Stop Cribbing About Shadow IT and Start Taking Charge Now
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Employees use tools at their disposal to get work done, but if these tools (often legacy) hamper collaboration or are inflexible, they’ll turn to less secure options for the sake of convenience. According to Gartner, a third of successful attacks experienced by enterprises will come from Shadow IT usage by 2020.
And this problem is not unknown. Eighty-three percent of IT professionals reported that employees stored company data in unsanctioned cloud services, a challenge especially apparent with file sync and share tools. When people work around their legacy systems to use tools like Google Drive, it’s often because they find their current systems to be clunky or that they can’t collaborate with others as easily. They’re unable to do three key things in legacy file sync and share systems (like Microsoft SharePoint):
1. Unable to work on their phones. By now, people expect to be able to work on the go—and this means not just opening an attachment, but actually making edits to and comments on work. It gives them freedom to work when it’s convenient for them and to help teammates anytime.
2. Unable to create workspaces independently and easily. This might sound counterintuitive, but if an employee needs to contact IT to have a new project folder made on a drive, the bar is too high. Employees need to be able to quickly, and independently, create documents that can be shared simply because of the changing nature of collaboration. Work happens ad-hoc, on the go (like we mentioned above), and with people inside and outside of your organization. If someone has to contact IT to create a new folder, they’re more likely to neglect the request or use a different tool altogether to get started.
3. Unable to make the data work for them. Traditional file storage is just that, storage. Like an attic, we store things in these systems, but at some point stuff gets stale and it’s hard to tell what we should keep or pitch. People need their storage systems to not only house their data, but to help them categorize and find information quicker so that they can make this data work better for them.
You have two choices when it comes to making a decision on file sync and share systems:
Option 1: Continue to let your employees work on unsanctioned products, some of which may open your business up to unintended security issues (and, in some instances, scary terms of service).
Option 2: Buy the tools that your users want to use because these tools are making them more productive.
If you want to create a more productive workforce, take cues from your employees. Your tools should not only meet the highest security standards for IT, but let people work the way they want to (and be intelligent enough to guide them along the way).
Imagine if your technology could flag that a file contains confidential information before an employee accidentally shares it. Or surface files as they’re needed to help people work faster. Google Drive does this.
Remember, if the technology doesn’t suit your employees, they’re just going to work around it anyway. Instead of investing time and resources on routine maintenance, shift this energy toward helping your employees stay productive in ways that work for both you and them.
Google Cloud Leads the Landscape for Unstructured Data Security Platform: Forrester
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As organizations expand their use of cloud computing services, more of their sensitive data inevitably moves to and lives in the cloud. Much of this sensitive data is unstructured and can be challenging to secure. Despite this potential challenge, the usefulness of cloud for data storage and processing is too big for most organizations to ignore and has in turn led to data sprawl, where their sensitive data is spread over many resources, both in the cloud and on-premise. Addressing data sprawl requires solutions that can discover, manage, and secure sensitive data, especially unstructured data, as it spreads.
To help organizations confidently move their sensitive data to the cloud, Google Cloud works diligently to earn and maintain customer trust. Control and transparency are pillars of our approach to offering a trusted cloud. Therefore, we’ve been expanding our capabilities to act on unstructured data as sprawl increases.
Given the importance of these capabilities to our strategy, we are happy to announce today that Forrester Research has named Google Cloud a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Unstructured Data Security Platforms, Q2 2021 report, and rated Google Cloud highest in the current offering category among the providers evaluated.
The report evaluates the 11 most significant providers with platform solutions to secure and protect unstructured data, spanning from cloud providers to data security-focused vendors. The report notes that “Google offers breadth and depth with built-in data security in the cloud. Google Cloud Platform, Google Workspace, and BeyondCorp Enterprise have underlying data security products and features for protecting customer data.”
Google Cloud tools focused on protecting unstructured data were developed and battle-tested internally at Google to alleviate some of our own data security challenges. This brings the best of Google security to the organizations utilizing Google Cloud and our security tools. The report highlights that “Google productizes capabilities originally developed to secure its own business, and brings a disciplined approach to product enhancements for enterprise requirements. It serves a wide range of enterprise and mid-market, with a focus on emphasizing data protection needs by industry. ”
Google Cloud’s data security strategy focuses on meeting customers wherever they are in their cloud migration journey. The report highlights that “Google further enables a Zero Trust approach with third-party integrations through its BeyondCorp Alliance of partners in device management, endpoint security and gateways.”
Google Cloud received the highest possible score in sixteen criteria, in total receiving the most 5 out of 5 ratings among all vendors assessed. These criteria include: Data Intelligence, Access Control, Deletion, Obfuscation-Scope, Obfuscation-Key Management, Deployment, Security and Risk, APIs and Integration, Data Security Platform Vision, Data Security Execution Roadmap, Performance, Planned Enhancements, Zero Trust Enabling Partner Ecosystem, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Installed Base, and Revenue.
