The top five cloud security threats and how to protect against them

Cloud computing has become prevalent among all sizes of companies. Cloud services like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS) are widely used by companies as they are flexible, cost-efficient, and effective solutions to host apps and store data.

Cloud providers eliminate the requirements of maintaining on-premise hardware setup, companies simply purchase their services and pay as they go. That’s why, every year, the cloud computing market grows exponentially.

As a matter of fact, Statista forecasts that the cloud computing market will be worth $880 billion by 2027. So, in the upcoming years, all sizes of companies will be using multiple cloud services, moving their data to the cloud, and hosting applications.

Without a doubt, cloud services enable enormous benefits to companies, but simultaneously these bring many security risks, and threats along. While using cloud services, it is critical to secure these environments.

In this article, we will explain the top five cloud security threats and how to protect against them. Let’s break down the main cloud security threats.   

1- Data breaches

Data breaches are a massive threat and the biggest concern of companies. When cybercriminals steal the confidential information of customers, clients, and vendors that are stored in the cloud environments, this will have negative consequences on the victim company.

After the incident, customers can lose their trust, and the victim company’s credibility and reputation can be affected negatively. Also, this company has to pay millions of dollars in fines, and its revenue can decrease for a long time.   

2- Insider threats

Insider threats present huge risks to companies. Insider threats refer to a malicious insider using his access privileges to leak confidential data or launch attacks on other cloud assets, and company networks. Insider attacks can have disruptive effects on company resources both in cloud environments and on-premises.   

3- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is a common type of cyber attack in which cyber criminals seek to crash a machine, server, or network and make it accessible for authorised users for a period of time.

In DDoS attacks, cybercriminals can send messages to systems, servers, and machines that cause them to shut down or crash. In another method, cybercriminals can send a lot of traffic using compromised accounts, bots, and spoofed IP addresses and overwhelm the machine, system, or server until it crashes.

This way, cloud services can face downtime or crash and be inaccessible for a period of time. DDoS attacks can stop organisational operations and negatively impact employees’ productivity.    

4- Cloud misconfiguration

Cloud infrastructures are really complicated. While setting up cloud deployments, companies can miss important components, and essential updates or don’t pay attention to shortcomings of current infrastructure.

Cloud misconfigurations can leave confidential data to exposure, and make cloud assets vulnerable to attacks. Misconfiguring important cloud security components like access management systems and encryption can put cloud environments at great risk.   

5- Account hijacking by phishing 

Account hijacking by phishing is a concerning threat. Cybercriminals can send phishing emails or text messages to employees and steal their login credentials. From there they can gain access to cloud hosted data and perform malicious tasks and steal confidential data.

Hijacking accounts is much easier than bypassing security systems, that’s why they use phishing methods to hijack authorized users’ accounts.    

How to protect your cloud resources

When considering the high-security risks, it is critical to follow Cloud Security Checklist for best practices. Cloud embraces the shared responsibility model that holds both clients and providers responsible for security. To cope with cloud security threats, companies can follow practical tips that are explained below.

1- Employ Multi-Factor Authentication

Companies should employ multi-factor authentication tools for access to cloud assets. MFA tools require users to verify their identities via multiple methods. These tools provide additional security to the access process and secure identities.

While using these tools, it will be almost impossible for cyber criminals to use hijacked accounts for accessing cloud-hosted data. To access cloud assets they need to bypass MFA authentication factors like biometrics, security tokens, keys, etc. Bypassing these factors is unachievable for cybercriminals.   

2- Implement Identity Access Management (IAM) Solution

For cloud security, it is vital to implement Identity Access Management (IAM) solutions with the least privilege principle. This framework assigns role-based access privileges to different groups of users.

In this regard, employees can solely access resources that are necessary for their work, nothing else. The IAM framework is quite helpful to mitigate insider threats and data breach risks.  

3- Encrypt Your Data & Use VPN

Reputable cloud service providers offer encryption, but it is the client's responsibility to use them. It is critical to encrypt the data in transit and at rest. The data at rest should be encrypted at all times.

Meanwhile, companies should use a VPN solution that can help them establish secure connections between employees and cloud-based resources, and encrypt the data in transit. Also, using a reputable VPN will prevent malicious actors from intercepting communications, or spying on companies’ online traffic.    

4- Implement Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Solution

To have robust cloud security, companies should implement the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution. This framework interconnects network segmentation, threat prevention, anti-malware, and firewall tools and enables enhanced protection against cloud security threats.

Also, EDR configurations will enable wider visibility of endpoints and user activities. This framework will alert IT admins when there are suspicious access attempts. Without a doubt, EDR configuration is a must for enhanced cloud security.  

Last words

In today’s world, every company uses at least one cloud service, if not several. Cloud usage brings many benefits to companies, but simultaneously it presents high security risks and threats.

Data breaches, insider threats, DDoS attacks, cloud misconfigurations, and account hijacking by phishing are among the top cloud security threats. To handle these threats, companies should use MFA, IAM, encryption, VPNs, and EDR tools and establish robust cloud security.