Home > Resources > Articles > Top 5 Tactics for Improving Cloud Security Hygiene for Businesses

Top 5 Tactics for Improving Cloud Security Hygiene for Businesses

Kutubkhan Bohari | November 22, 2022 | 529 views | Read Time : 05:00 min

Top 5 Tactics for Improving Cloud Security Hygiene for Businesses
In the past couple of years, the world has gone through a rapid digital transformation, which has led to a deeper penetration of modern technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and others.

As a result, smart businesses are shifting their digital resources to the cloud to benefit from features such as streamlined operations, centralized data storage, increased operational flexibility, and hassle-free data transition. As per a study conducted in 2022, nearly 94% of businesses around the world are using at least one cloud service.

Every enterprise possesses large volumes of sensitive data, including financial statements, business designs, employees’ identity information, and others. As organizations worldwide migrate from on-premises working to a remote working model, more data is being stored in the cloud than ever before, making cloud security one of the most crucial aspects for businesses today.

5 Proven Tips to Strengthen Cloud Security Hygiene for Businesses

With the advent of cloudification and the increasing use of cloud-based applications, the prevalence of cybercrime has increased significantly. For instance, in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been a significant spike in cybercrime, with reports of a 600% increase in malicious emails. Furthermore, a report from the United Nations says that cybercrime will cost the world economy $10.5 trillion every year by 2025.

Even though cloud networks, such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services, have their own data protection measures for securing the cloud services they provide, it does not mean that businesses utilizing these services should rely solely on their security measures and not consider adopting additional measures.

So what are the tactics modern businesses should adopt to improve cloud security hygiene? Let’s see:


Deploy Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

When it comes to keeping hackers out of user accounts and protecting sensitive data and applications used to run a business online, the traditional username and password combination is often not enough.

Leverage MFA to prevent hackers from accessing your cloud data and ensure only authorized personnel can log in to your cloud applications and critical data in your on- or off-premise environment. MFA is one of the most affordable yet highly effective controls to strengthen your business's cloud security.


Manage Your User Access

It is crucial for your business to ensure adequate permissions are in place to protect sensitive data stored on cloud platforms. Not all employees need access to certain applications and documents.

To improve your cloud security and prevent unauthorized access, you need to establish access rights. This not only helps prevent unauthorized employees from accidentally editing sensitive company data but also protects your company from hackers who have stolen an employee's credentials.


Monitor End User Activities

Real-time analysis and monitoring of end-user activity can help you detect anomalies that depart from usual usage patterns, such as logging in from a previously unknown IP address or device.

Identifying these out-of-the-ordinary events can stop hackers and allow you to rectify security before they cause mayhem.


Create a Comprehensive Off-boarding Process

After an employee leaves your firm, they should no longer have access to any company resources, including cloud storage, systems, data, customers, or intellectual property. Unfortunately, completing this vital security duty is sometimes put off until several days or weeks after an employee has left.

Since every employee is likely to have access to a variety of cloud platforms and applications, a systemized deprovisioning procedure can assist you in ensuring that all access permissions for each departing employee are revoked and prevent information leaks.


Provide Regular Anti-Phishing Training to Employees

Hackers can acquire access to protected information by stealing employees' login credentials using social engineering techniques such as phishing, internet spoofing, and social media spying. As a result, cybersecurity has now become a collective responsibility, making comprehensive anti-phishing training necessary to educate your employees about these threats.

As unscrupulous hackers frequently come up with new phishing scams by the day, regular anti-phishing training is essential for developing formidable cloud security.


Bottom Line

Cloud security hygiene no longer consists solely of strong passwords and security checks. Instead, it is a series of innovative procedures that organizations use nowadays to leverage cloud networks. With more businesses moving towards the cloud and cyberattacks on the rise, it is the responsibility of your organization to remain vigilant and protect itself from cyberattacks.

Spotlight

Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare

The Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare provides a public peer-reviewed professional forum for the open discussion and education of technology, business, legal, and military professionals concerning the legal issues businesses and governments arising out of cyber attacks or acts of cyber war. The Journal of Law and Cyber Warfare is published twice annually by top legal professionals and scholars from the law, technology, security, and business industries.

