70% of Organizations Fall Victim to Public Cloud Cybersecurity Incidents

cyber security

70% of Organizations Fall Victim to Public Cloud Cybersecurity Incidents

According to a global survey from next-generation cybersecurity leader Sophos, nearly three quarters (70%) of organizations experienced a public cloud security incident in the last year – including ransomware and other malware (50%), exposed data (29%), compromised accounts (25%), and crypto jacking (17%). Organizations running multi-cloud environments are greater than 50% more likely to suffer a cloud security incident than those running a single cloud. Ransomware, not surprisingly, is one of the most widely reported cybercrimes in the public cloud. The most successful ransomware attacks include data in the public cloud and attackers are shifting their methods to target cloud environments that cripple necessary infrastructure and increase the likelihood of payment.

“The recent increase in remote working provides extra motivation to disable cloud infrastructure that is being relied on more than ever, so it’s worrisome that many organizations still don’t understand their responsibility in securing cloud data and workloads. Cloud security is a shared responsibility, and organizations need to carefully manage and monitor cloud environments in order to stay one step ahead of determined attackers.”- Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist, Sophos.

The Unintentional Open Door: How Attackers Break In.

Accidental exposure continues to plague organizations, with misconfigurations exploited in 66% of reported attacks. Additionally, 33% of organizations report that cybercriminals gained access through stolen cloud provider account credentials. Despite this, only a quarter of organizations say managing access to cloud accounts is a top area of concern.

The Silver Lining

Nearly all respondents (96%) admit to concern about their current level of cloud security, an encouraging sign that it’s top of mind and important. Appropriately, “data leaks” top the list of security concerns for nearly half of respondents (44%); identifying and responding to security incidents is a close second (41%). Notwithstanding this silver lining, only one in four respondents view lack of staff expertise as a top concern.

As an organization, having a managed IT service provider at hand is helpful for dealing with unexpected cloud attacks. Through our partnership with Sophos, Corenet IT Limited provides IT security solutions to ensure your business operates under the safest online conditions. Send us a mail via  info@corenet.com.gh or call us for assistance 0302 725 453 / 0302 720 880