What Are the Security Risks of Cloud Computing

11 Feb What Are the Security Risks of Cloud Computing

More and more businesses are moving their workloads to the cloud to address the market’s ever-changing needs. In fact, recent cloud computing statistics show that six out of ten establishments did so during the pandemic. According to available data, this trend will likely continue in the coming years.

While this technology offers many advantages, it’s essential to understand the security risks of cloud computing before joining the technology bandwagon. Not understanding cloud security risks can compromise your operations.

Whether you’re already using the cloud or not, you should learn about its frailties to use it to your advantage. This article will delve deeper into five common cloud computing security risks and practical measures you can implement to avoid them.

Is the Cloud Secure?

When the pandemic began, many companies adopted cloud technologies to boost scalability, minimize costs, and improve agility. This move enabled organizations to amplify their capabilities.

However, these technologies gave fraudsters new avenues to find software vulnerabilities. As cloud adoption became the norm, cybercriminals started directing their efforts toward these lucrative new targets.

The platform can only be a secure place once you understand the security risks of cloud computing.

What Are the Risks of Cloud Computing?

Before making the switch, check out a few common cloud computing security issues below.

Data Loss

When you decide to make the shift, your cloud service provider (CSP) will have some control over your data. For this reason, the security of your company’s confidential information falls on other people outside your IT department.

Data loss — also called data leakage (or data spillage) — is the process where cybercriminals delete or damage software and applications. When you experience a breach, you could lose your data and receive hefty fines resulting from damages.

This condition is a growing concern for various industries. In fact, a data breach survey shares that a whopping 94% of companies have experienced data breaches in the past year. This figure doesn’t include undetected attempts.

Malware

One of the most popular cloud computing risks is malware — software designed to interrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to your system. By using malware, fraudsters can destroy entire networks, delete files, or steal passwords. Viruses, spyware, worms, and similar cloud risks fall under this category.

When you move large amounts of confidential information to an internet-based connection, you open your organization up for more cyber threats. With increased cloud usage, you boost the chances of experiencing data breaches.

Malware has been around for almost as long as computers have. As technologies upgrade, expect such attacks to evolve with them.

Compromised APIs

API stands for Application Programming Interface, a software intermediary that enables two applications to communicate with each other. Every time you use an app on your phone to send a message, check your balance, or purchase something, you’re interacting with an API.

APIs for in-house computing don’t need an internet connection to function, but CSP APIs do. When you use them to manage, organize, and monitor consumers, you have to upload data to the cloud. Unfortunately, when you give third parties access to confidential information, you hand cybercriminals more chances of hacking them.

Stolen Credentials

The dangers of cloud computing include attackers gaining access to a user’s credentials. Once fraudsters penetrate your system, they have the same privileges as their victims. For instance, they can lock out legitimate users, download confidential information, and wipe out systems and backups. Additionally, they can gain remote access through third-party platforms like QuickBooks, Microsoft Office 365, Dropbox, and more.

Once you migrate your files to the cloud, it’s essential to address credential theft and reuse. Historically, these attack types were behind some of the most costly data breaches.

Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks

Cybercriminals use Denial-of-Service (attacks) to shut down machines and networks to make them inaccessible for intended users. They achieve this by flooding your systems with traffic or sending them information that triggers a crash. Whichever method they use, the goal is to deprive employees, members, or consumers of the services they need.

In most cases, DoS attackers target servers of large organizations like government, banking, and commerce organizations. Afterward, they charge these groups massive amounts of money to save their data.

How To Boost Cloud Computing Security

For your company to enjoy all the benefits cloud computing offers, you should implement deliberate strategies to keep your data safe. Below are some practical techniques to improve your security efforts.

• Assess Risks: Before moving more data to the cloud, conduct cybersecurity assessments to discover how effective your security controls are. Ultimately, this action should identify potential vulnerabilities and security gaps your IT department can improve.
• Enhance Authentication: Traditionally, companies ask for a username-and-password combination to protect their data. However, in this modern day and age, this system is not enough to fend off high-tech attacks. It’s best to invest in multi-factor authentication (MFA) to enhance your firm’s safety.
• Automate Tasks: Cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated by the minute. For this reason, IT departments get overwhelmed with a large number of cloud privacy issues. If you want to keep up with fraudsters, it’s best to automate tedious tasks such as monitoring, information collection, and risk assessments.
• Monitor End-User Activities: Tracking interactions can help you identify irregularities in user patterns. Sometimes, these unusual activities could be warning signals of breach attempts. When you monitor them in real-time, you boost your chances of stopping hackers before they can cause mayhem to your systems.
• Provide Continuous Training: Hackers can break through your digital walls by stealing employee credentials. Nowadays, they use advanced techniques like phishing and spying. For this reason, it’s crucial to include cloud risk training in your internal learning efforts.

Minimize Your Cloud Security Concerns

The cloud has become a gold standard for entrepreneurs for many reasons, including improved scalability, collaboration, and efficiency. However, these capabilities attract more cybercriminals. For this reason, migrating your data comes with more cloud computing security issues.

Without enough preparation, increased cloud usage can lead to data loss, malware, API, credential, and DoS attacks. You can fall victim to the economic impact of cybercrime that costs industries worldwide up to $600 billion annually.

If you’re ready to minimize cloud security risks, it’s time to work with reliable IT professionals and invest in cloud security solutions. Keep your data secure in today’s modern world.