OTHER ARTICLES
ENTERPRISE SECURITY

Security by Sector: Improving Quality of Data and Decision-Making a Priority for Credit Industry

Article | July 20, 2022

The subject of how information security impacts different industry sectors is an intriguing one. For example, how does the finance industry fare in terms of information security compared to the health sector, or the entertainment business? Are there some sectors that face greater cyber-threats and risks than others? Do some do a better job of keeping data secure, and if so, how and why?A new study of credit management professionals has revealed that improving the quality of data and decision-making will be a top priority for the credit industry in the next three years. The research, from Equifax Ingnite in collaboration with Coleman Parkes, takes a deep dive into the views of credit management pros across retail, banking, finance and debt management/recovery sectors.

Read More
SOFTWARE SECURITY

3 Trends in Data Privacy Breach Laws That Will Carry Over to 2020

Article | July 8, 2022

During 2019, new privacy laws were introduced, and many current laws evolved in the United States and across the global landscape. With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in full effect, we saw expensive fines levied upon companies that fell victim to data privacy breaches. As we move into a new year, probably the biggest takeaway from 2019 is that being proactive and having a data privacy strategy in place is important to help mitigate the risk of a data privacy breach. The regulatory landscape continues to evolve as states and countries actively pass new expanded requirements for privacy and cybersecurity regulations. While laws in the U.S., like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), are getting significant attention, many other states and countries are actively amending their breach notification laws to include tighter restrictions.

Read More
DATA SECURITY, PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY

Ryuk: Defending Against This Increasingly Busy Ransomware Family

Article | August 12, 2022

On December 16, 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard disclosed a security incident at a facility regulated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA). Forensic analysis suggests that the incident might have begun when an employee clicked on a link embedded in a phishing email.This action enabled a threat actor to set Ryuk ransomware loose on the facility’s network. Ultimately, the infection spread to all IT network files, leading Ryuk to disrupt the corporate IT network and prevent critical process control monitoring systems from functioning properly. Phishing is one of the primary infection vectors for most ransomware families, but there’s an interesting twist with this particular family. As noted by Malwarebytes, a typical Ryuk attack begins when a user opens a weaponized Microsoft Office document attached to a phishing email. Opening the document causes a malicious macro to execute a PowerShell command that attempts to download the banking trojan Emotet. This has the ability to download additional malware onto an infected machine that retrieves and executes Trickbot.

Read More

New Ransomware hitting Industrial Control Systems like a nuclear bomb

Article | February 10, 2020

Researchers at security firms including Sentinel One and Drago’s have been mystified by a piece of code named Ekans or Snake, over the last month. Drago’s publically released its full report on Ekans Ransomware that has recently inflicted Industrial Control Systems and these are some of the most high-value systems that bridge the gap between digital and physical systems. In the history of hacking, only a few times a piece of malicious code has been marked attempting to intrude Industrial Control Systems. Ekans is supposed to be the first Ransomware with real primitive capability against the Industrial Control Systems, software, and hardware used in everything from oil refineries to power grids. Researchers say this ransomware holds the capability to attack ICS by Honeywell and GE as well.

Read More
ENTERPRISE SECURITY

The Growing Importance of Cybersecurity Mesh

Article | July 20, 2022

The subject of how information security impacts different industry sectors is an intriguing one. For example, how does the finance industry fare in terms of information security compared to the health sector, or the entertainment business? Are there some sectors that face greater cyber-threats and risks than others? Do some do a better job of keeping data secure, and if so, how and why?A new study of credit management professionals has revealed that improving the quality of data and decision-making will be a top priority for the credit industry in the next three years. The research, from Equifax Ingnite in collaboration with Coleman Parkes, takes a deep dive into the views of credit management pros across retail, banking, finance and debt management/recovery sectors.

