How to Create a Modern Cloud Computing Security Strategy

The first step to building an effective cloud computing security strategy is to understand potential threats. Here are several common threats to be aware of:

• Account hijacking -Whether an employee gives up their password in a phishing scam, or more sophisticated hackers force their own way in, account hijacking is a concern for businesses of all sizes.
  By posing as legitimate employees and using their account access, cybercriminals can infiltrate all levels of the operation, obtaining proprietary information and even corrupting or falsifying records.
  
  
• Data breaches – Data breaches are of concern for all companies, but particularly for those that handle sensitive third party data, like customer information.
  A data breach can be a public relations nightmare, with CEOs and CIOs forced to make statements admitting to the breach and the scale of the data that was disclosed. And even if the data lost was only internal business information, recovering from a lost competitive advantage can be very costly.
  
  
• Malware injections – Malware injections allow for ongoing infiltration, so that hackers are able to access company information for as long as the malware goes undetected. Records can be viewed, deleted or falsified, and confidential information and conversations made available to anyone who has access to your systems through the malware.
  
  
• Insider threats – Cloud services make remote access easy. This is both one of the major benefits of this kind of data management and also one of the risks.
  Without a proper cloud security strategy, the cloud may be accessible to a number of unexpected parties like former employees and contractors, not to mention anyone who has access to cloud-linked devices, whether due to malicious intent or negligence, to use and abuse as they see fit.
  
  
• Abuse of cloud services – The advantage of adopting cloud services for your business is you can maintain vast quantities of digital data, without the need for physical space from onsite servers. The problem though, is that if cybercriminals gain access to your cloud, they can take advantage of that same resource to host their own malware and spread it to other unsuspecting organizations.