More and more businesses rely on cloud technology to grow, reduce costs, and make their services more accessible to their clients, customers, and employees.
While cloud computing has been essential for organizations during the pandemic shift to remote work, companies have also realized this technology comes with security risks that require top cybersecurity solutions.
What are some of the top Cloud Security Challenges in 2022 you should know and how to protect your cloud from possible cyber breaches? Let’s find out.
#1 Cloud Misconfigurations
Security misconfiguration in the cloud is a common cause of cloud breaches. Misconfiguration in the cloud refers to mistakes in the cloud — errors that create flaws in the cloud that hackers can exploit.
To meet all of their needs, companies grew accustomed to having a multi-cloud environment and multiple cloud providers. Every cloud provider and cloud environment have their own set of configurations, which makes your IT team’s job more difficult.
Misconfiguration leaves cloud platforms exposed because they’re difficult to identify. Cloud platforms are continually changing, and they can be too complex — especially if IT teams have to manage multi-cloud deployments.
One of the likely reasons for cloud misconfiguration can also be that your IT team doesn’t know the ins and outs about cloud computing or how to properly set up and configure different platforms.
They might need more training or additional help, especially if you scaled using cloud technology or have overly complex systems.
#2 Improper Data Sharing
Cloud technology facilitates data sharing. While one of the main perks of cloud technology, this is also one of the leading causes of breaches within the cloud. It leads to possible data leaks because it makes it difficult to control who has access to the information shared via the cloud.
Some cloud vendors enable easy information sharing by allowing you to set URLs to “public”. Information stored in the cloud can get compromised if the links you set to the public get into the wrong hands.
Similar to link sharing, cybercriminals can also get access to the cloud repository that you set to public. All they need is a link that leads them straight to this resource.
Besides losing the trust of your customers after they find out that their data has been leaked, improperly shared information can also lead to damaging lawsuits because of privacy violations.
#3 Compromised Accounts
Cybercriminals could get access to employees’ credentials and get into their accounts to gain sensitive information. This could be an issue if your employees have weak passwords that can be easily cracked or if by clicking on links in phishing emails.
Stolen passwords or hacked accounts are high cybersecurity risks. Access to a single account or a password can enable access to multiple others that are linked with it — especially if a person reuses their passwords.
Besides leading hackers straight to the sensitive data of your company and your customers, hijacked accounts could give them control over some important functions of the cloud.
Many companies lack the means to recognize stolen credentials and hijacked accounts as well as the solutions to promptly respond to this threat as soon as the cybercriminals obtain sensitive information.
#4 Vulnerability Exploitation
Vulnerabilities or flaws in the system lead to cloud breaches and unauthorized access to accounts that you want to keep private. They create opportunities for cybercriminals that are looking for ways to get into your cloud.
It’s difficult to keep your cloud infrastructure entirely free of vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers. The cloud environment is constantly updating and evolving, as you’re scaling it to meet your needs, all the while increasing the surface attack of the cloud.
To manage vulnerabilities, cloud platforms need constant monitoring to spot possible flaws before hackers do and patching up vulnerabilities — starting with the high-risk flaws first.
Whether vulnerabilities are high risk depends on attacks that could exploit flaws you discovered on the cloud.
Threats that exploit flaws could be malicious insiders (cybercriminals that already have credentials that give them access) or hackers targeting your cloud infrastructures from outside.
Patching Up Flaws in Cloud Computing Technology
Most businesses have a multi-cloud infrastructure — they use cloud services from more than one cloud provider to run their cloud-based apps, enable remote work for their employees, or increase storage.
Cloud environments differ from traditional infrastructure organizations used to rely on prior to increasing demand for remote work.
To keep your cloud safe, you need layered technology that can keep up with the dynamic cloud technology that is constantly changing, updating, and being used by others.
Remember to seek cybersecurity solutions that protect multi-cloud platforms by automatically and continually checking your security posture, but also prevent potential breaches of the cloud.