Read More
SOFTWARE SECURITY

The Reasons Why Cyberattack Surfaces Are Rising

Article | July 8, 2022

During 2019, new privacy laws were introduced, and many current laws evolved in the United States and across the global landscape. With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in full effect, we saw expensive fines levied upon companies that fell victim to data privacy breaches. As we move into a new year, probably the biggest takeaway from 2019 is that being proactive and having a data privacy strategy in place is important to help mitigate the risk of a data privacy breach. The regulatory landscape continues to evolve as states and countries actively pass new expanded requirements for privacy and cybersecurity regulations. While laws in the U.S., like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), are getting significant attention, many other states and countries are actively amending their breach notification laws to include tighter restrictions.

Read More
DATA SECURITY, PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY

Addressing the Threats of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Article | August 12, 2022

On December 16, 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard disclosed a security incident at a facility regulated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA). Forensic analysis suggests that the incident might have begun when an employee clicked on a link embedded in a phishing email.This action enabled a threat actor to set Ryuk ransomware loose on the facility’s network. Ultimately, the infection spread to all IT network files, leading Ryuk to disrupt the corporate IT network and prevent critical process control monitoring systems from functioning properly. Phishing is one of the primary infection vectors for most ransomware families, but there’s an interesting twist with this particular family. As noted by Malwarebytes, a typical Ryuk attack begins when a user opens a weaponized Microsoft Office document attached to a phishing email. Opening the document causes a malicious macro to execute a PowerShell command that attempts to download the banking trojan Emotet. This has the ability to download additional malware onto an infected machine that retrieves and executes Trickbot.

Read More

New Ransomware hitting Industrial Control Systems like a nuclear bomb

Article | February 10, 2020

Researchers at security firms including Sentinel One and Drago’s have been mystified by a piece of code named Ekans or Snake, over the last month. Drago’s publically released its full report on Ekans Ransomware that has recently inflicted Industrial Control Systems and these are some of the most high-value systems that bridge the gap between digital and physical systems. In the history of hacking, only a few times a piece of malicious code has been marked attempting to intrude Industrial Control Systems. Ekans is supposed to be the first Ransomware with real primitive capability against the Industrial Control Systems, software, and hardware used in everything from oil refineries to power grids. Researchers say this ransomware holds the capability to attack ICS by Honeywell and GE as well.

Read More
MORE ARTICLES

Spotlight

Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare

The Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare provides a public peer-reviewed professional forum for the open discussion and education of technology, business, legal, and military professionals concerning the legal issues businesses and governments arising out of cyber attacks or acts of cyber war. The Journal of Law and Cyber Warfare is published twice annually by top legal professionals and scholars from the law, technology, security, and business industries.

Related News

DATA SECURITY, PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY

Dremio and Privacera Announce Their Latest Integration

Dremio | February 01, 2023

On January 31, 2023, Dremio, the leading simple and open data lakehouse, and Privacera, the only open-standards-based data governance and security solution provider, announced their latest integration, which expands advanced data governance and security capabilities for customers building modern data applications on top of data lakehouses. As data lakehouses become more popular, it is becoming increasingly essential to manage and organize safe data access while also adhering to complicated regulatory regulations across all data assets. The new integration now allows Joint clients to expedite secure and governed analytics by decreasing manual processes while automating stringent compliance for contemporary data cooperation, which is especially important in highly regulated industries like financial services. The enhanced integration proffers joint clients with the following capabilities: Ensuring scalability and performance By pushing down policies written in Privacera into Dremio, the native integration allows quick query performance and scalability. Enhanced data security and governance capabilities The connector enables enterprises to implement attribute-based access control (ABAC), discovery for tagging and data classification, data encryption, row-level filtering and masking, canned reports and centralized auditing. Applying Consistent policy administration across Dremio and the majority of hybrid and multi-cloud data sources Customers can now establish and enforce data access policies and classifications once and then deploy them anywhere. About Dremio Founded in 2015, Dremio is a simple, open data lakehouse that offers self-service analytics, data warehouse capability, and data lake flexibility across all data. It boosts agility with a novel data-as-code approach that enables Git-style data experimentation, version control, and governance. In addition, it removes data silos by allowing searches across data lakes, databases, and data warehouses, as well as easing ingestion into the lakehouse. Dremio is employed by hundreds of enterprises, including three of the Fortune 500, to offer mission-critical BI on the data lake. The company is the inventor of Apache Arrow and is on a quest to redefine SQL for data lakes and meet clients where they are on their cloud journey. About Privacera Founded in 2016, Privacera is the first company to offer a SaaS-based data governance and security solution that unifies privacy and compliance across various cloud services such as Azure, AWS, Databricks, GCP, Starburst and Snowflake. It assists businesses in making efficient and responsible use of data by guiding them through their data journey. Privacera, founded by the creators of Apache Ranger™ and Apache Atlas™, is often referred to as "Apache Ranger in the Cloud." Fortune 500 customers in the insurance, finance, life sciences, media, retail, and consumer industries, as well as government agencies, use the Privacera platform to mask sensitive data, automate sensitive data discovery, and manage high-fidelity policies at petabyte scale on-premises and in the cloud.

