In today’s digital age, cloud computing has become a vital tool for businesses’ operations, offering unmatched benefits in terms of flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. The main purpose of this technology is to standardize devices and systems, advocating for the advancement of innovation to help companies function better and faster without being restricted by geography or time zones.
Considering many organizations migrate to the cloud, its security is no longer an optional aspect. Cloud security is a collection of approaches and technology that serve as a means to address external threats such as malware injection and account hijacking. It also manages internal menaces, which are widely recognized as prevalent. (As in many other life circumstances, perils often lurk within our walls.)
Cloud attacks can have severe consequences, including damage to your company’s reputation, tough financial losses, and even legal liabilities. Therefore, in the precarious digital realm, you have no choice but to maintain a vigilant and anticipatory stance. This article aims to discuss the key challenges the year 2025 announces in cloud security, offering valuable information that may help you predict future events or needs.
Data breaches
Many business owners deny the potential of data breaches, treating this matter with a certain arrogance due to the immeasurable confidence they have in their practices, forgetting that even some of the industry’s giants were, at some point, victims of network violations and not because their company’s approaches were weak, but perhaps due to their overbearing self-assurance. You don’t believe it’s likely to happen until it happens to you. Thereby, you should know that the most common security breaches in cloud computing are:
- Social engineering, because many employees are uninformed and fail to acknowledge the dangers of internal threats.
- In malicious cyber-attacks, you should keep in mind that (even if you refuse to believe it) the most likely perpetrator is someone with exclusive system access who happens to know exactly what “innocent” mistakes leave particular digital doors open so that information gets stolen.
- Downloading malicious content is also very common, as employees sometimes take a break from their duties and use the internet for personal reasons, inadvertently welcoming malware or virus threats onto the network. That’s why many companies have recurred to professional protection, such as Azure security tools, which are popular for safeguarding organizations’ data from insider or outside threats.
Misconfigurations
Security misconfigurations refer to any malfunctions, gaps, or errors that have the potential to leave your business’ system vulnerable to cyberattacks. Here are the most common types of security misconfigurations that programming interfaces may have:
- Weak or default passwords: Leading a big enterprise and using your dog’s name as a password, along with the not-so-hard-to-decipher combination of 1234, definitely invites attackers in. Moreover, default passwords are generally simple and identical across many devices, a fact that makes them easy targets for professional cyberattacks that effortlessly leverage brute-force algorithms while eating pancakes.
- Outdated or vulnerable software: Keeping software up-to-date has become crucial for the overall safety of your company, as these upgrades include patches that fix any vulnerabilities or bugs, bolstering your defenses against potential cyber criminals. Getting into contact with a professional service such as Intercept enables you to stay abreast of the latest developments across various domains, benefiting from up-to-date information and solutions tailored to your cloud’s needs.
- Misconfigured firewalls: 99% of firewall breaches are caused by firewall misconfigurations.
AI and machine learning exploits
AI-powered cyberattacks are the result of AI (obviously) or machine learning (ML) algorithms, along with constantly improved techniques that work to automate, precipitate, or enhance different phases of a cloud attack. For the last couple of years, many have praised the benefits implied within the evolutionary state of AI technology without bothering to think about the fruitful AI tools, such as GitHub and Copilot, that are specially trained to replicate vulnerabilities and unstable code in prevailing code bases.
Many security teams have expressed their concerns in regard to threat actors that manipulate algorithms so they can compromise defenses and evade detection during the attack.
This technique is widely prevalent in hackers’ communities, where they bypass security tools and mechanisms to achieve a forceful foothold in company cloud environments. Defense evasion through AI is now hackers’ ultimate ally, as it allows them to breach a whole IT system without being detected.
And how could you possibly fight against something that you don’t even know you’re fighting with? Exactly, it’s very challenging. Thereby, we can reinforce once again the power of cloud security services, which also leverage advanced tools like AI and machine learning to identify and combat unusual behaviors in real time. In short, the only way you can fight against AI is with AI.
Insider threats
Who says cloud security threats solely come from outside your organizations? Indeed, it’s not a common situation for employees to create insider risk incidents, but it’s still a percentage of 9%. Let’s find out what are the most common situations of insider threats:
- The storage of data in personal cloud storage: Usually, trusted insiders leverage storage services such as Dropbox and Google Drive to move sensitive data outside the company.
- Copying sensitive data to a USB drive: This is a classic one; it happens in movies as well.
- Accidental shares of important files with the wrong person: Accidental shares are a common scenario, and you must be very careful, especially when representing a company. The consequences can affect its reputability and spread across its members while also leading to huge financial losses.
Final Thoughts
Navigating the complexities of managing a company’s economy, reputation, culture, overall well-being, and security can indeed be overwhelming. However, there’s no need to panic because you don’t have to fight this battle alone. Cloud security services are here to support you. Remember that every successful enterprise is made of numerous genius minds.
