In March 2021, London Based Harris Federation suffered a major ransomware attack. The immediate aftermath? More than 37,000 students were unable to access their profiles and coursework.
In February 2021, cybercriminals were able to hack the Florida Water System. It was a terrorist-level event — they managed to increase the amount of sodium hydroxide to a potentially dangerous level. A couple of friends attempted and almost succeeded in poisoning the State’s water supply, with just a computer and a VPN.
Every year, come January, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center releases an annual report on the state of cybercrime in the nation. How they’ve changed, new patterns, statistics, comparative charts they can level against other years.
In 2021 and early 2022, the reports were damning. Complaints had skyrocketed. By what amount? By an increase of 300,000. Reported losses to the market? $4.2 billion.
IBM did its statistical analysis and came up with the following data:
• The average cost of a remote data breach to a small business: $137,000.
• 28% of cyberattacks are perpetrated against small businesses that lack any sort of SOC as service protection.
And over 70% of them occurred because of faulty cloud service configuration and a lack of monitoring of a company’s cloud services and tools.
What Is Cloud Security Monitoring In Terms Of Cybersecurity?
In 2019, the cloud computing market was worth over 266 billion dollars, more than 95% of workloads from a company’s day-to-day are loaded onto outside servers on the “cloud”. Within 5 years, it is estimated that most businesses will exist primarily on the cloud.
As far as market share and the way businesses interact and use services like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, or any of the other services, the impact of this computing tool in security is massive.
Most businesses rely solely on their provider’s ability to grant them security for their files and “protected” data on the cloud. Most companies have no legitimate cloud security monetary and security outside the one granted to them by their provider.
But isn’t THAT enough?
Why SOC Is Essential For Cloud Security Monitoring
Your provider does give you great coverage against attacks. It’s not perfect coverage and the media is full of cases where the likes of Google have been hacked — nonetheless, they still do a rather exemplary job of protecting your interests.
If that’s the case, then why would you need a SOC team to give you even MORE protection? Isn’t that redundant?
Well, the fly in that ointment that is the protection given to you by your provider is woefully dependent on your cloud configuration and more importantly what you tell them from your end. That’s the primary reason why most cloud services are hacked, it’s not on account of the provider, but because the user simply didn’t monitor or configure the tool properly on their workstation.
Amongst the factors you have to consider are:
• Insecure interfaces / API.
• Unauthorized access by people outside the company.
• Misconfiguration of the cloud/wrong setup.
• Insecure access from mobile devices.
All of these facts, plus dozens more are monitored by a cloud security team — and each has a lot to do with configuration, not only of software but of the people using said software.
Why Are Cloud Breaks Dangerous
If your cloud security is breached, cybercriminals can gain access to personal files, intellectual properties, financial data, and thousands of highly sensitive documents. Due to this amazing tool’s high capacity of storage and automated way of backing data your whole company is at risk when a breach occurs.
And cyberattacks don’t just limit themselves to stealing information — they also jab at your ability to conduct your business properly. How? Imagine what a criminal could do with complete access to your cloud service. Step back and think about what type of mischief they could perpetrate. In less than two minutes they could change your password, taking away your possibility to access the cloud and all your data. They could disrupt the way you catalog archives and documents. They could, with a flick of the mouse, duplicate your data and change file names. All of those “pranks” limit your ability to function properly — how much money are you wasting in fixing the breach? How much money are you not earning while your business is in turmoil?
The average cost of a remote data breach to a small business: $137,000.
Solutions For Securing Your Cloud Service
MFA
MFA stands for Multi-Factor Authentication. A username and password combination is often insufficient for what your company needs. There are dozens of tools a service as a security expert may imply to give your company MFA.
Manage Your Employee Access To Improve Security
Most employees don’t really need too much access. They don’t need every application, nor do they need access to every slice of information your company has. Limit credentials and employ security levels for key information.
Monitor End User Activities
Real-time cloud security monitoring spots irregularities and possible breach points. These abnormal activities are then fixed by a SOC as a Service Team.
Provide Training For Your Employees
Teach them about Phishing techniques, about the rapid expansion of hackers, about target scenarios, spoofing websites, social engineering practices — most employers are unaware of the dangers they face daily when going online.
Use A Cloud-To-Cloud Backup Solution
Always have the second cloud-ready and functioning in case there is a data breach or if there’s a loss of data. Lots of data? Yes, sometimes there’s human error involved, not cybercriminals — an employee, maybe a disgruntled one could have corrupted data or deleted files.
What Does A SOC As A Service Provider Offer In Terms Of Cloud Monitoring And Security?
Security as a service gives companies a suite of tools and benefits that range from helping you in case of a breach, to actively maintaining and monitoring your cloud providers (they can monitor AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Office365, GSuite, etc). Cybersec should be a top priority for your business or personal data in 2022 and beyond.
