Exposure of files to external sources such as misconfigured cloud storage services is shaping up as a major security issue.

That’s according to a new report from Bitglass Inc. leading up to the RSA Conference in San Francisco, which starts April 16. The “Cloud Hard 2018: Security with a Vengeance” report from the cloud access security broker solution provider is based on survey insights from cybersecurity and information technology professionals on their approach to cloud security.

The report found that only 44 percent of respondents say they have visibility into external sharing and data loss prevention policy violations in their cloud application and environments. Despite nearly half of respondents claiming they could track external sharing, a full 85 percent said they were unable to identify anomalous behavior across cloud applications.

In a positive trend, awareness of public exposure of data on the cloud is growing, with 62 percent citing cloud misconfigurations as a major issue, directly referencing Amazon Web Services Inc. S3 leaks such as FedEx and Octoly, among many others. Unauthorized access, both hacking and employee theft, deeply concern 55 percent of respondents, while 39 percent said external sharing was the most critical threat within their organization.

“The cloud security market is growing in large part because traditional security infrastructure has failed,” Bitglass said in a statement. “Where next-gen firewalls and built-in capabilities are insufficient for regulatory compliance, internal compliance, and cloud data protection, dedicated cloud security becomes critical. Specifically, 84 percent of respondents say traditional security solutions don’t work or have limited functionality in the cloud.”

Other highlights from the report: Only 15 percent of organizations surveyed can see anomalous behavior across apps, 78 percent said that they have visibility into user logins, only 58 percent have visibility into file downloads and 56 percent into file uploads.

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