Mildred Siabi-mensah
Takoradi, April 24, GNA- “Gartner
2023” says that Cloud computing has become the backbone of digital transformation.
Some 90 percent of organizations globally now relying on cloud services for data storage, computing power, and business operations.
The shift to cloud computing has enabled businesses to scale operations efficiently, optimize costs, and improve accessibility.
However, this rapid adoption has also introduced significant cybersecurity risks, as stated by Mr. Eric AKwei, a telecommunications Professional and cybersecurity enthusiast.
The IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report (2023) found that cloud misconfigurations, weak access controls, and insufficient encryption were responsible for over 80 percent of cloud security incidents, with the average cost of a cloud data breach exceeding $4.45 million per incident.
He said the breaches not only threatened businesses financially but also jeopardised customer trust, regulatory compliance, and national security.
He said, “I am shedding light on the leading causes of cloud security breaches, real-world case studies, and the essential strategies businesses must adopt to secure their cloud environments”.
The Researcher in a brief to the Ghana News Agency added that the growing threat of Cloud Security Breaches, cloud computing was inherently more complex than traditional on-premises infrastructure, making it susceptible to multiple security vulnerabilities.
He said the most common causes of cloud security breaches included: Misconfigured Cloud Storage that were responsible for over 80 percent of cloud breaches (IBM Security, 2023).
He said many organizations failed to properly configure access controls, leaving sensitive data exposed to the public internet.
“For instance, in 2021, a major U.S. financial institution suffered a massive breach when sensitive customer data stored in an Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 bucket was left unsecured, allowing anyone with an internet connection to access it. The incident resulted in a $100 million regulatory fine and reputational damage.”
Weak Identity and Access Management (IAM) he said occurred due to weak access controls, poor password policies, and lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA).
“Hackers often gain access to cloud environments using stolen credentials from phishing attacks.
“In 2022, a ransomware group exploited weak credentials to gain access to a Microsoft Azure cloud database, leading to the encryption of sensitive data and a $12 million ransom demand”.
Cloud services he said relied heavily on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to connect various applications and services.
“ Unsecured APIs can expose entire cloud ecosystems to cybercriminals who exploit vulnerabilities to steal data, inject malware, or take control of cloud-based applications.
“In 2023, an improperly secured API allowed hackers to access millions of personal records from a popular cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform, resulting in one of the largest data leaks.”
He said aside the financial penalties and reputational damage, cloud security breaches have long-term consequences, including: Regulatory Compliance Violations Failing to secure cloud data could lead to fines under GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws, Operational Disruptions – Cloud downtime caused by cyberattacks can cripple business operations for days or weeks and loss of Customer Trust leading to reduced revenue and brand damage.
He added that the Ponemon Institute’s 2023 Cloud Security Study found that 75 percent of customers would stop doing business with a company that mishandled their data.
He said the real-world Case Study of the Capital One Cloud Breach in 2019, suffered one of the largest cloud security breaches, affecting more than 100 million customers.
“A misconfigured AWS firewall allowed a hacker to exploit a cloud vulnerability and access Capital One’s customer data. Names, Social Security numbers, credit scores, and account details were stolen, leading to legal penalties exceeding $80 million. Even a single misconfiguration can expose cloud environments to catastrophic security failures.
“This case study highlights the need for proactive cloud security measures to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches”.
To mitigate cloud security risks, he said organizations must adopt a multi-layered cybersecurity approach, the cyber enthusiast added.
He said they may include Least-Privilege Access Controls which limit user access to only necessary resources, Continuous Monitoring – Implement AI-driven threat detection to analyze real-time cloud activity and Micro-Segmentation – Restrict lateral movement of cyber threats within cloud environments.
According to NIST (2022), Zero Trust frameworks reduced cloud data breaches by up to 80 percent.
Moreover, End-to-End Encryption ensured that all cloud data was encrypted at rest, in transit, and during processing; Tokenization and data Masking Protected personally identifiable information (PII) from unauthorized access; and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) future–proofed cloud encryption against quantum computing threats.
“The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA, 2023) recommended default encryption for all cloud-stored data and the Enforcement of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to prevent unauthorized logins, while Regularly Rotating Access Keys and Credentials to reduce the risk of stolen credentials being misused.
He said companies must also implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to limit user privileges based on job function.
Meanwhile, the Microsoft Cybersecurity Report (2023) found that MFA alone could only prevent 99 percent of cloud account takeovers, which called for Penetration Testing to Simulate cyberattacks and identify vulnerabilities before attackers do.
Also, Compliance Monitoring ensures adherence to NIST, ISO 27001, and GDPR cloud security standards and Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) – Continuously monitor for misconfigurations and policy violations.
He said Organizations that performed regular cloud security audits experience a lower percentage of breaches (IBM Security, 2023).
The Future of Cloud Security must be enhanced as cyber threats evolve; cloud security solutions must also advance.
He said AI-Driven Security Operations Centers (SOCs) – AI will automate threat detection and incident response in cloud environments, Confidential Computing – Protecting cloud workloads by encrypting data even while in use and Homomorphic Encryption – Allowing computations on encrypted data without decryption, ensuring absolute data privacy.
A Forrester Cloud Security Report (2023) predicted that AI-driven cloud security will be a $25 billion industry by 2027.
“Again, Cloud Security must be a Business Imperative to accelerate across industries, but security must remain a top priority through the implementation of robust encryption and Zero-Trust security policies, strengthened access controls with MFA and IAM best practices and regular security audits to identify vulnerabilities.
Organizations that fail to secure their cloud environments would not only suffer financial losses but also face regulatory penalties and reputational damage”.
He said Businesses must be prepared, as the future of cybersecurity depends on proactive cloud security measures.
GNA
MSM/GRB