Cloud-based cybercrime: Is there hope?

The “vast majority of cyber-attacks on cloud servers aim to mine cryptocurrency” is the lead for a recent ZDNet article based upon a year-long analysis of cloud cyberattacks. The targeting of cryptocurrency made up 95% of the attacks vs seeking private data or setting up other malicious cybercrimes like DDOS. From another perspective, Microsoft’s 2020 Digital Defense Report provides ominous data on changes in cybercrime tactics whereby cybercriminals actually utilize cloud services to perpetuate their crimes, avoiding detection by “[hiding] among reputable cloud services.”  As noted in previous blogs, 2020 has provided more than enough distractions to increase the success of cybercrime attacks, especially considering the increase in threat vectors due to mass remote worker deployments. Amongst all of this news about 2020 cybercrime, a couple of points can provide hope:

• Unfortunately, human error is still root cause for a very high percentage of cybercrime. As stated in Verizon’s Analyzing the COVID-19 data breach landscape report “80% of breaches within the hacking category are caused by stolen or brute-forced credentials.” Security Magazine provides additional data regarding the human element of cybercrime asserting that “Phishing continues to dominate as the easiest breach: 61% of phishing attempts result in full compromise of access credentials.” Unsecured databases, firewall and server access misconfigurations are additional areas where human error is common. The hopeful part? Significant reductions in these errors can be achieved via frequent security and cybercrime training for all employees, constant vigilance by IT aligned to the businesses cybersecurity plan, and by maintaining an updated Cyber Security Response Plan.
• By using appropriate cloud and backup services(per workload), assuring secure data transport, and adhering to configuration and security policy, the cloud is secure – very secure. In the same article mentioned above, Security Magazine goes onto say “Large cloud providers saw tremendous security gains over the last year, and are 46% less likely to suffer a breach than large enterprises.” Gartner also predicts that public cloud for infrastructure workloads will suffer at least 60% fewer security incidents than data centers.

In summary, while there is much news about the heightened risk of cybercrime in 2020 and the increased sophistication of cyberattacks,  the basics of employee cyber-hygiene, in partnership with the intelligent use of cloud services and best in class cloud provider security, creates a partnership that improves your business security and lowers your cyber-risk profile.

If you’re looking for the expertise to advise your business on cloud services and the potential impacts that cybercrime can have on your business, Otava can help. Data Backup and Disaster Recovery plans are an essential component of business survivability should a security breach or cyber compromise occur. Consider our secure, compliant cloud solutions managed by a team of experts trained in the latest security best practices. Call 877-740-5028 or contact us to learn more.

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