It is without question that we are in the age of cloud technology. With many enterprises already moving to the cloud, one silent fear remains in the minds of business owners: How secure is the cloud? Although information stored in the cloud is generally considered secure, that doesn’t mean you should let your guard down.
Cloud computing has continued to revolutionise the way we do business, store, use, share and apply information. But the mass migration of business and data to the cloud has also brought with it a new set of security threats and challenges; as they become natural targets for cyber thieves and hackers. Here are 5 cyber security threats you need to be aware of in modern business operation.
- Data breaches
Although security is top priority in the cloud environment, they are not immune to the risks traditional networks face. When there’s data breach, sensitive and valuable information such as customer profile, intellectual property and trade secrets could be accessed or stolen. This could result in serious consequences such as financial loss, damage to the brand image, law suits and heavy fines against the business owner. As a CEO of a thriving enterprise, it’s best to engage a competent and experience cyber security agency to help secure your data in the cloud using advanced and impregnable tools and techniques.
- System vulnerabilities
Sometimes programmes installed on your computer network could come with exploitable cyber bugs. This makes your system vulnerable to hackers as they can use the bugs to infiltrate your systems, steal sensitive and valuable company and customer data, seize control of your company system and possibly hold you and your business to ransom. The danger of system vulnerability is especially heightened when you share tenancy with other businesses in the cloud, and have to share memory and resources with them.
- Account hijacking
Account hijacking is as old as the internet itself, but with the coming of cloud services, the threat moved a few notches up. If a cyber criminal takes holds of your information, they’ll be able to monitor your activities and transactions, manipulate and falsify your data, and redirect your client to illegal sites. Consequently, your confidentiality, integrity, and availability could be compromised.
- Compromised credentials
Despite the emphasis by cyber security experts for users to use strong passwords, many businesses are still at risk of losing their valued credentials simply because of a weak or predictable password.
In addition to using strong passwords, companies can put extra security measures in place by making sure there are specific user roles and processes, so when there’s any critical change or breach, it can be easily and quickly detected. Other security measures businesses can adopt to protect their oganisation’s and customers’ credentials include use of one-time passwords, phone-based authentication, and smartcards.
- Permanent data loss
While the chances you could lose date saved in the cloud is very small, it is still a possibility and there have been reported cases of cloud data hacking and permanent data loss. To forestall such a scenario, make sure to spread out your applications across different zones and when possible back-up your data on an offline storage system.
