The huge transition to hybrid cloud has changed the way many organizations store and use applications, workloads, etc. This means that with these changes, it also brings new threats and security challenges. Some organizations believe there isn't a lot they can do to mitigate these challenges, but there are actually many things they can do or practice to help keep their cloud data secure. Below are some of the top concerns when it comes to security issues in cloud computing.
Data Breaches
Data breaches are always a top concern because they can usually cause damages that are greater than any other threats - financial and reputational damage. Data breaches can cause a loss of data/intellectual property, so here are some things to take into account and practice to lessen the blow of any breaches and to protect the company.
Some proactive things to do include defining how valuable the data is and how impactful it's loss will be. Organizations should also be mindful of who has access to the data, what data is internet-accessible thus making it most vulnerable, and create and regularly test incident response plans. Being proactive is the best way, and sometimes the only way, to lessen the damage data breaches can cause.
Cloud Security Strategy Sometimes when migrating to the cloud, organizations give precedence to minimizing time over security measures. This leads to using the cloud quickly, but having to use strategies that are not designed for it. To prevent this security weakness, security architecture should align with your goals and how you plan to utilize the cloud. Organizations should develop and implement the security framework around this and keep threat models up to date.
Identity and Access Management A newer threat that has been discovered when transitioning to the cloud is inadequate access management and control around data, systems and more. When transitioning to cloud, organizations are usually required to change their practices related to identity and access management - not doing so could cause security breaches. To avoid breaches caused by inadequate practices, organizations should secure accounts and use two-factor authentication, separate and segment accounts and regularly remove unused credentials and access privileges.
Account Hijacking Phishing attempts are only continuing to increase and they are becoming more effective and targeted. The risk of someone outside of the organization gaining access to accounts and data is significantly higher than ever. However, phishing is not the only way cyber criminals can get credentials - they can also compromise the cloud service itself and gain this information and access. One an outsider has access to an account and information, there is a ton of damage they can do, whether it is theft or destruction.
Insider Threats Inside threats are just as serious for the cloud as on-prem data and information. These inside threats could be current employees or even former employees, contractors, etc. who were once given access to company information, and even possibly was never revoked access. These inside threats do not have to come with malicious intent - often they unintentionally put data at risk. This can include negligence such as misconfigured cloud serves, storing certain data on personal devices, phishing scams and more. To prevent these things and get ahead of them, organizations should train and educate employees on proper practices and regularly follow up on these.