Cybersecurity incidents happen when businesses do not put adequate safeguards on their IT infrastructure. Cybercriminals exploit their vulnerabilities to inject malware or extract sensitive information. A lot of these vulnerabilities exist in businesses that use cloud computing platforms for their operations.
Cloud computing makes businesses more productive, efficient, and competitive in the marketplace. This is because their employees will be able to collaborate with each other easily even when they are not in the same location. However, it comes with some risks.
Cloud platforms allow employees to store data on a server and share it with their colleagues at any time. Companies take advantage of this by hiring top talent from across the world and letting them work remotely. This helps them save on cost while guaranteeing high quality work performance.
However, to maintain these advantages, their cloud platform has to be secure and continuously monitored to detect threats and suspicious activities. Cloud monitoring prevents security incidents because the tools and personnel assigned to find and analyze vulnerabilities and suspicious activities will address them before they cause harm.
Cloud monitoring reduces security incidents because without it, companies might not know when their cloud platform has been infiltrated. In some cases, the malicious actor might stay in the system for a long time until they make their presence known or are caught. During this time, they will have the opportunity to see everything that is going on in the organization.
In some cases, these cyber attacks will have lasting consequences like reputation damage, legal sanctions, and financial setbacks. Every company should strive to reduce or avoid them, and here are some ways cloud monitoring can help them achieve that goal:
It is better to proactively detect and mitigate cyber threats in a cloud platform than wait for them to cause serious damage before reacting. Cloud monitoring helps companies achieve this, thus preventing downtime, data breaches, and other negative effects associated with cyber attacks.
Aside from the general surveillance cloud monitoring tools perform, cybersecurity professionals can use them to gain visibility into the behavior of specific users, files, and applications to detect anomalies.
Cloud monitoring tools are designed to work round the clock, so any issue can be resolved as soon as an alert is triggered. Delayed incident response can escalate the problem and make it harder to resolve.
The software programs that companies use to monitor their cloud computing platforms are also cloud-based. This allows companies to extend their protection features to multiple cloud platforms when they scale up.
Cloud monitoring can be implemented even when a company integrates third-party cloud service providers into their cloud computing platform. This allows them to stay protected from threats that might emanate from that third party provider.
Cybercriminals attack cloud computing platforms in different ways, making cloud monitoring necessary so any attack can be thwarted as quickly as possible instead of escalating. The common cyber attacks malicious actors launch are:
This is an attack where cybercriminals trick employees into giving them the login details to their work account. They will use these details to sign into the work account and access information that should only be viewed by employees. Cloud monitoring tools can spot these attackers by flagging sign-in attempts from unrecognized locations and devices.
If cybercriminals gain unauthorized access to cloud platforms, they can infect them with malware that disrupts business operations. Examples of such attacks are ransomware and DDoS. Cloud monitoring tools can detect malware infections and alert cybersecurity professionals so they can respond swiftly.
If cyber attackers gain unauthorized access to an organization’s cloud platform and view sensitive data, they might be able to extract and leak it to the public. This can permanently damage the reputation of the affected company and attract lawsuits from affected consumers if there are any. Cloud monitoring tools can spot data leaks by detecting when unusually large volumes of data are being siphoned out of the system.
Cybercriminals can collude with shady employees in a company to give them illegal access to their cloud platform. With a shady employee’s permission and guidance, the criminals will raid the cloud server for valuable information they can use for malicious purposes. This type of attack is difficult to detect because cloud monitoring tools might believe the illicit activity is routine work being carried out by the employee. However, if monitoring tools detect activities occurring at odd hours, they can prompt cybersecurity personnel to investigate them.
Companies that do not adequately protect themselves are susceptible to cyber attacks. This risk increases if they use cloud computing platforms for their operations. It will be best if they put the proper security measures in place to protect themselves. Part of these measures is the implementation of cloud monitoring, a process which allows cybersecurity professionals proactively detect vulnerabilities and suspicious activity in a cloud system.