Notably, Google Cloud received the highest possible score in the Obfuscation criteria. Obfuscation can help protect sensitive data, like personally identifiable information (PII), which is critical to many enterprise workflows. Cloud DLP helps customers inspect and mask this sensitive data with techniques like redaction, bucketing, and tokenization, which help strike the balance between risk and utility. This is especially crucial when dealing with unstructured or free-text workloads, in which it can be challenging to know what data to redact. More than 150 detectors combine to power Cloud DLP’s masking, which can be deployed in data migrations and business workloads like real-time data collection and processing. For Obfuscation specifically, the report mentioned that Google “takes a broad view of DLP, which includes in-line redaction of sensitive elements in unstructured data and DLP APIs that extend support to additional data types like images or other media.”
We are honored to be a Leader in The Forrester Wave™ Unstructured Data Security Platforms Q2 2021 report, and look forward to continuing to innovate and partner with you on ways to make your digital transformation journey safer as we work to become your most trusted Cloud.
A copy of the full report can be viewed here.
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Redefining the approach to mobile security
When it comes to mobile security, everyone assumes open means unsecure.
There are three terms that people often confuse: vulnerability, malware, and exploit.
A vulnerability is really nothing more than a software flaw that is potentially exposed, where there is a possibility of it being attacked. It doesn’t mean it will ever be attacked and it doesn’t mean it will ever be exposed.
Malware is software–again, it’s software–that is designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system.
An exploit is also software and it’s designed to take advantage of a vulnerability. And in most cases, it’s designed to typically do malicious things, such as install malware.
So, a vulnerability does not equal an exploit. A vulnerability is a chance.
Discover how to debunk these security myths and learn how the latest multi-layered security protections, encompassing software, and hardware and application levels now leverage the power of machine learning to protect your device fleet. Mark Burr, an Android expert, shares the latest on enterprise security innovations, backed by third-party validation.
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Journey to Transformation and Modernization with Google’s Distributed Cloud
Google Cloud has been leading the way of helping businesses make most from their cloud investments to drive digital transformation through modern application platforms that cater to today’s customer needs. Watch the video from the Next ’21 to explore three areas where companies are supported by Google Cloud throughout their cloud evolution journey–cloud migration and modernization, extension of services and engineering practices to hybrid and multicloud environments, and delivery of high performance with planet scale distributed infrastructure. Also, learn how Google Cloud is equipped for more complex and unique use cases, from datacenter to the edge. Hear the strategies and customer stories that can help your business modernize people, processes, and applications to fully leverage Google’s distributed cloud!
Google Maps Platform Can Elevate FinTech Experience with Less Risks and Higher Security
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The financial services industry is changing—an estimated $68 trillion in wealth transferring from baby boomers to millennials.1 This means financial service providers will have to deliver the speed, ease-of-use, technological sophistication, and tailored services that millennials have come to expect. In fact, half of all millennials are willing to switch to a competing institution if it offers a better digital experience.2 This and many other trends are driving unprecedented growth for mobile Fintech experiences in banking, digital payments, financial management and insurance.3
Google Maps Platform financial services solutions
To help you respond to customer’s changing demands, we’re launching financial services solutions that can help you improve your customer experience, security and operations. We’ve outlined the technical guidance and APIs you need to build out three financial services solutions: Enriched Transactions, Quick and Verified Sign-up, and Branch and ATM Locator Plus. We’ve also highlighted two use cases that customers are using our APIs to solve: Contextual Experiences and Fraud Detection.
Clarify financial statements with Enriched Transactions solution
Transaction statements are often hard for customers to understand, using abbreviations like “ACMEHCORP” instead of customer-facing names like “Acme Houseware”. Our Enriched Transactions solution clarifies these transactions and makes them instantly recognizable by adding the merchant name and business category, a photo of the storefront, its location on a map, and full contact info. Making transactions easier to recognize not only boosts consumer confidence, with reported increases in NPS of 15% or higher, but decreases costly support calls by approximately 67%.4
In addition, you can help customers easily visualize a series of transactions by adding the merchant name to the transaction amount and date, and displaying their transactions on a Google map. This enables you to give customers insights about where and how they spend money. See the guide to implement Enriched Transactions today.
Enable faster sign-up with Quick and Verified Sign-up solution
Manually entered addresses can lead to lowered conversions, erroneous customer data, and costly delivery mistakes. Our Quick and Verified Sign-up solution makes sign-up faster, suggesting nearby addresses with just a few thumb taps—cutting sign-up time by up to 64% and increasing conversion rates by up to 15%.5
The solution also provides one additional level of address verification that helps reduce the risk of fraudulent account sign-ups—and companies have decreased fraudulent account setups by approximately 30% through using geospatial data to verify customer identities.4 See the Quick and Verified Sign-up solution guide to get started today.
