Top Security Risks of Cloud Computing and Strategies to Mitigate Them

To handle internal and external risks to the security of businesses, cloud security is a set of practices and technologies. Cloud security is essential for businesses as they implement their digital transformation plan and integrate cloud-based tools and services into their infrastructure.

As the digital environment continues to develop, security concerns have increased. Because organizations generally lack oversight into how their data is accessed and moved, these attacks specifically target cloud computing providers. No matter where client information is housed, firms can run serious governance and compliance risks if they don't take proactive measures to increase their cloud security.

Security Risks in Cloud Computing and Mitigation Policies

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks

distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to obstruct traffic on a targeted server, service, or network by saturating the target or its surrounding infrastructure with excessive Internet traffic.

DDoS attacks are successful because they use several hacked computer systems as sources of attack traffic. Computers and other networked assets like the Internet of Things (IoT) devices may be exploited by machines. A DDoS attack is comparable from a distance to unforeseen traffic congestion that blocks the roadway and keeps ordinary traffic from reaching its destination.

Ways to Mitigate DDoS Attacks

• The company's internet connection has too much bandwidth. Hackers must do more actions to flood a connection the more bandwidth they have.

• Find vulnerabilities in the system by analyzing the network and system with web application scanning tools to identify weaknesses that may be used to launch DDoS assaults. Put security procedures in place to address the discovered security concerns.

• Maintain a backup internet connection. This connection offers an alternative route if the primary circuit becomes overloaded with requests. The backup connection uses a different pool of IP addresses.

• Create WAF (Web Application Firewall) rules to block malicious IP addresses - Create custom rules in your WAF firewall to track and block traffic based on the needs of the network.

Cloud Misconfiguration

Any flaws, holes, or faults in cloud architecture might harm your environment. Some of these cyber threats are security flaws, foreign hackers, ransomware, malware, and insider threats that gain access to your network through weaknesses.

Due to the complexity of multi-cloud settings and the difficulty of manually identifying and correcting errors, misconfiguration is a concern in cloud computing. Default passwords, lax access limits, improperly maintained permission controls, inactive data encryption, and many more are examples of common security flaws. Because of insider threats and a lack of security knowledge, many of these vulnerabilities exist.

Tips to Mitigate Cloud Misconfiguration

• Make sure the user is aware of all open ports before moving to a multi-cloud environment, and then limit or shut down those that aren't required.

• Make careful to restrict outgoing communications by limiting outward port access and applying the least privilege concept.

• Keeping a list of all the business's cloud-based firm secrets and constantly assessing their security.

• When restricting access to storage objects so that only members of the organization may use them, exercise extra caution.

Data Leakage

The greatest security risk associated with cloud computing is data loss or data leakage. Deleted or damaged data, hardware issues, malware attacks, and loss of access due to natural disasters for which the cloud service provider (CSP) is unprepared are all examples of data loss.

Businesses may have immediate financial consequences in addition to the loss of intellectual property due to an employee or consumer backlash for failing to secure their sensitive, personal data. More businesses are allowing workers to use their own devices without putting in place a strong security strategy, which raises the risk of data breaches. Any single cloud vulnerability allows the entire system to be infiltrated, resulting in data loss and breaches.

Points to alleviate data leakage

• The cloud environment shouldn't include sensitive data if it isn't encrypted.

• Maintain a secure place for all of the passwords. Increase the number of password changes to make and be more judicious in the selection.

• The degree of access that each employee needs to private documents varies. To keep the incorrect persons from accessing, assign permissions based on "need to know" criteria.

• To avoid unintentional sensitive information leaks, train the team.

Lack of Control and Insufficient Monitoring

Being able to regulate performance, quality better, and results is one of the objectives of any deployment of cloud technology (like any other). Business continuity is negatively impacted when the company fails to establish control over certain operational aspects.

Furthermore, a company depends on a cloud provider to always ensure QoS for its public cloud (or public cloud components of its hybrid cloud environment). Recovery depends on how quickly a service responds when anything goes wrong.

Mitigation Process

Create a platform for cloud administration that offers administrators access to a "single pane of glass" while abstracting the underlying architecture of many cloud platforms.

When choosing a cloud vendor, please enquire about the assurances they can provide on the performance of the computer, storage, and network, as well as their plan of action in the event of a disaster. Please include them in the service level agreement (SLA). Recognize that risk is always shared when using a public cloud.

Consider establishing and running a private cloud when ownership, performance, and security are more crucial than a quick monetary investment.

Conclusion

As more businesses implement innovative tactics to boost collaboration and productivity, it's critical to be aware of the risks connected to these technologies. Since cloud computing may expose customer and client data, cloud infrastructure, and business data to loss or theft, it is essential to understand its various security concerns.