Privacy Laws in Cloud Computing

Cloud Compliance Isn’t Boring—It’s the Only Reason Your Startup Still Exists In 2023, 43% of companies faced penalties for cloud compliance failures. Not breaches. Not hacks. Basic misconfigurations. Take Twitter’s $150M FTC fine for letting user DMs leak via a misconfigured AWS bucket. The worst part? Their engineers knew about the risk but deprioritized it for feature launches. Compliance isn’t about checklists. It’s about survival. Key Regulations for Startups in 2025: --> GDPR: Fines up to 4% of global revenue for mishandling EU data. Even if your HQ is in Kansas. --> HIPAA: A single unencrypted patient record in Azure Blob Storage can cost $1.5M. --> PCI-DSS 4.0: Requires continuous monitoring of cloud payment systems. Monthly scans won’t cut it. Real-World Tools Beating Auditors to the Punch: 1. AWS Config: Automatically checks S3 buckets against 75+ compliance rules. 2. Azure Policy: Enforce geo-restrictions (e.g., block EU data from leaving Germany). 3. GCP Security Health Analytics: Flags IAM roles with excessive permissions. Actionable Steps (No Fluff): <-> Run this Terraform snippet to enforce encryption + versioning on all S3 buckets: resource "aws_s3_bucket" "compliant_bucket" { bucket = "your-bucket-name" versioning { enabled = true } server_side_encryption_configuration { rule { apply_server_side_encryption_by_default { sse_algorithm = "AES256" }} } } <-> Schedule weekly compliance fire drills: Simulate an audit and see how many violations your team misses. <-> Hire a Cloud Compliance Translator: Someone who speaks both legalese and Python. When did your team last prioritize compliance over a feature launch? If you hesitated answering, your cloud is a liability. #CloudCompliance #GDPR #Cybersecurity #DevOps #StartupLessons

SAP Sovereign Cloud Strategy Overview   Global Principles:         - Data Residency & Sovereignty: Ensuring data remains within the country’s borders. - Regulatory Compliance: Aligning with local laws such as GDPR, CCPA, and others. - Localized Infrastructure: Partnering with local data centers and providers. - Autonomy & Control: Allowing local teams to manage infrastructure independently. - Trust & Security: Building confidence through compliance and robust security measures. Country-Specific Strategies:  European Countries: - Focused on compliance with GDPR, with data stored within the EU. - Collaborates with local European data centers. - Emphasizes privacy, legal, and security standards aligned with EU regulations.  Russia:   - Data is hosted on local Russian data centers. - Compliance with Russian data localization laws. - Collaboration with local providers to ensure adherence.  Other Countries (e.g., Australia, Japan, Singapore):   - Deploys regional data centers to meet local legal requirements. - Customizes offerings based on country-specific privacy laws and regulations.  United States Plan: - Data Residency & Sovereignty: Establish cloud infrastructure within U.S. borders to ensure compliance with U.S. legal frameworks and data privacy standards. - Partnership with U.S. Cloud Providers: Collaborate with leading U.S.-based data centers (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) to deliver local cloud solutions. - Compliance & Regulations: Ensure adherence to U.S. regulations such as the CCPA, HIPAA (for healthcare), and sector-specific standards. - Government & Sector Focus: Provide tailored cloud solutions for government agencies and critical industries that require federal data standards and security. - Operational Autonomy: Enable local SAP teams and partners to manage and operate the cloud infrastructure to adapt quickly to market needs. - Security & Trust: Implement strict security protocols, certifications (e.g., FedRAMP for government-compliant clouds), and data encryption standards. Summary: This country-specific approach allows SAP to meet diverse legal and operational requirements, fostering trust and enabling enterprise digital transformation across various markets, including the U.S. Please contact randy@esgit.com to schedule a discovery call.