- Faster sign-ups 1An application form requires an address
- Faster sign-ups 2Autocomplete quickly suggests addresses
- Faster sign-ups 3Select the address with visual confirmation
- Faster sign-ups 4Address verification options are presented
- Faster sign-ups 5Location permission is granted by the user
- Faster sign-ups 6The address is verified
Help customers visit you with Branch and ATM Locator Plus solution
74% of customers now search for specific details prior to their visit, which makes detailed, accurate profiles for each location a must.5 Our Branch and ATM Locator Plus solution enhances your own websites and apps with the same information shown about your branches and ATMs on Google Maps. Include hours of operation, available services, user reviews, photos of the location, driving directions and more.
Financial services companies using geospatial data to provide additional information (e.g. opening hours, available services, etc.) on branch and ATM services have seen a 14% increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS), and a 7% decrease in customer support calls.4 Implement Branch and ATM Locator Plus today using the guide or build it in minutes with Quick Builder.
- ATM locator 1Customers can enable location permissions, or enter their address
- ATM locator 2Quickly enter the address with Autocomplete
- ATM locator 3Nearby location listings, ranked by distance and ETA
- ATM locator 4Map view and directions
Enable offers and rewards with Contextual Experiences
Real-time, geo-targeted offers can power deals, rewards, and cash-back programs—all visualized with rich Google Maps. By combining the insights of purchase histories with customer opt-in to location-based features, companies can implement the Contextual Experiences use case to enable personalized offers and rewards programs that drive engagement with brands while putting money in customers’ pockets at the same time.This is a win for banks and their customers, validated by encouraging metrics like NPS rating boosts of 8% or higher, and an increase of 8% or more time spent in-app.4 Learn how Current uses Google Maps Platform to create innovative customer rewards programs with location intelligence.
Detect suspicious transactions with Fraud Detection
With the Fraud Detection use case, companies can use customer opted-in mobile device location to flag suspicious activity based on geographic distance, such as an ATM withdrawal that is far from the customer’s phone. Our APIs can also help companies recognize suspicious transaction patterns such as a purchase made at a location that is physically distant from a recent transaction.
Financial services companies that use geospatial data to verify customers’ identities have reduced fraudulent transactions by approximately 70%, and false positives in fraud detection by 45%, on average.4 Learn how Starling Bank uses Google Maps Platform to enable real-time notification of transactions and their locations, and enhance data-driven decision-making.
Start elevating customer experiences, reducing risk and increasing efficiency today with our financial services offerings. Visit our financial services solutions page to learn more about how to start implementing these solutions.
For more information on Google Maps Platform, visit our website.
Launches and Stories on Google Cloud Security from Q1: Fresh off the Boat!
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The security world keeps changing, with new tools and new threats in the ever-evolving arms race that is cybersecurity. To keep you up to speed on all that Google Cloud is doing to help safeguard your data and your applications, welcome to the first installment of the Security Roundup. In this regular series, I’ll be sharing a selection of news and guidance to help ensure you have the resources you need for your hectic, high-stakes harm-preventing job.
Applying the principle of least privilege to GKE clusters
Access to your GKE clusters – just like any other resource – should be based on the principle of least privilege. Use groups, individual roles, and Identity and Access Management tools to limit who can do what with your Kubernetes clusters in Google Cloud. These principles can help you control who uses which elements of the Kubernetes API as well as how they access your clusters. More details are in Anthony Bushong’s video.
Ensuring CI/CD pipeline security
To make sure only trusted code artifacts enter your continuous integration and deployment pipeline, you can take advantage of Binary Authorization on Google Cloud, and then only permit signed builds to go through. Learn more in Martin Omander’s video interview and walkthrough with XIaowen Lin.
Protecting against denial of service and flooding attacks
Once your applications are on the web, they become potential targets for attack. You can use Cloud Armor to protect against many types of traffic attacks, including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), and HTTP POST flood attacks. After learning the normal traffic patterns of your apps, Cloud Armor monitors for anomalies and then generates alerts or intervenes on your behalf to block malicious traffic. Learn more with Arman Rye in this video.
Defending against cyberattacks with Palo Alto Networks
If you use Palo Alto Networks products for endpoint protection or network monitoring, now you can integrate the signals from those systems into Google Cloud security tools. You can ingest device health conclusions from Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR to boost your visibility into those endpoints’ state and improve your trust decisions. BeyondCorp Enterprise users can incorporate Cortex XDR metadata into access policies, leveraging additional posture information to add another level of trusted device information and operate with more confidence. Check out the details in this interview with Mason Yan at Palo Alto Networks.
Dealing with Apache Log4j 2 vulnerability(ies)
Attackers who exploit the Apache Log4j 2 vulnerability can execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable server. Read this post by the Google Cybersecurity Action Team for more details on log4j vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-44228 and CVE-2021-45046) and how you can find out if you’re affected. It includes advice for how to use Google Cloud products like Binary Authorization rules and Security Command Center to keep your cloud deployments safe.
Good luck out there, and remember: Keep your data yours!
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