What are the Cloud Security Risks
Security Risks Associated with Cloud Computing
The international cloud computing market is forecasted to reach $190 billion by the end of 2020. After all, there are a number of benefits of cloud computing, such as improved employee productivity, faster time to customers, and lower costs. Still, the security risks of cloud computing are one of its major concerns holding its adoption back.
Cloud Security Risks
Theft or Loss of Intellectual Property
In the cloud, sensitive data is stored by companies. CloudTerminolgy.com conducted an analysis and determined that 24.5 percent of files that are uploaded to cloud-based systems have sensitive data in them, including intellectual properly. Generally, when a breach in cloud service occurs, cyber criminals gain access to such data. They can make the use of this confidential information to their own benefit.
Regulatory Actions and Compliance Violations
Nowadays, most organizations operate and work under some type of regulatory control of their data, whether it is for essential records (FERPA) or private health information (HIPAA). Under these mandates, companies need to know where their data is present and who is capable of accessing it. In cloud computing, these tenets are often violated, and it puts companies in a condition of non-compliance. Thus, it can have some serious repercussions.
Insufficient Control of User Actions
Usually, when organizations are unaware of their employees using cloud services, they can be doing anything they want, and no one would have knowledge of it until something drastic happens. For example, a salesperson who is just about to take resignation from an organization could download files of all customers, upload this information to a personal account on the cloud, and access this information when a competitor recruits him.
Malware Infections that Create a Targeted Attack
It is possible to use cloud service as a means of data exfiltration. In fact, a novel exfiltration technique has been uncovered through which attackers could encode sensitive and confidential information into video files before uploading them to a social media platform. It indicates how easy it really is for cyber criminals to gain access to essential resources of an organization and use them just how they want.
Contractual Breaches with Business Partners or Customers
It is quite reasonable for contracts between business partners to limit how data is utilized and who has access to this data. However, when employees move this data into the cloud platform without any authorization, the contracts might be violated. Legal action can be ensued, as well.
Lack of Customer Trust
One of the significant and dire consequences of data breaches is the lack of customer trust. It is capable of ruining not only the reputation of a company among customers but also its position in the market.
In a substantial breach of payment card data, criminals accessed 40 million debit and credit card numbers from a firm named Target. It resulted in the loss of customers for the company. Customers began to stay away from Target stores because they feared that attackers might steal their personal information and it might be used for taking their money. Eventually, the organization experienced a significant loss in its revenues.
