Top Security Risks of Cloud Computing & Solutions

Today, 90% of organizations have shifted workloads to the cloud to increase efficiency and streamline workloads. Relying on cloud-based systems helps businesses scale and adapt quickly, accelerate innovation, drive business agility, modernize operations, and cut expenses. Cloud computing is a remotely hosted server, which means there is a perpetual risk for the users and numerous security risks of cloud computing. Such risks include accidental exposure of credentials and data loss during data migration, cyber threats, phishing, hacking, and more on the internet.

The need of the hour is to create a robust strategy to protect organizations against cloud security threats and adopt solutions that can mitigate security risks. Getting trained on formal educational and experiential certifications like AWS Solution Architect Associate training will help you understand and challenge such security risks of cloud computing.

How Secure is the Cloud? 

When it comes to the cloud, the responsibility of eliminating cloud security risks lies with the organization and with the Cloud Service Provider (CSP). It is critical to harmoniously manage security threats between both, so that cybercriminals are unable to take advantage of vulnerabilities found in software.

It is perfectly okay to ask questions about the security of the Cloud before you put valuable business data on it. It is recommended that before you agree with the CSP, you discuss the potential threats, understand the security risks of cloud computing involved, and reach a consensus to implement measures that can mitigate the problem.

Naturally, it is safer to store your data on the cloud rather than storing it offline. If you keep your valuables in a home locker rather than keeping them in a bank, the risk of theft is greater.

Similarly, hackers smartly use malware and phishing emails and rob sensitive data from your PC or non-cloud systems. Cloud systems use some of the most elite forms of security protocols, including HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, etc., to maintain the safety and security of your valuable data. However, you still need to stay vigilant and adopt solutions to eradicate security concerns in cloud computing and eliminate every possibility of theft!

What are the Security Risks of Cloud Computing? 

Here are the Top 10 Cloud Security Risks in 2023 along with ways and solutions to control them:

1. Data Breach

A data breach or data theft is one of the top security threats with cloud computing. It happens when organizational data is used without prior information. This normally happens if the wrong people have access to your secure systems, if your credentials or passwords are weak, if the entry of malware in your cloud system, or if the accessibility system is extremely complex. Without protection or a lack of cloud configuration, it can lead to a huge loss.

For example, a group of phishers can get into the secured healthcare cloud system and steal patients' medical records or social security numbers. This can lead to a bad name for the healthcare institute or destroy an organization's market value.

Solutions to Data Breach

To prevent data breaches, organizations must incorporate:

• Encryptions safeguard sensitive information before it reaches the cloud. Only you or the stakeholders should know how to encrypt and decrypt the data. IT heads should possess encryption keys and consistently monitor the existing encryption protocols to eliminate the risks and challenges of cloud computing.
• Multi-factor Authentication means including credentials other than identification and access. For instance, adding an OTP or a user key after entering a password mitigates cloud security issues.

2. Compliance Violation

Compliance violation is one of the biggest concerns of cloud computing. Rules, regulations, protocols, and governing compliance measures are in place to adhere to compliance. However, any activity that is done outside the scope of such regulations will be taken as a con-compliant activity. 

Protocols like PCI-DSS are in place to protect sensitive data. Besides, you must ensure that your cloud network is restricted and only accessible by authorized staff members. Non-compliance with legal standards can lead to heavy penalties and fines, which can lead the business to losses.

Solution to Compliance Violation

Ensure effective compliance by encouraging, introducing, and implementing privacy and compliance policies to safeguard resources. Considering external and internal compliance measures to ensure the cloud system is safe is equally important. Whether complying with a governance framework or adhering to internal business laws, protocols, and policies, you must embed the roles and responsibilities inside the business and ensure that these rules comply.

3. Data Loss

Out of all the types of risk in cloud computing, Data loss can be quite damaging as it is irreversible. It can be caused by accidents, storage on non-dependable and cheap cloud storage systems, and open databases. It is imperative to ensure significant privacy and security and avoid sharing information via public links or a public cloud-based repository. Without worrying about the certification cost Cloud Computing programs, you must enroll for these that help you understand everything about Data Loss Prevention and appropriate security measures.

The Solution to Data Loss

Enforce Privacy Policies to keep private and sensitive data safe and avoid hacking and other forms of security breaches. You must apply sufficient security safeguards through such privacy policies so that storing sensitive data can be effectively handled.

4. Attack Surface

The attack surface is the business’ vulnerability for example, openly accessible workloads, poorly-managed infrastructure, and unknown attacks. Subtle attacks should be taken very seriously as these lead to the attack surface, thus making your business vulnerable to outside attacks.

Solutions to Attack Surface

• Proper Network Segmentation and Security allow the entry of traffic that passes through a secure firewall. It is imperative to have a separate cloud account for each application environment, for example, operations, production, marketing, development, and staging.
• Leverage the Principle of Least Privilege, which means providing resources and access only with purpose. For example, if you have employed a software developer. In that case, he should be granted access to only the administrative part of the cloud instead of giving access to the entire account.

5. Insecure APIs

Besides working on the security of your organizational cloud service, you must enable access and encryption to application programming interfaces or APIs to better serve users. Open APIs become a greater security risk and can cause critical issues. Hackers can use force, distributed denial of service, or man in the middle to destroy the security of APIs, thus, it is significant that you have cloud security solutions in place.