Read More

DATA SECURITY, PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY

Lookout Announces Industry’s Only Endpoint to Cloud Security Platform

Lookout | January 31, 2023

Lookout, Inc., a business specializing in endpoint-to-cloud security, has announced enhanced capabilities and feature updates to its award-winning Lookout Cloud Security Platform, the only endpoint-to-cloud security solution available on the market. In addition to cloud, internet, and private applications, the cloud-native platform now includes a single policy architecture for administration and enforcement across all mobile devices. A single agent and a single control plane for mobile and cloud security services are also new platform upgrades, providing IT and security professionals with a cost-effective, streamlined administration experience. In addition, the Lookout Cloud Security Platform combines security service edge (SSE) with endpoint security to secure users and data regardless of location. It constantly monitors the risk posture of devices and users to provide dynamic and granular zero-trust access based on the sensitivity level of applications and data. As a result, it enables organizations to protect their workers, devices, applications, and data from unauthorized access and modern internet-based threats. In addition, the extended platform enables clients to make more educated choices about cloud security services using threat data from mobile endpoints. Lookout CEO, Jim Dolce, said, "Digital transformation and the significant adoption of the cloud have accelerated remote work and the use of mobile and unmanaged devices, which in turn exposes organizations to new security gaps that are ripe for exploitation from bad actors." He added, "Lookout's mission is to secure and empower the digital future where mobility and cloud are essential to all that we do for work and play; our endpoint to cloud security platform ensures that your data is protected – regardless of device, user or location." (Source – PR Newswire) The Award-Winning Lookout Platform The Lookout Cloud Security Platform integrates security services based on the company's unique technologies: Lookout Secure Private Access Lookout Secure Cloud Access Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security Lookout Secure Internet Access About Lookout, Inc. Lookout, Inc. is a cybersecurity firm that merges endpoint security with SASE technology to protect data while maintaining user privacy. Its single, cloud-native security platform protects data across devices, applications, networks, and clouds—a solution as fluid and adaptable as the current digital environment. Giving companies and people more control over their data empowers them to maximize its value and flourish. Lookout is trusted by organizations of all sizes, government agencies, and millions of individuals to safeguard sensitive data, allowing them to live, work, and connect freely and securely.

