Businesses today are living in a very turbulent world. They have to worry about their own business operations, the safety of their employees, the financial condition of the business, and the list can go on and on. With the economic outlook changing by the day, cybersecurity can sometimes be treated as a lesser priority which is a big mistake. In fact, one of the main reasons companies can continue to provide digital services is because all of the transactions and communications remain secure.
During this difficult time, we have to be especially careful in order to detect new threats that arise as a result of the remote work culture. Therefore, we need to make sure all employees working from home are able to access all of the data they need, but doing so securely. In order to make all documents and information available to a remote worker, companies are utilizing cloud services, which is very good because cloud platforms have security features built-in. Almost all industries use cloud technology for data storage.
Take the retail business, for example. In connection with the constant growth of competition and the search for new methods of analyzing customer behavior, both brick-and-mortar and online store retailers need a huge amount of data. A cloud-based solution, with elastic storage, computing, and analytics capability, can make it economically viable for retailers as they dabble with these nascent approaches.
Still, we must be vigilant and stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
Since retailers store the data of their customers in the cloud, including confidential, all information must be completely safe. The technologies they use are also critical. If you own an online store, you must be sure that a reliable retail software company was engaged in its development. Such companies know all the vulnerabilities of online portals and can prevent any problems of your online store and ensure the security of all data.
With all of this in mind it is a good idea to take a look the biggest threats you should know about and how you can avoid them
Data Loss or Theft
One of the biggest threats to cloud computing security is a data breach. There have been many security breaches or hack over the past year, most notably the one involving Capital One where the personal data of 100 million people was stolen by hackers. While you may not have the same volume of data on your servers, you still face the same risks. In fact, according to statistics from Gartner, 95% of cloud breaches happen due to human error and Capital One was no exception. Their AWS S3 storage was not configured properly which opened the door for hackers to take off with the information.
In order to avoid such a situation, it is a good idea to consult with a company that provides cloud security solutions. They will be able to tell you if everything is set up properly and make sure all of the necessary security mechanisms are in place. You should also consider conducting penetration testing since this will tell you how to secure your systems and where all of the soft spots are located.
Poor Access Management
We already looked at possible hacking attacks, but the reality is that, even if you have secure cloud storage, bad actors can simply steal your employees’ access credentials. Think about how you are storing employee logins. Is it in plaintext? If so, you are begging for trouble. First of all, you should implement multi-factor authentication as an extra protective layer. Also, you should clearly designate which information each user is allowed to access. Password information should only be limited to a handful of employees on the security team to minimize the leakage of information.
Insecure API
The API is an essential tool for operating a system within a cloud infrastructure. It can be used externally via mobile and web applications to transmit data but can be a risk to cloud data security. The two main security features for APIs are authentication and encryption, but sometimes the API was not configured properly and can be accessed without signing in, allow reusable passwords and tokens, and many other bad security practices.
In order to bolster the security of your API, you should conduct a security audit. Are there specific endpoints that are vulnerable to attacks? Also, be sure to implement transport layer security encryption for all data coming in and out.
Denial of Services Attack (DoS)
One of the many reasons cloud computing is so popular is because it allows companies to scale quickly to accommodate growing demand. However, when there is a sudden spike in the workload, it can overwhelm the system and cause it to stop working. This is called a Denial of Services attack (DoS). It is one of the biggest cloud security concerns because it can completely stop a system from working or make it unusable for customers. This can cause a lot of damage to your revenue and reputation.
In order to stop DoS attacks, you need to make sure that your intrusion detection system is kept up to date. It should spot an unusual amount of traffic so you can get an early heads up that something is wrong and take appropriate action. Also, be sure to check where all of the traffic is coming from and where it is going. This is usually done by your Firewall. This shows you which traffic is good this allowing you to take action against the bad.
Stay One Step Ahead of Known Cybersecurity Risks
Data security in cloud computing is becoming very important because so many people are trying to access data from various locations, but also because companies are relying on the data they have to make business decisions. They rely on cloud computing services to store the data and analyze it and get valuable business insights. Since cloud computing is so important, it is a good idea to ask a company like Skywell Software development firm to make sure everything is configured and set up correctly.
Ever since cloud computing was adopted in the mid-2000s, it has become a target for hackers. Back then, companies were not aware and therefore not prepared to handle such risks, but today, not only do we know about them, but we have the necessary tools and knowledge to mitigate them. If you do not have the necessary personnel or skills in-house it is very important that you seek them externally to avoid problems down the road.