A rising number of businesses are turning to the cloud and cloud services to aid in the evolution...
Cloud computing is getting highly common. Many businesses have moved their workloads and IT infrastructures to the cloud. The benefits are obvious: greater flexibility and scalability, fewer administrative overhead, and often cost savings. However, with such benefits come numerous concerns.
Potential recent research has revealed several threats to cloud technologies. As data is transferred to the cloud, the risk of unauthorized access to that data grows. Cloud service providers ensure their clients that the cloud infrastructure will be protected, while the client is responsible for the data and applications on the cloud. However, many clients do not adequately design their settings, leaving them vulnerable to vulnerabilities that they did not confront in their on-premises systems.
Top Threats to Cloud Computing
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) just produced a white paper on the top cloud computing threats today. According to the list, misconfigurations and a lack of proper identity and access management (IAM) are the most serious threats to cloud security. Because of a lack of experience and the rapid advancement of technology, it is difficult to maintain security while migrating to the cloud.
The whole list is as follows:
- Inadequate identity, credential, access, and key management, as well as privileged account management
- Interfaces that are not secure and application programming interfaces (APIs)
- Misconfiguration and insufficient change management
- Cloud security architecture and strategy are lacking.
- Risky software development
- Third-party resources that are insecure
- Vulnerabilities in the system
- Unintentional cloud data disclosure
- Serverless and container workload misconfiguration and exploitation
- Threat actors, organized crime, and advanced persistent threats (APT)
- Extraction of data from cloud storage.
Tips From the List
According to CSA, even if cloud systems are well secured, attackers can still target low-hanging fruit. They may target misconfigured APIs or exploit overprivileged user accounts that lack the necessary controls. While putting in place a secure architecture, implementing a secure application development process, and checking third-party resources for vulnerabilities is always difficult, the cloud adds new dangers on top of those. Also, serverless application development and containers are a significant aspect of cloud computing, which totally alters the way apps must be secured.
Things don’t look good when it comes to cloud security expenses. Businesses cannot devote their whole security budget to cloud security. However, according to ISC2, 57% of businesses aim to boost their cloud security spending over the next year. The ISC2 survey discovered that 6 out of 10 IT employees would feel more confident with cloud technologies if they had enough training to improve their skills in order to better address the abovementioned issues and increase training and education for their team.
Some of the most recent cloud breaches include well-known tech organizations. These examples demonstrate that the cloud can be difficult even for large IT organizations.
Recent Attacks on Tech Giants
Last year, the LockBit ransomware infiltrated the IT consultancy firm Accenture. Attackers acquired access to many cloud storage servers that were not properly set up and encrypted before demanding a ransom. The servers included about 6TB of data, including 10,000 user accounts and passwords.
In the same spirit, attackers targeted Facebook in 2021. Millions of user details, including account names, photos, and check-in information, were exposed in incorrectly configured publicly accessible cloud storage buckets. As a result, attackers might easily download the data over the internet. Facebook quickly corrected the issue, but the data had already been released.
Another well-known example is the breach of IT solutions vendor Kaseya. It was the victim of a major supply chain ransomware attack focused on capturing administrative control of Kaseya’s services from managed service providers and their downstream customers. The attack harmed the company’s servers and affected users worldwide. Because of a lack of adequate protection in their cloud infrastructure, attackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities. This attack emphasizes the necessity of having a safe architecture with a solid backup strategy.
Cloud-Native Tools
These are just a few examples of the important necessity of cloud security today and in the future. In the coming years, the cloud will only grow in importance and popularity. This means that security evaluations for cloud infrastructure, posture management, effective security personnel training, and the assignment of skilled consultants will be important.
Lastly, cloud service providers offer cloud-native tools for protecting workloads, detecting vulnerabilities, and managing secure setups. AWS offers tools such as GuardDuty, AWS Inspector, and AWS Shield. These tools aid in the prevention of attacks such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) and the detection of vulnerabilities. Also, technologies such as AWS Configuration help in the secure setup of cloud resources.
Similar cloud-native products are available from Microsoft Azure, such as Sentinel, Azure DDoS Protection, and Azure Application Gateway. These technologies aid in the security of cloud infrastructure by protecting against threats and detecting weaknesses. Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Oracle all offer similar services.
Identity and Access Management
A solid identity and access management (IAM) infrastructure and strong governance policies are the first lines of defense, in addition to the technologies. IAM policies should be appropriately configured in AWS IAM and Azure AD. These policies should include the revocation of user access permissions that are no longer in use.
Proper application security solutions can provide additional protection while continuously building and integrating security into the application development process. Establish DevSecOps practices at all stages of development.
Don’t Forget About Containers
Aside from cloud security management, safe container handling within the cloud is critical. This starts with using secure images and properly configuring Kubernetes or Openshift clusters. Aquasec and JFrog are excellent tools for detecting vulnerabilities in container images, and Openshift provides tools like ACS to manage overall container security.
These methods will mitigate some threats and avoid the majority of the damage. Also, a strong cloud security architecture and IAM management, as well as the avoidance of single points of failure and effective encryption of important data, will make your cloud settings extremely secure.
When all of the helping tools have reached baseline security, a stringent Zero Trust security approach should be taken. That is one of several important moments in ensuring the long-term security of your surroundings.
Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.
For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com