Why Ransomware is a Serious Threat to Cloud Security By Janifha Evangeline

Why Ransomware is a Serious Threat to Cloud Security

Janifha Evangeline | Friday, 10 March 2023, 05:41 IST

Ransomware that encrypts a mission critical file of any business &keeps the business hostage until a huge amount is paid for getting the access back is one of the most dangerous forms of malware. While the average cost of a ransomware attack on any business is a USD 133000, it has significant consequences that would lead to huge losses& hence firms shouldbe doing everything in their power for protecting their systems from such an attack.

“As data moves to the cloud, ransomware follows,” says Sergio Loureiro, cloud security product director at Swedish security company Outpost24. “Potentially attackers can find much more data, therefore getting to the cloud data is the holy grail for attackers,” he adds.

There are multiple factors why ransomware protection is important for the cloud.

Compromise data stored in cloud services

Ransomware attacks have not only terrorised businesses but governments as well. As firmsstore more a huge amount of data into the cloud, criminals are showing their attention to ransomcloud attacks, that look to compromise data that is stored in cloud services. These come in different types. Every form of it demands various precautions & as long as the ongoing ransomware continues, experts say that the sophistication of ransomware attacks that are targeting the cloud will continue to evolve.

3 types of ransomware attack on the cloud were found by ProSource. The 1^st& most common kind is the ransomware that initially compromises the local device of victim & then spreads it to the cloud when their data syncs with a cloud storage service.

“If an organisation uses cloud services for data storage or back-ups and... if the data is synced to the cloud storage, the files are just as susceptible to encryption as if they did not use the cloud at all,” explains Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at Knowb4.

ProSource recommends end-point security best practices for safeguarding against this type of attacks & it includes anti-virus & regular patching.

Inaccessible, incomplete & insecure data will lead to higher recovery challenges

Ransomware protection for cloud storage is highly crucial in order to keep files intact, more accessible & safer as well. But unfortunately, these attacks & attacker strategies are growing to become highly intelligent &insidious.They tap into high-value, cloud-based enterprise data lakes.

For most firms, integral, accessible as well as secure data is one of the basics to business continuity. However inaccessible, incomplete as well as insecure data can lead to higher recovery challenges like: Vital customer information is unavailable, data required for operations is either gone or inaccurate & lastly important electronic transactions are unable to be completed.

Building a mature & resilient cybersecurity posture

Protecting against ransomware attacks is highly imperative for all firms &establishing the best practices & answering the aforementioned questions are only the beginning of building a mature & resilient cybersecurity posture.

It is important to focus on a single line of defence while your cybersecurity program has to enable you indetecting, identifying, responding to, recover from & prevent several types of attacks. Hence you require a wide variety of solutions from a highly resilient & battle-tested platform which works with your businesses in an integrated manner across numerous elements.

Why Ransomware is a Serious Threat to Cloud Security

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