Cloud: The Expanding Frontier Of Cyber Risk
The use of cloud infrastructure had firmly embedded itself into the core of IT strategies across organisations of every size. Its scalability and agility power everything from email and development operations to data storage and live production environments.
The cloud enables businesses to adapt quickly and scale on demand—but this very flexibility has also introduced a broader attack surface. As cloud adoption has surged, so too have the opportunities for threat actors to exploit misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and gaps in visibility.
The critical nature of healthcare operations and their limited capacity to withstand extended disruptions make them particularly attractive targets. All indications suggest that this troubling trend will persist into 2025, along with the worrying addition of Data Exfiltration Extortion (DXF) – which involves stealing the data and asking victims to “buy back” their information to prevent public exposure.
The Evolving Landscape of Cloud Security: Challenges and Considerations
The cloud brings powerful benefits for operations, such as rapid scalability, cost efficiency, and enhanced collaboration, however, as organisations increasingly lean into cloud infrastructure to meet operational demands, that adoption also introduces a broad and dynamic attack surface that traditional security models struggle to defend.
Let’s look at some common areas of risk:
1. Hybrid Environments: Security at the Intersection of Cloud and On-Prem
Many businesses aren’t going “all-in” on the cloud. Instead, they operate in hybrid environments, blending legacy on-premises infrastructure with modern cloud services. This hybrid approach can be a strategic necessity, but it also poses serious security challenges, such as:
- Inconsistent security policies between environments – this can lead to gaps in protection.
- Limited visibility across systems makes it harder to detect threats in real time.
- Misconfigured connections between on prem and cloud infrastructure (like VPNs or insecure APIs) can be exploited.
Effective hybrid security requires centralised management, unified monitoring, and the ability to enforce consistent policies across environments.
2. Single Sign-On (SSO): Convenience vs. Risk
SSO streamlines user access by allowing individuals to authenticate once and gain access to multiple services. But with great convenience comes great responsibility:
- If an SSO credential is compromised, it can provide attackers with access to a wide range of systems.
- Improperly configured identity providers (IdPs) can leave sensitive apps exposed.
- Businesses may overlook the need for multi-factor authentication (MFA) or fail to monitor anomalous login behaviour.
SSO should always be deployed with layered security controls, including MFA, strict session policies, and continuous user behaviour analytics.
3. API Security: The New Frontline
As cloud-native applications become the norm, APIs play a critical role in facilitating communication between services. But APIs are often a prime target:
- Poorly documented or public-facing APIs can expose sensitive data.
- Inadequate authentication mechanisms can allow unauthorised access.
- Over-permissioned tokens or excessive trust between microservices can widen the attack surface.
Securing APIs requires rigorous testing, enforcement of the principle of least privilege, and the use of API gateways with real-time threat detection.
4. Misconfigurations: The Silent Killer
Misconfigurations remain one of the most common and dangerous threats in cloud security. While misconfigured connections are often highlighted, there are many other critical areas where errors can lead to major vulnerabilities:
- Publicly Exposed Storage Buckets: Leaving storage (like AWS S3 or Azure Blob) publicly accessible without authentication can expose sensitive data to the world.
- Overly Permissive IAM Roles: Granting excessive permissions to users or services—such as wildcard roles or full admin access—violates the principle of least privilege.
- Open Ports and Unrestricted Network Rules: Allowing public access to services like SSH, RDP, or databases is a common path for attackers.
- Disabled or Misconfigured Logging: Without proper logs and monitoring, you’re flying blind during a breach or incident.
- Unsecured Containers and Functions: Using outdated base images, running containers as root, or failing to scan for vulnerabilities leaves modern deployments exposed.
- No Encryption or Poor Key Management: Storing or transmitting data without strong encryption—or mismanaging keys—undermines security.
- Weak Authentication Policies: Not enforcing MFA, allowing weak passwords, or neglecting to rotate access keys creates easy opportunities for attackers.
- Poor Tagging and Asset Classification: Without tagging and classification, you can’t track ownership, assess impact, or enforce data sensitivity policies effectively.
Addressing misconfigurations requires a mix of automation, regular audits, policy-as-code, and user training to ensure secure defaults are maintained at scale.
5. Shadow IT and Uncontrolled Cloud Usage
One of the biggest risks in cloud security comes from what businesses don’t know is happening. Employees often spin up cloud services without IT approval—known as shadow IT to boost productivity.
But:
- These services often lack proper security oversight when being set up or while in use.
- Data may be stored or processed outside of corporate security policies.
- Security teams struggle to maintain visibility and control over unapproved assets.
6. Compliance and Data Sovereignty
Operating in the cloud means dealing with global data regulations—such as GDPR in Europe.
Ensuring data sovereignty and compliance can be tricky:
- You must know where your data is stored and how it’s being accessed.
- Encryption, data residency controls, and audit trails are critical to compliance.
- Cloud providers offer tools, but compliance is a shared responsibility.
The cost of not adhering to the regulations can be significant.
Securing the Future
Cloud security is no longer optional—it’s foundational. As cloud adoption continues to grow, so too must the sophistication of our security strategies. Businesses need to embrace a zero trust mindset, prioritise visibility and automation, and invest in talent and tools that can adapt to an increasingly complex threat landscape.
At a minimum, it is recommended that Cloud Posture Management tools be deployed, along with XDR Threat Detection and Response for real time threat hunting and forensics.
The cloud offers limitless potential—but without strong security practices, it can also become a limitless liability!