risk management solutions.
Understand and manage the cybersecurity risks associated with the use of cloud and mobile applications.

Data integrity and security

Protect your system’s most valuable asset

Make use of proven procedures and tools to catalogue, cleanse and convert legacy data to your new system.
Understand regulatory compliance requirements applicable to your organization and establish data governance processes to classify and secure your data.
Establish effective processes, tools and key performance indicators to monitor ongoing data integrity, quality, availability and security.

Build user adoption

Build confidence by establishing a fit-for-cloud change management approach

Maintain control of your system by setting up processes to spot, assess and address the impact of standard application releases on your organization.
Build confidence in your cloud systems by implementing robust controls for testing of vendor releases, implementing a cloud security risk management strategy and managing organization-specific changes.
Understand your vendor’s change management approach, assess the impact on user adoption and manage expectations early on.

Navigate the technology landscape

Select the best cloud security risk management solution, manage project risks and achieve and maintain the expected benefits

Define a cloud-transition road map, identify and prioritize your needs and choose the vendors and technologies that best suit your organization.
Build confidence by performing independent continuous or point-in-time project controls, health checks and cloud security risk assessments
Put in place effective and sustainable operating models supported by the right people, tools and processes.
Establish metrics and processes to measure the benefits of the solution and support continuous improvement.

Driving results: Managing cloud security risks

The risk function has an opportunity to help organizations achieve and even beat the goals they set out. To do that, it’s important to be proactive about cloud security risks and controls from the start. Organizations that take this approach can expect to see a number of benefits, including:

Reduced impact on the organization: Performing cloud security risk assessments before the technology goes live decreases strain on management, reduces rework and cuts back on duplicate meeting.
Decreased cloud security risks risk and implementation costs: Through real-time feedback, organizations can benefit from insights and best practices based on experience with similar projects and technologies.
Reduced likelihood of inefficient manual or compensating controls: Up-front reviews of your controls will help you document and meet risk and control objectives before going live.