Cloud Vulnerability and Security Threat in Cloud Computing

Cloud storage and cloud security are two of the newest innovations in the world of contemporary generations. Cloud services could prevent the potential benefits if there is insufficient and suitable security protection, which would eventually lead to greater costs and possible loss of the firm.

When a firm adopts cloud computing, it is crucial to comprehend all the dangers and security hazards associated with it. There is no doubt cloud computing provides lots of benefits to organizations but it’s also true that cloud is not fully protected from hackers.

In this blog, we will see what are the five common challenges or vulnerabilities of cloud computing security and how we can mitigate those security issues.

Data Theft of Intellectual Property

Most of the cloud security threats are done through file uploads to cloud-based file-sharing sites contain sensitive information, including IP. When these cloud service are breached, attackers gain access to the private data stored in them.

They make attractive targets and typically sustain the most harm when their data is stolen. It is among the most hazardous vulnerabilities in cloud computing.

Mitigation of Data Theft or Breaches

To prevent data breaches, we must implement regular countermeasures to protect cloud computing data, such as:

Lost control over users action

This type of vulnerability occurs when organisations lose control of their data assets and become exposed to security breaches and insider threats if they are unaware of how their staff are using cloud computing services.

VPNs, firewalls, and other security measures are not necessary for employees to access the internal data stored on an organization’s cloud. They can easily and directly access private data stored in the cloud infrastructure. This may result from confidential information and intellectual property, which would clearly have negative effects on the company.

Mitigation of lost control over users actions

We can prevent losing control over users’ actions by implementing security measures. The most valuable security measure is to provide training to employees so they can understand the common vulnerabilities, such as malware and phishing. When using cloud computing services, use this technology to protect any private data. Inform them of the consequences of malicious behaviour.

Conduct regular server audits in the cloud architecture to find exploitable data security issues and promptly remedy them.

Insecure APIs

Through the use of APIs, unconnected software products can interact and communicate without being aware of one another’s internal workings. APIs are typically necessary and frequently provide access to crucial corporate data.

Businesses release a lot of public APIs to speed up the adoption of new technologies by enabling third-party developers and business partners to access their products and data. APIs are completely unsecured; anyone can access and misuse the data. That’s the reason APIs are major targets for hackers.

Most of the organisations make public access to their APIs available so that third-party developers and business partners can use their software platforms. Because APIs are public access, attackers have discovered widespread methods to use insecure APIs for illegal purposes.

When developers create APIs without providing proper authentication controls. While accessing open APIs, they can access enterprise data and systems.

Mitigation of Insecure APIs

To prevent insecure APIs, we must follow a few steps to secure the APIs, such as:

Misconfiguration of Cloud Storage

This cloud computing vulnerability is most common in cloud services; it occurs when organisations fail to properly set up cloud storage, resulting in exposed data. Businesses still misconfigure cloud storage, which has cost several companies millions of dollars, despite the potentially serious effects.

Some of the examples of misconfiguration include:

Mitigation of misconfigured cloud storage

To prevent the misconfiguration of cloud storage, the configurations need to be checked properly after setting up a cloud server. This may seem simple, but other activities, like putting data into the cloud without considering its security, might easily let it go unnoticed.

Another main issue is that many organisations are moving to cloud computing without having proper guidance or understanding of how to secure their data.

Improper Access Management

Access management provides authorization to individuals so they can perform the provided tasks. Stolen or lost credentials have been the most frequently employed weapon by attackers in breaches affecting web services.

There are various other cloud-specific concerns that organisations face in addition to the general access control problems they encounter today, such as managing a scattered workforce and user password exhaustion:

Mitigation of improper access management

Improper access management in cloud computing can be prevented by developing a data governance framework for user accounts. The active directory should be in charge of provisioning, monitoring, and suspending access credentials from a central store; therefore, accounts for all users should be directly linked to these services.

In order to spot strange behaviour or illegal modifications, organisations should make sure logging and event monitoring methods are in place in cloud environments. Access keys should be carefully handled and under strict supervision to prevent bad data handling or leakage.

Conclusion

Most organisations and businesses are using cloud services, so data security is one of the key topics they should be concerned about. The IT processes that teams use to develop applications and deploy them in the cloud infrastructure must be well integrated into a company’s strong cloud security rules.

Enterprises must continuously address the dangers and difficulties associated with cloud security while implementing the appropriate security technologies to facilitate operational work.

In this blog, we have checked most of the common vulnerabilities of cloud computing. However, there are some other vulnerabilities present in cloud computing, such as contractual breaches with customers, unauthorized access, malicious insiders, and many more. All of these are vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit to gain authorization, access data or harms organizations, which is why cloud computing security is a major concern.