Cloud computing offers notable perks to businesses of all sizes. As reported by the CIO Agenda Survey by Gartner, adapting to cloud-based technology is one of the top business priorities. Cloud services assist companies in expanding their abilities. It also helps to reduce the cost of labor and capital expenditures for adapting to new technological solutions like managed third-party risk.

In 2021, over 540 million Facebook User Data on the Amazon cloud server was exposed. The average cost of the data breaches globally amounted to around $3.86 million, with an overall estimated cost of $148 for every data compromised. But the numbers here vary country-wise.

Importance of a Robust Cloud-based Cybersecurity

Safeguarding the cloud-stored data is of great importance. The breaches pose a huge risk to the businesses. One of the instant and highly tangible impacts of the compromised cloud data is the loss of revenue. Data breaches would often lead to great financial loss. It also harms the reputation of the company, and thereby, it has a serious and lasting effect. The partners, clients, and customers would often lose their trust in an organization. It even fails at protecting sensitive data, resulting in a business loss and loss of customer loyalty.

Business continuity is the other concern whenever it comes to cloud security. The breaches would affect the important services and operations, leading to financial losses and downtime. The disruption extends to the point where the survival of the business is at stake. Third and fourth party risk management involves an extensive analysis of these risks that evolve out of the third-party providers. It is important to assess these risks and reduce them since they would impact the ability to serve the customers or the stakeholders.

Common Cloud-based Cybersecurity Challenges

The following are a few of the notable challenges the companies are encountering in terms of cloud cybersecurity:

Advanced Phishing Campaigns in the Cloud

While the companies are migrating their data and operations to the cloud, the cybercriminals have also launched advanced phishing campaigns. These campaigns specifically target cloud users. These are the attacks that are designed to steal the credentials for cloud login. It also affects cloud-based applications. Addressing this challenge calls for the use of email filtering, user training, and the implementation of multi-factor authentication. It aids in safeguarding cloud-based resources.

Evolving Cloud-Based Malware Threats

The information-stealing malware incidents have increased greatly during the initial quarter of 2023. The growing menace of the cloud-based malware targeting the cloud space comes with a challenge. The attackers will create the cloud-native malware evading the traditional solutions of antivirus. The companies should proactively adapt to the highly advanced threat detection mechanisms, update the cloud configurations regularly, and build a network segmentation in the cloud infrastructure that limits the spread of malware.

Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in Cloud Services

Cloud services are even affected by the zero-day risks. It would make them the target for the attackers. The challenge remains to address such risks before they get exploited. The companies have to depend on intrusion detection systems, threat intelligence, and cloud security posture management tools. These would help identify and address the threats involved in deploying the cloud.

Cloud Insider Threats and Human Error

Cybersecurity in cloud computing is often at risk of insider threats and human flaws. The unauthorized access or the misconfigurations by the employees would lead to the breach of data and issues with compliance. Mitigating such challenges involves the implementation of strict access control, extensive cloud security training, and awareness programs to reduce the risk involved.

Third Party Cyber Risks

A company is often exposed to serious risks that include data breaches, reputational dangers, and financial losses. It happens whenever third-party processes or systems have security errors. The identification, evaluation, and mitigation of the risks posed by third-party vendors are a part of the effective management of third-party cyber risk.

It demands a proactive and thorough approach to cybersecurity. Companies can safeguard their digital assets while upholding the confidence of their stakeholders with effective third-party risk management.

Addressing Cybersecurity Challenges

Companies today are shifting to innovative solutions to fortify their defenses in the world of rapidly evolving cybersecurity challenges. The following are a few potential strategies to implement:

Cloud-Native Security Tools

Harnessing the potential of the cloud-native security tools offers better control over the cloud environments and real-time visibility. The tools are designed to integrate seamlessly with the cloud platforms offering numerous features. The rapid adoption of cloud-native security solutions can help companies proactively monitor and secure the cloud infrastructure while reducing the risk of dangers and unauthorized access.

Zero Trust Architecture

It is a security framework that assumes building no trust even among the internal devices or users. It relies on the principle of "never trust, always verify" model. Implementation of the Zero Trust comprises stringent access controls, constant authentication, and minimally privileged access policies. Third-party risk management will help minimize insider risks while limiting the exposure of important assets to possible attackers.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

ML and AI are vital for the detection of threats and responses across cloud-based environments. These are the key technologies for analyzing massive amounts of data for detecting potential threats and strange activities in real-time. Employing machine learning algorithms and AI enables companies to boost their key ability to respond to emerging threats.

Conclusion

You may envision paying for a third-party cloud, and you can impose every security concern onto the provider who has managed third party risk. In reality, the responsibility for the security of the cloud accounts falls on you as well as the provider.

Try understanding the challenges that we have mentioned today while dealing with the best practices for addressing them. Implementation of the security controls immediately is never possible. They would need a strategic approach with the right professional expertise that can aid in reducing the possible errors, costs, and risks in the process of implementation.

Author Bio

Nagaraj Kuppuswamy is the Co-founder and CEO of Beaconer, an esteemed enterprise specializing in managed third-party risk using the cloud-native AI-based solution. With an extensive portfolio of accolades and industry certifications, Nagaraj stands out as a seasoned expert, boasting over 16 years of dedicated involvement in the field of Cybersecurity. Throughout their career, he has predominantly focused on elevating the realm of third-party risk assessment. You can connect with him through Linkedin.