Most people see data breaches in the corporate world as the provider’s fault. Amazon, Microsoft, and other well-known players are the usual suspects every time there is a serious problem regarding cloud storage. At the same time, the customer is portrayed as a victim.
Yet, we need to face the facts. When it comes to cloud storage and IaaS, there is a shared responsibility between the provider and the client. Popular solutions as AWS are responsible for using state-of-the-art mechanisms to keep cybercriminals at bay and keep data secure. However, business clients are also responsible for many things, having a security-related to-do list they need to keep into consideration.
When this list of duties is ignored, cloud misconfiguration takes place. This is a very serious threat that is causing major breaches.
At My IT Guy, we wanted to address cloud misconfiguration in order to understand the concept and know how to act with a preventive mindset.
Understanding Cloud Misconfiguration
Most people are swift to blame big service providers for security issues that arise. We take for granted that they must be fully liable for them, taking customers out of the equation.
Cloud misconfiguration takes place when the customer doesn’t fulfill its duties regarding properly setting up the security aspects of its cloud infrastructure. There are many moving parts that require specialized attention as firewall rules, server setup, routing, operative two-factor authentication, and access controls. Doing so is, as expected, resource-consuming and some IT managers fall into neglect.
One thing is to implement security technologies that minimize the potential threats coming from malicious agents and other is to properly set up the infrastructure to prevent negligence-induced incidents. The latter belongs to the customers who are uploading sensitive data to the hired servers.
Shared Responsibility
The latest Cloud Adoption & Risk Report by McAfee shows a dreading reality: a 27.7 percent increase in cloud security incidents from last year. While this number doesn’t represent the relevance of cloud misconfiguration alone, there is more evidence that is useful enough to create awareness.
Polemic data breaches in recent history, as Microsoft’s in 2010 and Capital One’s in 2019, were the result of misconfiguration on the customer side. As many cloud users ignore their responsibilities to secure data, these situations become more common.
Malicious agents are profiting from the small cracks in cloud infrastructure that appears due to misconfiguration. And one of the biggest challenges is that misconfigurations are likely to occur, even when in-house IT professionals are paying attention to the details.
The degree of sensitivity in data uploaded to the cloud increases over time, making even more important to become effective in terms of cybersecurity, most likely with a multi-point security approach. Analytics, especially on traffic and behavior within the network, can be a powerful way to detect potential misconfiguration.
It’s essential for modern businesses that rely on cloud infrastructure to give a second look at their current configuration. Detecting wrong parameters and inoperative security features is as important as stopping external attacks from cybercriminals.
At My IT Guy, we can help your business to enjoy peace of mind by auditing, setting up, and securing your entire cloud infrastructure. Misconfiguration is a critical challenge that needs to be addressed by experienced specialists. Give us a call today.