How to Handle Recent Top Cloud Security Threats

Highlights:

• While most businesses use public clouds from third parties, many sizable corporations make the infrastructure and data center investments necessary to build their private clouds.
• A data breach occurs when confidential information about your organization is accessed and used without your knowledge or permission.

Businesses of all sizes and types use the cloud for various services. It could be used as a virtual desk for data backups, analytics, or software development.

But there is always a security risk associated with such convenience. How secure is the data being entered into the cloud? How secure is it, and who has access to it?

Security issues like data loss and accidental credential exposure have increased frequently as businesses move their data to the cloud. Due to the rise in cyber threats over the last few years, cloud security solutions are crucial for companies.

According to Statista, the market for cloud security software was worth USD 29.5 billion globally in 2020 and is anticipated to grow to USD 37 billion by 2026.

Your company needs a solid strategy to safeguard business continuity and defend against cloud security threats. However, to put a solid security strategy in place, you must first know the top cloud security problems and potential fixes for 2023.

Let’s start now!

Top Ten Cloud Security Concerns for 2023

Cloud computing allows an organization’s users to access resources and collaborate remotely. Additionally, it is an affordable option that enables companies to scale their technological capabilities by their expansion requirements.

Cloud computing offers quick deployment and limitless storage without expensive hardware.

As a result of these benefits, the utilization of cloud services by businesses has surged, with approximately 94% employing them to manage servers, host applications, and store critical data.

While most businesses use public clouds from third parties, many sizable corporations make the infrastructure and data centre investments necessary to build their private clouds.

Cloud technology has grown in popularity and reliance, posing new security problems that conventional, on-premises security measures like network firewalls can’t resolve.

The following five cloud security issues are ones that businesses should take into account as they assess their platform choices and current security posture:

1. Data Intrusion

A data breach occurs when confidential information about your organization is accessed and used without your knowledge or permission.

It is essentially a theft, typically due to weak credentials or highly complex accessibility systems that can grant the wrong permissions to the wrong people.

The presence of malware on your system could also cause it. Since data systems are highly coveted by attackers, they are often the primary target of cyber attacks. Insufficient cloud configuration or the absence of runtime protection can expose data to the risk of theft.

When various types of information are compromised, the repercussions vary. Identity thieves and phishers acquire sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers (SSN) and medical records, from criminals on the dark web.

Internal documents and emails contain sensitive information which could be utilized to tarnish a company’s reputation and drive down its stock price if it fell into the wrong hands.

Regardless of the motivation for the theft, breaches pose a significant threat to cloud-based data storage providers.

What is the solution?

• Encryptions

Encryption at the network’s edge can protect sensitive data before it leaves your company’s premises and enters the cloud. After your data has been encrypted, you should keep the keys that can be used to encrypt and decrypt it.

It would help to never store encryption keys in the same application as sensitive data. In addition to ensuring possession of the encryption keys, IT departments should regularly assess the effectiveness of existing encryption protocols.

• Multiple Authentication Factors

In addition to identification and access, the user must also provide credentials. For example, when entering a password and receiving a notification with a one-time-use number key. This is currently a standard requirement for mitigating cloud security risks.

Learn how to integrate a multifactor authentication system into your mobile application. According to studies, 25% of data security breaches are caused by phishing.

2. Compliance Violation

If a company falls into a state of noncompliance, severe consequences are highly probable. All organizations must adhere to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) regulations that safeguard sensitive data.

Compliance with these regulations may necessitate creating a network segment accessible only to authorized personnel. Many organizations limit access and the things people can do with access to make sure compliance standards are met.

If compliance regulations are not followed, the company may be subject to penalties and fines that can hurt the company.

Sadly, not all cloud service providers adhere to all industry-wide security standards. A significant issue arises when adding a cloud-based service without verifying its compliance with all applicable legal standards.

What is the solution?

• Ensure effective compliance

Most organizations have implemented privacy and compliance policies to protect their resources. In addition, a governance framework should define roles and responsibilities within the organization and ensure compliance with these rules.

Include the roles and responsibilities of each employee in a set of policies. Additionally, it must detail how they communicate with one another.

3. Loss of Data

The biggest risk that is frequently irreversible is data loss. Data loss can occur for several reasons, including database vulnerabilities, storage on an unreliable cloud storage service provider, accidental deletion or loss of data, and the loss of login information.

The ease of sharing information via the cloud is a significant benefit and essential to cloud-based collaboration. But it also creates serious privacy and security issues, businesses’ main concern with the cloud.

Anybody with the link can access information shared via public links or a cloud-based repository that is set to public, and there are tools designed to search the web for such unsecure cloud deployments.

What is the solution?

• Implement privacy laws

Any company’s success depends on its capacity to safeguard confidential and sensitive information. An organization’s storage of personally identifiable information is susceptible to hacking and other security lapses.

Businesses should either find another cloud service provider or avoid storing sensitive data with them when a cloud service provider cannot provide adequate security safeguards.

Backups Creating routine data backups are the best way to stop data loss in most cases. It would help if you had a timetable for data backups and a clear definition of which data will be backed up and which won’t. Use data loss prevention software for automation.

4. The Attack Surface

The attack surface of an environment is what we call its overall vulnerability. Each additional task increases the attack surface. In some circumstances, using micro services can increase the workload that is publicly accessible. Your infrastructure may be vulnerable in ways you are unaware of once it is attacked if it is not well-managed.

Nobody wants to receive a call at this time.

The attack surface also includes subtle information leaks that allow for an attack. You always open yourself to outside attacks because of how the internet and cloud operate.

It would help if you kept an eye on it because it might be important to your daily business.

What is the solution?

Establish security zones in each environment and permit necessary and appropriate traffic to pass through the firewall. Give each environment (development, staging, and production) a separate cloud account.

• Use the least privilege principle.

Give people access to and the means to use resources. For instance, a developer should only have administrative access to part of the cloud account if they only deploy code.

Additionally, a developer should only sometimes have access to a workspace. Just give them what they need, please. Tools are available to help with accurately sizing users and accounts.

5. Misconfiguration

A cloud environment will eventually house an increasing number of services. Working with multiple vendors is now a common practice for businesses.

Each service is implemented differently than other services, and subtle differences between service providers can be significant. Threat actors will exploit cloud infrastructure security holes if businesses don’t improve their cloud security procedures.

What is the solution?

• Ensure Your Security a Second Time

Double-check the cloud security settings before configuring a particular cloud server. Even though it should be obvious, it is frequently disregarded in favor of more urgent tasks like placing goods in storage without giving the security of their contents a second thought.

Conclusion

As cloud computing continues to evolve and grow, so do the security threats associated with it. In 2023, some of the major cloud security threats include data breaches, insider threats, misconfigurations, and the exploitation of third-party service providers.

These threats can result in financial losses, reputational damage, and legal liabilities for cloud services organizations. Organizations need to implement robust security measures such as access controls, encryption, and continuous monitoring to mitigate these risks.

In addition, they need to stay informed about emerging threats and adopt a proactive approach to security by conducting regular risk assessments and testing their defenses.