The adoption of public cloud applications continues to accelerate for both organizations and individuals at an exponential rate — evidenced across the massive growth in the volume of accounts, files, collaboration, and connected third-party cloud applications. In fact, the volume of files stored in public cloud applications per organization in 2015 has ballooned to 1.2 million, a 10x increase from 2014.

Adopting cloud technologies affords organizations a wide range of benefits, including dramatic reductions in total cost of ownership, increased flexibility and scalability, the transition from capital expenditure to operational expenditure, and a substantial boost to employee capabilities.

Meanwhile, the volume of sensitive corporate data in public cloud applications is growing, with organizations storing 100,000 sensitive files in cloud platforms on average. Forrester Research further explains:

"Sensitive data is moving to the cloud, beyond the protection of your perimeter controls. … As this occurs, the amount of data, and, most importantly, the amount of sensitive or 'toxic' data the enterprise stores in these software-as-a-service (SaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platforms is increasing by the day - and regardless of its locations, S&R pros still need to protect it effectively." - Forrester Research (2015, March). Market Overview: Cloud Data Protection Solutions

How great is the cyber risk in the cloud? According to a recent CloudLock report entitled "Cloud Cybersecurity Report: The Extended Perimeter," it might be greater than you think.