● Limited Visibility Into Network Operations : Cloud computing relies on networks and servers that can be physically located anywhere in the world. This means that there is no one location where you can easily see what is happening with your data or applications. If a breach occurs, it may be difficult to identify which servers were affected or where they were located.
● Malware : Malware is a type of malicious software that performs undesirable actions on computers or networks without the owner’s consent or knowledge. Cloud computing makes it easier for malware to spread quickly on a global scale because it involves accessing many different computers at once, which increases the likelihood that some of those computers will have vulnerabilities that allow malware to gain access to them.
● Compliance : Compliance issues are another concern with cloud computing because there are fewer controls over how data is stored and accessed. For example, if an employee leaves their job and takes sensitive company documents with them, they could potentially leak those documents to competitors or even use them against the company in court proceedings down the road if they had been involved in any wrongdoing while employed by the said company (such as fraud).
● Data loss : The cloud is not immune to data loss, especially when it comes to the security of your data. Any time you move data to the cloud, it’s at risk of being lost. This can happen because of natural disasters (like floods or earthquakes), human error (like accidentally deleting files), or malicious intent by hackers. If any of these scenarios occur, there’s a chance that you could lose access to all of your data in the cloud, which could be catastrophic for businesses and individuals alike.
● Inadequate due diligence : Due diligence is the process of researching a company or product before making an investment. In the context of cloud computing, it refers to companies’ responsibility to ensure the security of their data before using a cloud provider. If a company doesn’t do its due diligence and neglects to investigate potential risks associated with a cloud provider, then it may be held responsible for any breaches or hacks that occur because of those risks.
● Cyber Criminals : Cybercriminals are always looking for new ways to steal money or personal information from unsuspecting people, and cloud computing makes it easier than ever for them to do so. Cloud computing is known as “the wild west” among cybercriminals because there are so many vulnerabilities in current implementations of cloud systems that can be exploited by hackers. This means that even if you’re careful about selecting a reputable provider, there’s still a chance your data will be compromised if your provider isn’t doing enough to protect their servers from attack.
● Vendor lock-in : You are often locked into a vendor in the cloud for various reasons. You may have chosen a cloud provider that only offers one specific cloud platform. Or maybe you’ve decided to use multiple vendors but not across all of your services. In either case, it’s important to understand how your organization is affected by this type of lock-in before deciding whether or not it’s an issue.
● Increased complexity strains IT staff : The cloud makes it easy to set up and manage new services, but that also means there are more places for things to go wrong. If you don’t have enough experienced IT staff on hand, you could feel overwhelmed by all the different components of cloud computing—and that can lead to serious problems down the road.
● Spectre & Meltdown : These two vulnerabilities affect nearly all computers and mobile devices, including those powered by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. If exploited by hackers, these vulnerabilities could allow them access to data stored in servers belonging to companies that rely on cloud computing services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure.
● Denial of Service (DoS) attacks : A Denial of Service attack is a type of cyberattack that can be used to disrupt the service of a website or other online service by flooding it with requests in order to overload its servers and make it unavailable to legitimate users. While they can be effectively mitigated using modern cyber security technology, they are still one of the most common types of attacks on cloud-based systems.
● Account hijacking : Account hijacking is also one of the most common types of attacks on cloud-based systems, and it happens when an unauthorized user gains access to your account credentials or other sensitive information like passwords. This can happen either because you forgot what you set as your password or someone has stolen it from another site where you shared the same credentials with them. It’s important that you always change your passwords regularly and use different ones for each site so as not to become vulnerable to these types of attacks.
● Insecure APIs : An application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications on top of an operating system (OS). It allows developers to add functionality to their applications without having to write custom code for each platform directly from scratch. A vulnerable API could allow attackers access to your organization’s data without having physical access to your servers or computers themselves; this is called remote code execution (RCE).