Cloud Security Challenges for CISOs in the Year 2025 and Strategies for Staying Ahead of Emerging Threats
In today's digital landscape, the shift towards cloud environments for efficiency has been a game-changer. However, as organizations migrate key applications and data to the cloud, social security strategies have not always evolved at the same pace.
A recent trend has seen improperly configured cloud system settings continue to be a common cause of breaches in these environments. This is a concerning development, given that cloud-based threats have grown in scale and sophistication, with techniques continually changing.
One area of concern is vulnerability exploitation, which has become the number one attack vector in the cloud. The number of new vulnerabilities published each year is on the rise, making it crucial for organizations to stay vigilant.
Researchers have observed an uptick in credential compromise in the cloud, particularly non-human credentials such as API keys, OAuth tokens, and cloud provider access tokens. This is a significant issue, as these credentials often go unmonitored and unprotected, making them easy targets for attackers.
Threat actors are leveraging these vulnerabilities in various ways. One method is in the development of DDoS botnets, where compromised cloud instances are used to launch large-scale attacks. The availability of generative AI tools has also assisted attackers in crafting more realistic messages for social engineering attacks.
Social engineering attacks targeting cloud accounts have surged, with techniques like phishing, vishing, and smishing prevalent. Attackers are impersonating help-desk agents to bypass multi-factor authentication and compromise cloud accounts.
These attacks are not just limited to targeting individual accounts. Attackers are actively scanning public code repositories like GitHub for inadvertently committed credentials, which can then be used for unauthorized access, data exfiltration, and resource manipulation.
Modern botnets are largely built on compromised cloud workloads, offering attackers greater bandwidth and compute power. Attackers are becoming more adept at post-compromise activities in the cloud, hiding in plain sight and creating their own infrastructure to blend in.
Under the shared responsibility model, the customer remains responsible for the protection of its data, not the cloud service provider. Regular audits of cloud services should be conducted to ensure social security policies are being adhered to, preventing misconfigurations occurring.
The Infosecurity Europe conference will discuss the growing issue of cyber-threats in cloud environments, offering a platform for experts to share insights into the main techniques threat actors are currently using to target the cloud.
It's important to note that nearly half of all data breaches now originate in the cloud. Awareness and education for staff on strong authentication and identifying social engineering campaigns are key in reducing the risk of cloud exploits.
As the threat landscape evolves, it's crucial for organizations to stay informed and proactive in their approach to cloud security. By understanding the current threats and implementing robust security measures, we can work towards a more secure digital future.
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