Top 10 Risks of Cybersecurity in Cloud Computing

Today, cloud computing is the core of the business infrastructure to deliver scalable resources in real-time and has transformed the way we store, deploy, and manage data, applications, and infrastructure. With the development of technology, there arises the risk of cybersecurity. Whether you’re dealing with data breaches, compliance issues, insider threats, or account hijackings, understanding these threats is the first step to safeguarding against the cybersecurity risks in cloud computing. Here, we will explore the top 10 risks of cybersecurity in cloud computing:

1.     Data breaches

A data breach is when sensitive information is stolen from your system without your knowledge or consent. Data is more valuable to attackers than any other piece of information, making it the target of the majority of attacks. Cloud misconfiguration and poor runtime protection can make your data vulnerable to cyber threats.

Data breaches are one of the top 10 risks of cybersecurity in cloud computing that vary depending on the type of information being stolen. The effect of data breaches varies depending on the kind of data you’ve stolen. In the dark web, cyber attackers sell personally identifiable information (PII) and personal health information (PHI) to steal the identities of individuals or use the information for phishing. In addition to causing significant financial loss, it can also significantly hamper the reputation of a company.

With encryption, sensitive data can be protected before it leaves your organization’s network and migrates to the cloud. After encrypting your data, you should keep the keys to encrypt and decrypt your data.

2.     Compliance Violation

Companies run the risk of serious repercussions if they fail to comply with regulations such as PCI-DSS that safeguard sensitive information. All organizations must comply with these regulations.

To meet these requirements, you may need to set up a private area of the network that only authorized employees can access. Many organizations limit access and what people can do when they are given access to the network to meet compliance requirements. If compliance rules are not adhered to, the company could be subject to fines and penalties, which can harm the company. Unfortunately, many cloud service providers do not adhere to all industry security guidelines.

Most companies have privacy and compliance rules in place to protect their assets. A governance framework should also set out roles and responsibilities within the company and make sure these rules are compliant.

3.     Attack Surface

The attack surface increases with each new operation. In some instances, the amount of open workload increases after the implementation of microservices. If you fail to manage the attack surface, your infrastructure can be exposed in ways you are not aware of once it is compromised. The attack surface is one of the top 10 risks of cybersecurity in cloud computing. It also includes leaks of sensitive information which are vulnerable to cyberattacks.

In each of your environments, set up security zones and only let traffic through if it’s necessary and allowed through the firewall to safeguard your system from attack surface.

4.     Data Loss

Data loss can occur for a variety of reasons – open databases, data stored on an unreliable cloud storage provider, accidental loss or deletion of data, or loss of credentials to access data. One of the biggest benefits and most important aspects of cloud collaboration is the ease with which you can share data in the cloud. On the other hand, it also creates major privacy and security problems in the cloud, which is why businesses migrate to the cloud in the first place. When you share data via public links, or if your cloud-based storage is public, anyone with the link will be able to access it.

Hacking and other types of security breaches are more likely to occur when an organization's data is stored in a cloud service. If a cloud provider fails to provide adequate security protections, companies should either move or avoid storing sensitive information with them. Another way to avoid data loss is through the backup of data to prevent the risk of security in cloud computing.

5.     Misconfiguration

The number of cloud configurations is constantly increasing as providers continue to add more services. Many organizations are using multiple providers. Each provider has its own set of default configurations, each with its implementation and nuances. Unless organizations gain knowledge at protecting their different cloud services, attackers will continue to take advantage of misconfigurations.

Make sure to check the cloud security settings when setting up a particular cloud server. Cloud security is often overlooked in favor of other priorities, such as moving items to storage without considering the security of their content.

6.     Insecure APIs

In addition to providing businesses with the ability to customize their cloud services, application programming interfaces (APIs) also provide access, authentication and encryption capabilities. As APIs evolve to better serve end-users, they also become a bigger threat to the security of the data stored in them. If you use unsecured APIs for your cloud services, your data and systems may be at risk of being compromised. APIs are typically well documented for the convenience of your customers, but if they are not properly secured, they can lead to critical issues. Hackers mostly use brute force, man in the middle or distributed denial of service ways to gain access into an API.

A penetration test that simulates an attack on a collection of API endpoints designed to compromise the security of the system and obtain access to your organization’s sensitive information will provide you with insight into how secure your system is and what improvements you need to make.

9.     Contract Breaches with Business Partners

Data and the people who have access to it are restricted by the terms of business-to-business (B2C) agreements. Employees who store business data in personal cloud storage risk exposing themselves and their employers to legal action. Commercial confidentiality agreements are often breached. This is especially the case when the cloud provider retains the right to reveal any data submitted to third parties.

When you’re working with multiple cloud providers on the same services, make sure your vendors can work together. Include coverage for post-termination data transfer. A lack of common data standards can make cloud-to-cloud data transfer cumbersome.

Contracts should include both internal and external attacks, as well as human errors. In some cases, you may need to consider that an internal breach caused by an internal employee may be more serious than an external attack.

8.     Limited Visibility of Cloud Usage

When you move data and assets into the cloud, you lose some of the visibility and control you would otherwise have over those assets. This lack of visibility can lead to data breaches and loss of data because it opens up risks associated with poor governance and security.

Do your cloud service providers audit their security controls to protect end users’ personal information and sensitive files across their networks? If not, look for a partner who can provide complete transparency about the security controls their system administrators put in place.

You must carry out a risk analysis regularly to monitor the risks. You must also have a risk mitigation strategy in place to address the risks that result from partial transparency.

9.     DoS and DDoS Attack

DoS and DDoS attack DoS is most likely to occur in legacy systems that are overloaded with data and fail to function properly due to the overload. As a result, such kind of attack it makes the system unable for the user to use the system or does not provide access to the user.

The purpose of a DoS (denial of service) attack is to stop users from accessing the programs or interrupting their processes. There are two main types of DoS attacks: aggressive attacks from a variety of sources and complex attacks that target system processes like content delivery. One of the most important things to know about DDoS is that it’s when cybercriminals flood a network with enough junk traffic that it can’t function or communicate normally. This stops normal traffic, also known as legitimate packets.

Intrusion detection systems are used by businesses to prevent DoS attacks. Depending on the user's credentials and behavior, the system helps detect suspicious traffic and provides an alert to the user.

By examining the traffic coming through your firewall to find out where it’s coming from or to find good or bad traffic to help you sort traffic and get rid of bad traffic, you can help avoid DoS.

10.     Hijacking of Accounts

Account hijacking is one of the biggest threats to cloud security as businesses increasingly rely on cloud infrastructure and apps. Suppose an attacker were to gain access to an employee's credentials, they could have access to confidential information or capabilities. Similarly, if a customer's credentials were compromised, the attacker would have full access to the customer's online account.

Ensure your storage provider’s business continuity plan, outlines how they plan to protect data stored on their servers.

Create a different configuration for access management. The configuration of access management determines the availability of information for different users.

These top 10 risks of cybersecurity in cloud computing show that there is a need for adopting better governance in the cloud model. By getting a proper understanding of these top 10 cybersecurity risks in cloud computing and taking necessary measures to mitigate these cyber threats, companies can protect the cloud environments in the ever-evolving technological environment.