Top 5 Evolving Cybersecurity Threats to Cloud Computing in 2021

There would be no wrong in saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new playground for hackers. Sadly, Cisco estimates that 53% of small-to-medium businesses (SMB) suffered from data breaches globally. 36 billion records were exposed in 2020. But the question that arises is, will these cybersecurity threats continue to grow in the upcoming years? 

By the year 2025, the cloud computing market is expected to grow $832.1 billion. Below are the top five cybersecurity threats that are evolving in the cloud computing market in 2021. 

1. Cloud Jacking 

According to the Sophos Threat Report of 2020, misconfigurations can drive numerous data breaching incidents. Businesses are integrating themselves with cloud computing which guarantees the possibilities of cloud jacking emergence.

Trend Marco predicts that code injection attacks can be utilized to attack cloud platforms. These attacks can be carried out through third-party libraries, from SQL injection and cross-site scripting. Attackers inject malicious code through third-party libraries and ensure that the code is downloaded and executed by individuals unintentionally. According to typical public cloud vendors, they are only responsible for the security of their infrastructure and individuals are responsible for protecting their data.  

2. Phishing Attacks

Social engineering acquires phishing scams to steal user credentials for cloud-service tracks and on-premises attacks. Do you know that 78% of data breaching incidents that occurred during 2019 were related to phishing? This percentage increased in 2020. 

Innovative phishing attempts are launched through cloud applications rather than traditional emails. Phishing kits make it easier for cybercriminals to carry out illicit activities. Phishing kits require a very small amount of technical skills to carry out phishing operations. 

3. API Vulnerabilities and Breaches

An application program interface API security typically lags behind web security applications across a majority of applications today. Two-thirds plus of the businesses make the APIs available to the public. This allows public developers and partners to get into their application’s ecosystem and software platforms. 

API-based breaches are becoming common and prominent during 2020. This will trigger an intense adverse impact on high-profile applications in peer-to-peer, messaging, financial processes, and social media. API security proved to be the weakest link which could lead to cloud-native threats and put user’s privacy and data at risk. 

4. Evolution of Human-Operated Ransomware

Ransomware attacks are evolving at a continuous pace and will continue to grow in 2021. 24% of the cyberattacks happened through ransomware.  Criminal gangs are taking initiative to concentrate more on more lucrative targets, seeing pay off wealthy amounts from larger victims. Following are three main paths through which ransomware can enter your computer:

• Exploit kits (automated programs)
• Social media phishing
• Email phishing

Users spent plenty of time in research to find tactics, procedures, and techniques that will prove to be effective on victims. Hackers are always in search of new innovative ways to create seemingly genuine messages to allure unsuspecting targets to open messages without thinking. 

5. The Exploitation of System Administrative Tools

According to a study which was conducted by Positive technologies, more than 50% of treat group leverage use administrative tools to develop new attaching strategies. Cybercriminals utilize system administration and management tools to breach enterprise networks. IT systems are increasingly becoming interconnected in 2021, it is predicted that exploitation of penetrative and administrative tools such as BloodHound, Cobalt strike, PowerShell Empire will also increase in 2021. Criminals will progressively utilize these tools to run harmful software into the computer’s memory. 

Tips to Prevent Cloud Security Threats

The question arises of how IT managers can protect themselves while expanding innovations, flexibility, and data access. Let’s have a look at the following attention-seeking tips which must catch the focus of IT managers to prevent cloud-based cybersecurity threats. This can be acquired by organizations for their safety and security. 

• Organizations should teach their employees efficient defense practices. Employees are likely to take ownership of their liabilities regarding security measures. Also, proper protocols must be set up in case employees feel that they are compromised. 
• The possibility of data breaches is getting higher in parallel with cloud computing maturity. Organizations should ensure that they must have a secured backup plan of data.  This is more about securing the business’s infrastructure rather than securing just data for providing peace of mind. 
• The establishment of access control must be ensured by businesses for risk analysis. User and external identities and must be integrated with back-end directories. Security measures must be enforced to make sure that the data is protected. 
• Never store the encryption keys in software where you store data. IT managers must have physical access to their encryption keys for the safety and security of data. Also, IT teams must acquire effective and efficient encryption techniques. 
• Organizations must think like a criminal while enforcing security measures to our cloud. Evaluation of weaknesses and creation of inventory for testing must be implemented on servers and applications.  

Hence, you can successfully make strong proactive decisions for your  IT infrastructures once you understand how to prevent cloud security threats and what is at stake. Organizations can refine their security measures accurately and efficiently by acquiring a proactive approach towards cloud security. Thanks to cloud security platforms that allow businesses to enforce consistent data protection policies across numerous cloud services.