Read More

DATA SECURITY,ENTERPRISE SECURITY,SOFTWARE SECURITY

Arkose Labs™ Introduces Arkose Email Intelligence™

Arkose Labs | January 30, 2023

Arkose Labs™, one of the worldwide leaders in bot management and account security, announced the launch of Arkose Email Intelligence™. This new tool prevents bots and bad actors from using fraudulent or dangerous email addresses to target online services and apps. Legacy email intelligence systems are not optimized and are too costly to utilize in high-volume applications such as new account registration that are targets of bot-driven assaults. Arkose Email Intelligence combines email risk discovery with the industry-leading Arkose Protect, a bot detection and challenge platform, to create the first email intelligence solution. This solution prevents bots and bad actors from using fake, throw-away, and other high-risk email addresses to develop synthetic online accounts and launch volumetric account takeover (ATO) attacks. In the second half of 2022, the creation of bogus accounts increased by 81% compared to the first half. Additionally, 11% of all attack attempt sessions were ATOs in 2022 and were of the same severity. Extremely high market demand exists for an email intelligence service that is both highly effective and reasonably priced. Existing services are exorbitantly costly, often compelling CISOs and product teams to use email intelligence at restricted locations more profoundly in the user flow of an application, such as during the payment transaction. This trade-off leaves important occasions, such as the creation of a new account, exposed to assault and misuse by email addresses that are fake or high-risk. Arkose Email Intelligence is meant to provide robust abuse protection at a much lower cost than previous industry solutions. This allows businesses to afford email intelligence beyond standard transactions. In addition to combating automated and fraud farm attacks, Arkose Email Intelligence offers organizations over forty relevant data insights. These extensive data points and signals give a multidimensional perspective of the risk connected with the email address, allowing for additional threat assessment and decision-making. About Arkose Labs Arkose Labs is one of the industry leaders in bot management. Its novel method identifies genuine user intent and mitigates threats in real time. In addition, risk assessments and interactive authentication difficulties degrade the return on investment (ROI) behind attacks, ensuring long-term security and enhancing consumer throughput. The firm, headquartered in San Mateo, California, with operations in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia, San Jose, Costa Rica, and London, United Kingdom, placed 106th on the North American Deloitte Fast 500 list for 2022.

Read More

DATA SECURITY, PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY

Dremio and Privacera Announce Their Latest Integration

Dremio | February 01, 2023

On January 31, 2023, Dremio, the leading simple and open data lakehouse, and Privacera, the only open-standards-based data governance and security solution provider, announced their latest integration, which expands advanced data governance and security capabilities for customers building modern data applications on top of data lakehouses. As data lakehouses become more popular, it is becoming increasingly essential to manage and organize safe data access while also adhering to complicated regulatory regulations across all data assets. The new integration now allows Joint clients to expedite secure and governed analytics by decreasing manual processes while automating stringent compliance for contemporary data cooperation, which is especially important in highly regulated industries like financial services. The enhanced integration proffers joint clients with the following capabilities: Ensuring scalability and performance By pushing down policies written in Privacera into Dremio, the native integration allows quick query performance and scalability. Enhanced data security and governance capabilities The connector enables enterprises to implement attribute-based access control (ABAC), discovery for tagging and data classification, data encryption, row-level filtering and masking, canned reports and centralized auditing. Applying Consistent policy administration across Dremio and the majority of hybrid and multi-cloud data sources Customers can now establish and enforce data access policies and classifications once and then deploy them anywhere. About Dremio Founded in 2015, Dremio is a simple, open data lakehouse that offers self-service analytics, data warehouse capability, and data lake flexibility across all data. It boosts agility with a novel data-as-code approach that enables Git-style data experimentation, version control, and governance. In addition, it removes data silos by allowing searches across data lakes, databases, and data warehouses, as well as easing ingestion into the lakehouse. Dremio is employed by hundreds of enterprises, including three of the Fortune 500, to offer mission-critical BI on the data lake. The company is the inventor of Apache Arrow and is on a quest to redefine SQL for data lakes and meet clients where they are on their cloud journey. About Privacera Founded in 2016, Privacera is the first company to offer a SaaS-based data governance and security solution that unifies privacy and compliance across various cloud services such as Azure, AWS, Databricks, GCP, Starburst and Snowflake. It assists businesses in making efficient and responsible use of data by guiding them through their data journey. Privacera, founded by the creators of Apache Ranger™ and Apache Atlas™, is often referred to as "Apache Ranger in the Cloud." Fortune 500 customers in the insurance, finance, life sciences, media, retail, and consumer industries, as well as government agencies, use the Privacera platform to mask sensitive data, automate sensitive data discovery, and manage high-fidelity policies at petabyte scale on-premises and in the cloud.

