Top 6 Cloud Security Mistakes You Need To Avoid

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Written by Ellie Coverdale, Cloud Security Expert

The world is full of data breaches and many conversations are focused on security, especially in the cloud. People assume that these mistakes and breaches happen because some highly skilled, super intelligent programmers found some really tiny, barely-there vulnerabilities and that they exploited it. So, people are usually reserved when it comes to cloud and its security.

However, most cloud security issues are not as big and they can usually be related to common human error or some misconfiguration. The public cloud is generally secure. There are vendors like Amazon, Google and Microsoft which have so many security experts that support their platforms. Leaders need to understand that their security is in their hands and that they should take ownership of that.

So, here are some of the most common security mistakes related to cloud that you can fix:

Digital transformation and security challenges

As companies go after digital transformation and adoption of new technologies and processes, many security issues rise.

It has a huge business impact and the rapid adoption of new technologies has created a lot of space for attacks and mistakes as well as entryways into the company’s network. This is especially true for IoT and multi-cloud environment.

Companies have to deal with these security issues in these most important areas:

  • Polymorphic attacks – These attacks can change and adapt which means that they can avoid detection easily. This style of attack is becoming more and more common and it’s a challenge for all companies.
  • DevOps – Teams and processes have allowed the companies to keep up with delivery and integration pipeline which is expected today. The faster the development and release, the easier it is for the vulnerabilities to pass through and go undetected.
  • Lack of visibility – This is a challenge that appeared as a result of siloed multi-vendor point which means that to secure complex and distributed environment spanning remote branchesthere needs to be a cohesive visibility.

Digital transformation has created a focus on privacy, protections and compliance.

Indefinite hybrid mode for your cloud

Most cloud migrations happen when a hybrid network where the cloud has a connection with the corporate network to make this transition easier. It’s often unavoidable but you shouldn’t leave it at that. Hybrid networks give your attackers an open space to your cloud environment. If you don’t isolate these vulnerable points, you will open room for any attacker that wants to breach into your network. Your cloud security shouldn’t depend on someone in your company recognising a phishing attack or something similar.

Unsecured servers and data

One of the most important things is the ease of adoption of the keys of your cloud services. “This can be easy to adopt and employees will often move on to new cloud services because they are so easy to work with. They will store data on unsecured servers which haven’t been vetted by a professional team within your company,”says Elisabeth Browns, a technical writer at Academized and Paper fellows.

No access control

Creating separate admin accounts based on roles is the first step to securing your cloud but you should also employ the multifactor authentication for admin accounts because this is simply the best practice. This adds a second layer of security and it makes your cloud a lot safer. The multifactor authentication can be anything for a text message, hardware key fob and so on. Every major platform supports this and you should definitely use it for your own cloud.

No encryption standards

Companies use encryption protocols which are not secure and then attackers can easily discover their sensitive information. “You need to make sure that the cloud providers support TLS based encryption and that they are using secure ciphers. Block the use of nonsecure ciphers and use modern technology as using outdated technology can be as risky as not having any encryption at all” says Cam Bellotti, a tech blogger at State of writing and Australian help.

No patches

There are many cloud infrastructures with no patching process, especially no automated patch process. A lot of administrators think that because their areas get security updates on bootup that they don’t have to worry about updating after that. But this can stretch for months or years which means more risk. This is why you need to update frequently and have new patches.


Ellie Coverdale, a cloud security expert at Essay roo and Finance essay writing service, writes articles to help businesses get started with cloud. She also works on business projects on the side and she also can be found teaching at Boom Essays service.


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