Here's the last post sharing what I spoke about during PDP Week. Our moderator Christopher (2024 Global Vanguard Award for Asia) comes up with the most creative titles for panel discussions. He called this one 'Weather Forecast: Cloudy with a Chance of Breach'. Together with Aparna and Abhishek, we talked about privacy and security in the cloud. 1. Who do you typically engage with IRT privacy and security for the cloud? I wanted to dispel the misconception that if a company engages a cloud service provider (CSP) to store your data, they are responsible for privacy and security, and the company doesn't need to do anything. Generally, the cloud customer is still responsible for security in the cloud e.g. configuring user access to data, services that the customer uses. The CSP is responsible for security of the cloud e.g. physical protection of servers, patching flaws. This is known as "shared responsibility" between the CSP and cloud customer. The extent of each party's responsibilities depend on the deployment used e.g. SaaS, PaaS, IaaS. 2. Shared responsibility also applies within organisations e.g. - IT helps with technical implementation and maintenance of cloud services - IT security helps protect data from unauthorised access - Privacy, Legal, and Compliance provide guidance on compliance with laws, and ensure that contracts with CSPs and vendors include privacy and security clauses 3. What tools/processes are involved in privacy considerations for securing cloud use? They include a Privacy Impact Assessment when e.g. new cloud services are used to process sensitive data, when cloud use involves data transfers to various countries. Privacy management tools include encryption, anonymisation, pseudonymisation, access controls. CSPs usually make audit reports available to prospective and current customers, you can request for them. Also, have a well defined incident response plan. 4. How do you implement and manage breach or incident response for the multi-cloud? Multi-cloud environments can be challenging, because each CSP may have its own set of interfaces, tools, processes for incident response. You need to develop a unified incident response framework that can be applied across all cloud providers, which defines standard procedures for detecting, reporting, and responding to incidents, and which can enable collaboration between different cloud environments. The framework must facilitate internal coordination between various teams, as well as external coordination with CSPs. CSPs play a critical role in incident response, as they control the infrastructure and have visibility into their own environments. Ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined, that you understand your legal obligations IRT breach notification e.g. who you need to notify and by when. Get corp comms' help with communication strategies vis-a-vis affected parties, regulators, staff, and other stakeholders. #APF24

☁️"Domestic is not sovereign, nor is it necessarily safe." haunting words from Simon about what “sovereign” really means. Many assume that if servers are located in an Australian data centre, their data is both sovereign and safe, let me throw a curve ball to make it more complex. 📃Take a look at two U.S. laws: the USA PATRIOT Act (2001) and the U.S. CLOUD Act (2018), together, they give U.S. authorities sweeping powers to access data held by American companies (*cough* no matter where in the world that data sits, including Australia). ➡️Under the Patriot Act, agencies gained expanded surveillance rights to compel access to business and personal records in the name of national security. 🎯The Cloud Act takes that reach further, allowing the U.S. Government to demand data from U.S.-based providers, even if those servers are hosted here in Australia. ⚠️This means that although you may have a “secure” Azure, AWS, or Google instance located onshore, those environments are still bound by U.S. jurisdiction. Encryption helps, but how many organisations actually implement robust, end-to-end encryption and manage their keys 🔑independently? ✅Sovereignty aside, misconfiguration risk is already a major issue, here's some FACTS: - 27% of organisations report a public cloud breach according to SentinelOne. - Around 9% of cloud storage is publicly accessible, and 97% of that exposed data is sensitive according to Tenable - 21% of exposed S3 buckets contain sensitive data due to poor access controls. 🗺️So sure, location matters, BUT, legal jurisdiction and configuration controls matter more. Simply hosting workloads onshore doesn’t guarantee sovereignty or safety. What protects your business is a layered strategy: encryption, independent key management, rigorous configuration governance, continuous monitoring, and a complete understanding of the regulatory landscape you’re operating under. 👉 Don’t turn a blind eye by where your cloud is. Focus on who controls it, what laws apply, and how it’s secured. Need help in understanding your requirements, AND, securing your cloud environment? Why not reach out to the cloud and security experts at ASE Tech. #ShiftHappens #DataCentre #ThinkBeforeYouClick