Solutions to Insecure APIs

• Fake Breach or Penetration testing helps you understand the external assault on a set of API endpoints that will give you an idea of how secure the system is and what improvement is needed.
• Cloud Computing Risk Assessment and audits of General System Security mean checking the system and ensuring no one can break into the APIs.

6. Misconfiguration

Businesses normally work with multiple vendors, which means if a unique security measure is not taken for each, then the threat factors can take over the security of your cloud infrastructure. Generally, when cloud services include all kinds of vendor and supplier information, it can lead to a chaotic mishandling of information, unnecessary display for data that is optional, and access of critical consumer information to other clients. Such issues lead to misconfiguration. 

Solution to Misconfiguration

Double-Check your Security while putting vulnerable and crucial data in storage, and make sure that when interacting with multiple vendors, it doesn’t get compromised.

Avoid oversharing of data and try and bifurcate vendor information on exclusive cloud systems to avoid easy access of unrelated information. 

7. Limited Visibility of Cloud Usage

When you move your critical organizational or client data to the cloud, there are times when it enters the opaque mode and doesn’t grant visibility to such important data. This partial or no visibility leads to risks associated with cloud computing, ignorance, security breaches, and compliance problems.

Solutions to Limited Visibility of Cloud Usage

• Data Security Audit enables complete transparency of records that can be accessed by system administrators. Regular audits protect sensitive data and files across networks.
• Risk Assessment and Analysis at regular intervals help you check potential security risks of cloud computing and mitigate them by rendering 100% transparency.

8. Contract Breaches with Business Partners

Contract breaches are one of the most critical cloud security challenges and risks. There are times when organizations get into a contract with other partners, vendors, or individuals, allowing them to access cloud storage and use critical information. This also holds that employees share business information on personal cloud storage, which can lead to breaches and legal action.

Solutions to Contract Breaches

• Interoperability means introducing standardized data standards to ensure that vendors cooperate with reliable access to your data. Having proper laws and legal frameworks imbibed within the system can eliminate the challenges and risks of cloud computing and data breaches.
• Data Security against internal and external attacks should be maintained. Proper training of employees and having them in a contract enforcing penalties in case of a breach can help you secure the data.

9. Hijacking of Accounts

Maintaining poor or simple passwords for on-premises infrastructure and cloud environments can grant hackers visibility into the organizational data. Anyone can get into the infrastructure and misuse information that is easily accessible.

Solutions to Hijacking of Accounts

• You must delve into Contingency Planning and testing of security concerns to protect your data within servers and cloud computing to make sure everything functions properly.
• Access Management according to the area of expertise, department, or position in the organization is another way to reduce challenges and risks in cloud computing.

10. DoS and DDoS Attack

Outdated systems with an overload of information will likely be attacked by DoS, which is hacking. Still, instead of a data leak, it leads to a complete non-functioning or usability of the cloud storage. DoS attack is short for denial-of-service attack, which is either a forceful attack from various origins or a complicated attack to destroy the system. Such cloud security risks in cloud computing leads to complete wastage of system resources, disruption of activities, and speed and stability issues. It makes it difficult to load applications or makes it difficult to pinpoint the source of disruption.

A DDoS attack refers to a situation when cybercriminals attack a network with malicious traffic that prevents communication or proper functionality.

Solutions to DoS and DDoS Attacks

• Intrusion Detection System can protect your organization from DoS assaults. This system identifies unusual traffic and provides an early warning called a break-in alert in cloud security risk management.
• Firewall Traffic Inspection is another way to identify beneficial/harmful traffic and helps prevent DoS.
• Blocking the IP addresses is another measure to avoid a DoS attack.

How to Improve Security in Cloud Computing? 

Besides applying risk-based solutions, organizations must also practice recommended ways to resolve cloud security challenges and risks in cloud computing. Here is what every organization must do:

• Cybersecurity Risk Assessments

Conducting such assessments helps you estimate the effectiveness of the security controls and identify any potential security-based vulnerabilities so that your IT team can take immediate action and improve security.

• Continuous Monitoring

Vigilant monitoring, maintaining compliance, and reporting initial hiccups is the most important step for ensuring cyber hygiene.

• User Access Controls

One of the significant threats lurking in the cloud arena is the ease of access and open network access. Organizations must delve into zero-trust security and be only given access to the critical functions needed for each role.

• Employee Security Training

It is important to train and educate employees about the security risks of cloud computing and proper controls so that they are aware of the cyberattacks and are better prepared to counterattack them. This ensures streamlined cloud security systems within an organization and maximum productivity, thus saving your cloud system from vulnerabilities.

• Automation

Automating certain practices helps you divert the cyber attackers becoming more active and intelligent each day. There is a need to automate vendor security risks of cloud computing, cybersecurity monitoring, and threat intelligence so that you can manually review all potential threats related to the cloud system.

Conclusion 

Undoubtedly, it is a daunting task to manage cloud security, but with so many solutions and a keen eye to protect your system against potential threats you can easily manage your critical data. It is essential to gain formal education and appropriate knowledge and acquire upgraded skills and knowledge to mitigate such cloud-based threats. 

Enrolling for KnowledgeHut Cloud Computing certifications is one way to expand your know-how and get formally trained on maintaining the security of your organizational cloud solutions. Cloud services and the network environment are ranked between A-F based on their ability to counter the most important risk factors like leaked data, IP reputation, network security, and web applications.