Read More

DATA SECURITY, PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY

Lookout Announces Industry’s Only Endpoint to Cloud Security Platform

Lookout | January 31, 2023

Lookout, Inc., a business specializing in endpoint-to-cloud security, has announced enhanced capabilities and feature updates to its award-winning Lookout Cloud Security Platform, the only endpoint-to-cloud security solution available on the market. In addition to cloud, internet, and private applications, the cloud-native platform now includes a single policy architecture for administration and enforcement across all mobile devices. A single agent and a single control plane for mobile and cloud security services are also new platform upgrades, providing IT and security professionals with a cost-effective, streamlined administration experience. In addition, the Lookout Cloud Security Platform combines security service edge (SSE) with endpoint security to secure users and data regardless of location. It constantly monitors the risk posture of devices and users to provide dynamic and granular zero-trust access based on the sensitivity level of applications and data. As a result, it enables organizations to protect their workers, devices, applications, and data from unauthorized access and modern internet-based threats. In addition, the extended platform enables clients to make more educated choices about cloud security services using threat data from mobile endpoints. Lookout CEO, Jim Dolce, said, "Digital transformation and the significant adoption of the cloud have accelerated remote work and the use of mobile and unmanaged devices, which in turn exposes organizations to new security gaps that are ripe for exploitation from bad actors." He added, "Lookout's mission is to secure and empower the digital future where mobility and cloud are essential to all that we do for work and play; our endpoint to cloud security platform ensures that your data is protected – regardless of device, user or location." (Source – PR Newswire) The Award-Winning Lookout Platform The Lookout Cloud Security Platform integrates security services based on the company's unique technologies: Lookout Secure Private Access Lookout Secure Cloud Access Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security Lookout Secure Internet Access About Lookout, Inc. Lookout, Inc. is a cybersecurity firm that merges endpoint security with SASE technology to protect data while maintaining user privacy. Its single, cloud-native security platform protects data across devices, applications, networks, and clouds—a solution as fluid and adaptable as the current digital environment. Giving companies and people more control over their data empowers them to maximize its value and flourish. Lookout is trusted by organizations of all sizes, government agencies, and millions of individuals to safeguard sensitive data, allowing them to live, work, and connect freely and securely.

Read More

DATA SECURITY,ENTERPRISE SECURITY,SOFTWARE SECURITY

Arkose Labs™ Introduces Arkose Email Intelligence™

Arkose Labs | January 30, 2023

Arkose Labs™, one of the worldwide leaders in bot management and account security, announced the launch of Arkose Email Intelligence™. This new tool prevents bots and bad actors from using fraudulent or dangerous email addresses to target online services and apps. Legacy email intelligence systems are not optimized and are too costly to utilize in high-volume applications such as new account registration that are targets of bot-driven assaults. Arkose Email Intelligence combines email risk discovery with the industry-leading Arkose Protect, a bot detection and challenge platform, to create the first email intelligence solution. This solution prevents bots and bad actors from using fake, throw-away, and other high-risk email addresses to develop synthetic online accounts and launch volumetric account takeover (ATO) attacks. In the second half of 2022, the creation of bogus accounts increased by 81% compared to the first half. Additionally, 11% of all attack attempt sessions were ATOs in 2022 and were of the same severity. Extremely high market demand exists for an email intelligence service that is both highly effective and reasonably priced. Existing services are exorbitantly costly, often compelling CISOs and product teams to use email intelligence at restricted locations more profoundly in the user flow of an application, such as during the payment transaction. This trade-off leaves important occasions, such as the creation of a new account, exposed to assault and misuse by email addresses that are fake or high-risk. Arkose Email Intelligence is meant to provide robust abuse protection at a much lower cost than previous industry solutions. This allows businesses to afford email intelligence beyond standard transactions. In addition to combating automated and fraud farm attacks, Arkose Email Intelligence offers organizations over forty relevant data insights. These extensive data points and signals give a multidimensional perspective of the risk connected with the email address, allowing for additional threat assessment and decision-making. About Arkose Labs Arkose Labs is one of the industry leaders in bot management. Its novel method identifies genuine user intent and mitigates threats in real time. In addition, risk assessments and interactive authentication difficulties degrade the return on investment (ROI) behind attacks, ensuring long-term security and enhancing consumer throughput. The firm, headquartered in San Mateo, California, with operations in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia, San Jose, Costa Rica, and London, United Kingdom, placed 106th on the North American Deloitte Fast 500 list for 2022.

Read More

Events