The rise of cloud computing has brought forth a multitude of practical benefits that many brands and businesses are enjoying today, however, it’s not entirely without risk. Cybercrime is thriving and many small-to-medium enterprises are being caught out on a daily basis for not taking the necessary precautions.
Do not be caught unaware. In this article, we’re going to highlight the most common cloud computing security risks and how to avoid them.
Misconfiguration
One of the biggest causes of cloud data breaches is attributed to misconfiguration. This is why it’s important that you work with the very best cloud service providers who can oversee your transition and ensure that everything is configured correctly. This is particularly important with multi-cloud deployments.
Accessibility and authorisation
Cloud-based deployments are outside your on-premises network perimeter and directly accessible via the public internet. While this is great for your employees and customers, it can also make it easier for cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access if not properly configured and monitored.
Insecure interfaces
Another potential issue is if a customer has not properly secured the interfaces for their personal cloud-based infrastructure – in which case any documentation that has been designed for the customer can be abused by a cybercriminal (e.g., by identifying and exploiting potential methods of accessing sensitive data from your cloud environment).
The best Cloud service provider will be able to guide you on safe document sharing and engaging with customers in an airtight manner to avoid such an event.
Account hijacking
Do not allow your employees to create just any old password. Instead, you should set strict guidelines so that they create complex and strong passwords when accessing your cloud-based infrastructure. This is because a single stolen password can grant a cybercriminal access to a wealth of sensitive data.
You should also be careful about who has access to what. Give your employees access only to what they need to carry out their duties.
External sharing
Cloud based computing and the ease at which data can be shared is an asset that can certainly make your employees more productive. However, link-sharing, – which is the norm given how easy it is – does make it harder to control access to the resource. For example, a shared link can be forwarded to a third party or stolen as part of a cyberattack.
In this case, link-sharing should be reserved for low-priority data. Anything that is sensitive should only be shared by directly inviting a user to resources via email.
Following that, you must ensure that your Cloud service provider provides you with advanced data backup and recovery solutions.
Final thoughts
Cybercrime is on the rise in Australia and the rest of the world but do not let this put you off cloud-based computing entirely. The fact is, that cybercriminals are targeting businesses whose cloud-based infrastructure is not properly secured. In other words, if you do your due diligence and entrust your cloud computing requirements to a reputable and well-established Cloud service provider (see Cloud Australia for inspiration), you will significantly lower the chance of suffering any malicious attacks.