What are today’s cloud security threats?

Cloud adoption is growing so quickly that, in many businesses, the infrastructure is applied without necessary security considerations. The threat of cybersecurity is greater than it’s ever been and is likely to grow more acute as more businesses digitize their systems.

As we near 2023, it’s crucial that businesses employ Microsoft security services to protect their digital systems and understand the threats that exist. It is also important to leverage a cloud management platform, such as Inscape, that will provide more visibility into how to improve your cloud security posture.
Here, we look at three of the most pertinent security threats for Microsoft’s cloud services.

Misconfiguration

Misconfiguration happens when an admin fails to use the correct security settings for a cloud platform. For example, an admin can make access unrestricted, leaving the door open to hackers. Or if there are encrypted passwords and keys, these might be stored in an open repository, which makes the encryption redundant.

The frustration around attacks caused by misconfiguration is that they are easily preventable. Admins can enable proper encryption, tighten permissions to cloud platforms, and perform regular misconfiguration audits which can identify gaps in cloud security.

API vulnerabilities 

Cloud applications tend to interact with each other using APIs (an intermediary that allows two applications to communicate with one another). Many businesses, however, fail to secure their APIs, leaving malicious users able to exploit API vulnerabilities. Without managed security services, hackers will typically launch a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, which makes the network inaccessible to intended users, or inject code into a system which provides access into a business’ digital environment.

Malware

Malware might not traditionally be associated with the cloud, but it is a real threat for cloud applications. A key benefit of cloud applications is that they make sharing work documents easy. However, with so much data regularly passed to and from the cloud, it’s likely that your data will be compromised. Malware can perform aggressive attacks once it has infiltrated a cloud ecosystem. It can move data into a conduit, passing it back to attackers, or steal access to passwords and keys, which allow hackers greater access.

Fortify your cloud ecosystem with Microsoft security services

Implementing cloud security measures doesn’t have to be complicated. Microsoft’s security solutions take a “zero trust” approach to managing your cloud security, which is constantly vigilant of threats, malware attacks, and other vulnerabilities that might compromise your data and systems. You can build next-generation security for your business with:

  • Microsoft Sentinel: a cloud-native security information and events manager (SIEM). This application provides intelligent security analytics for your entire organization, whatever the scale. It collects security data quickly, using AI to identify threats and flag vulnerabilities. Since it’s built on Microsoft Azure, it’s also easy to scale. While traditional SIEMs incur large costs, Microsoft Sentinel allows you to pay for what you use, with no upfront costs.
  • Microsoft 365 Defender: an enterprise defense suite, which identifies and prevents malicious attacks across endpoints, emails, and applications. This defense suite safeguards your organization against threats posed by using email and cloud collaboration tools, ensuring that employees can work in the cloud safely. Microsoft 365 Defender is equipped to protect from malware, phishing, spam, and other malicious attacks, including sophisticated attacks which might compromise security at an enterprise level.

Get recommendations to optimize your cloud security with Inscape

The recommendations dashboard in Inscape displays security optimization recommended actions to help you improve your cloud security posture. Each recommendation will indicate the area of security that can be optimized related to:

  • Exposed access keys
  • Unrestricted access
  • MFA on root account
  • IAM access key rotations
  • Specific ports that are unrestricted
  • Much more

CDW Inscape Microsoft security services optimization dashboard

Get the most out of your Microsoft security investment 

With the use of cloud services accelerating, there is a need for security services, which can reduce the risk of cybercrime. It is assumed that large enterprises are a more attractive target for professional hackers, but 43% of cyberattacks are in fact aimed at small businesses. What’s more, just under 15% of these businesses are prepared to defend themselves.

Any business looking to expand their cloud ecosystem needs to take cloud security seriously. Microsoft security services like Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft 365 Defender will provide end-to-end security solutions for your cloud ecosystem, giving you robust protection against costly data leaks and system breaches.

Fortify your cloud security today with MessageOps and request a demo and free trial of the Inscape platform.

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