Businesses have been given unprecedented flexibility, new forms of collaboration, and significant productivity improvements with cloud-based solutions. The world of work without clouds is therefore inconceivable.
While the benefits and benefits of this application cannot be denied, its use involves a large risk at the same time. The way cloud offers and services are used often makes cybercriminals very easy. Because many users maintain a careless online cleanliness. They use the same password for different accounts and recklessly leave the multi-factor authentication security system.
But other risks also play a role. For example, when a user uploads and saves data in an inappropriate place, or accidentally clicks a link that they won't click. To protect the company, those responsible there must know this danger. Then you can find a solution that minimizes this risk.
These are the five main gateways for cyberspace threats related to cloud applications:
1. Manage access rights
Giving access rights is not an easy task. On one hand, it must be ensured that employees always have access to all the data they need for their work. At the same time, they must be prevented from unauthorized access to data that is not relevant to them or that requires special protection. Proliferation of cloud applications further aggravates the situation, because of course, more access rights must be managed with it. Thus, mistakes made by employees in this environment are now the most common reason for data loss2.
2. Phishing
Email flooding goes up and up. An ordinary worker sends and receives more than 120 emails every day3. Every additional cloud application we register to add to that burden. And this makes it even more difficult to identify dubious emails between "normal" email traffic. Already someone at the company who clicked on the wrong link is enough. It can happen that criminals have credentials that give them access to many company systems.
3. Increased hacks
In May this year, it was discovered that members of the LinkedIn database, including their username and password, were stolen millions of times. Such an incident immediately led to further hacking. Because many people use the same password for all types of services. In our experience, it depends on the user group, at least 50 percent, but often up to two thirds of respondents use the same password for different cloud applications. After a criminal knows the username and password for a service, he can try his luck somewhere else. With good prospects of success. Therefore, attacks on Twitter, GitHub, and GoToMyPC were also seen after the attacks on LinkedIn.
4. Data protection in the cloud
Storage in the cloud is a great way to make access to data across multiple devices possible. And even as a fast and easy-to-use backup medium, Cloud Space is hard to beat. It must be remembered that only storing data in the cloud is not a backup. But only a little. One danger with some solutions is that data is accidentally deleted. But apart from such accidents, there is another problem with storing data in the cloud. If a central cloud storage account is hacked, intruders can copy, destroy or even encrypt data. The wave of ransomware in the last few months shows how big and how serious this danger is for companies.
5. Application in question
New applications or websites are created quickly today. Even the smallest applications can be easily equipped with many features. People often don't care about the permissions that an application needs. Especially if it is something basic and simple, like a flashlight application. Undoubtedly, clicking the receipt checkbox is the gateway for cyber criminals to gain access to all devices. It wasn't long ago when researchers discovered malware in more than 400 applications on the Android Play Store. So you can imagine how easily and quickly malware spreads. Many users trust Google. If the application finds itself in a local store, it is automatically considered safe. Clearly he is not required. Therefore, at this time, more vigilance is needed.
