With almost half of all cyber attacks occurring within the cloud environment, it is now more vital than ever to ensure you adopt a robust security procedure for cloud-based solutions.
According to a recent study by IBM, 45% of all data breaches happen in the cloud. When you compare this to 2020 statistics, where cloud-based cyber-attacks only accounted for 20% of the total, it is clear there is a significant direction of travel in this trend towards cloud-related cyber crime.
Based on our own predictions from extrapolating the data, this figure could rise to as high as 60% by 2025.
As more businesses recognise the advantages of cloud-based storage solutions and shift their business model to incorporate working within the cloud, cybercriminals are increasingly targeting this infrastructure.
With the average data breach costing companies several million dollars globally, it is highly important to protect all avenues of attack in terms of cloud storage and be kept up to date on the latest cyber threats.
What are the Latest Cyber Threats in Cloud-based Data Breaches?
Denial of Service Attacks
A denial of service (DOS) attack is a form of cybercrime that blocks the intended users from normal access to their computer or network resources.
DOS attacks normally involve swamping a cloud solution with a high volume of traffic that can overload the system, making it unable to process normal transactions.
DOS attacks can result in significant financial impact and damage to an organisation's reputation—they disrupt critical services, preventing the normal operation of any business or organisation and can cause huge losses as a result.
Hijacked Accounts
Account hijacking is when a cybercriminal gains unauthorised access or control of any cloud computing network.
This allows the hacker to use the related infrastructure for their own uses or access sensitive business data that is stored in the cloud.
One method that cybercriminals will use to enter the business this way is by cracking passwords and stealing login details to gain access to cloud accounts with the full level of access as given to the intended user.
Account hijacking can result in severe financial losses and further damage to the organisation's reputation as hackers impersonate the main user of the account with all the options that would be available to the account owner.
Cloud Malware Injection Attacks
Cloud malware injection attack refers to a method used by cyber criminals to inject viruses, malware, ransomware etc into the cloud-based infrastructure and network.
This gives the hacker the opportunity to acquire any important business data or to hijack the infrastructure for their own purposes.
There are a number of ways that hackers can inject malware into the cloud storage solution. These include phishing attacks that trick users into downloading malware, adding a malicious service module to a SaaS or PaaS system and diverting traffic towards it, or gaining access to the cloud accounts via hijacking to then upload infected files.
Any weakness in the cloud storage solution can be capitalised on by hackers, the same can be said for any systems or applications that are operating on the cloud infrastructure.
Failure to Configure Security Systems Correctly
Another key threat to data in the cloud environment is from failure to properly set up security measures in the cloud solution. Without qualified help on hand from cloud data solutions experts it can be easy to make errors that leave the doors open to hackers and malicious actors.
This includes things like failure to properly set up access controls, applications and regular updating and patching of software. By utilising a managed IT solutions provider they can provide help and guidance through any installation procedures and ensure that nothing has been overlooked that can provide a hacker with easy access to your business data.
How Can You Protect Cloud Systems From Cyber Threats and Data Breaches?
Encrypted Data
With encrypted data, there is much less chance of a cyber criminal being able to make use of your business data. Even if the hacker does get hold of the data the encryption will render it useless to whoever steals the data without the correct decryption key—like reading a letter with all the words jumbled up and out of place.
How Does Encryption Work?
Whilst it sounds complicated the procedure is relatively simple and a similar process will have been done by many people as young as primary school age when they sent a letter (or WhatsApp probably these days) that was written in a secret code to one of their friends in class.
For example, the friend would have the code or ‘decryption key’ that told them A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. and when they received the letter from their friend that was a string of numbers they could decode it with their key and discover that their friend thought they smelled or some other insult no doubt.
Encryption in cloud-based data storage works much the same way but with a continually refreshing version of the encryption that will need the corresponding key to decode it.
Without the correct cypher or decryption key the data is meaningless to any hacker that gains access to it, in much the same way as the schoolyard bully or teacher that intercepts the note and without the bit of paper that tells them a=b they are left scratching their heads without the knowledge of what is being said about them.
Infrastructure Operation Monitoring
Leveraging an IT solutions provider can offer businesses cloud services such as live infrastructure monitoring and threat analysis. This allows them to stay on top of any incoming cyber threats and issue the appropriate alerts to engineers and IT staff in order to enact a speedy resolution.
With compliance analysis, threat detection and full asset management provided by Lyon.tech businesses can rest assured that all aspects of their cloud infrastructure are being continually monitored.
This includes any systems or applications running on the cloud, along with any data stored in the cloud and user groups that have access to this data.
Restricted Access to Cloud Data
Limiting who can access data and services based in the cloud is vital to securing your business as this reduces the available attack surface.
By controlling who can access cloud solutions businesses can prevent:
- Cloud-based cyber threats such as Denial of Service (DOS) attacks
- Side-channel attacks where fake virtual desktops are set up on the legitimate system
- Insider attacks where staff and users with high levels of access can compromise, steal or sell company data
Cloud Security Solutions
One of the best ways to mitigate the potential threat from cloud-based data breaches is to leverage the services and infrastructure provided by a fully managed IT solutions provider.
At Lyon, we provide a range of secure cloud data solutions along with a full host of cybersecurity services including
- Live infrastructure monitoring
- Security system analysis
- Support and guidance with installing cloud-based systems
- Interactive staff training with both online and in-person coaching on cybersecurity awareness
- 24/7 help teams and threat response
- Up-to-the-minute alerts and notifications on cyber threats and system failure
- Vulnerability management
- Penetration testing and cloud system assessment
- Compliance training and support
Winning the Arms Race Against Cyber Criminals
For more information on securing data and systems based in the cloud environment get in touch with our analysts today and we can assess your current setup, provide any advice on integration with your existing systems and explain which services and solutions would be most suitable for your specific business needs and operating procedures.
At Lyon Tech, we help businesses win the arms race against cyber criminals and malicious actors who seek to gain access to their data and accounts, by providing them with a robust defence against all forms of cyber threats.
However, these types of malicious actors will not wait until next year, or even next week, to initiate their attacks and compromise or steal data, so it is important to act now and secure your cloud data storage today.
