Data Breaches in the Cloud: What Goes Wrong and How to Prevent It
Cloud computing has transformed how organizations store, process, and manage data. Its scalability, convenience, and cost-effectiveness have made it a critical component of modern business operations. But with great opportunity comes great risk. Cloud data breaches are rising pushing organizations to change their approach toward cloud data security.
Countless breach incidents have happened recently, but to get an idea of the disruption, here are two examples:
In June 2024, a significant breach occurred at a large cloud storage provider. This incident exposed sensitive business data stored by some of the provider’s high-profile clients. The breach was attributed to the lack of multi-factor authentication, allowing attackers to access vast amounts of data.
In April 2024, a telecommunications company discovered unauthorized access to customer data stored on a third-party cloud platform. This breach compromised call and text records of nearly all the company’s cellular customers, highlighting vulnerabilities in third-party cloud services.[source]
Data security in cloud computing often fails, primarily due to the shared responsibility model for cloud security, which can lead to data breaches. While cloud providers secure their infrastructure, customers are responsible for securing their applications, configurations, and data within the cloud environment.
Let's understand common missteps in this model that lead to data breaches and actionable steps organizations can take to gain full control of their data security.
What is the Cloud Shared Responsibility Model?
When you move data into the cloud, you partner with a cloud vendor such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. These cloud providers offer the infrastructure and services to support your operations.
However, they are bound to the shared responsibility model, which defines the division of security duties between the cloud provider and the customer as follows:
Cloud Vendor's Responsibilities
A cloud vendor is responsible for securing the cloud infrastructure that hosts your applications and data. This includes protecting the physical servers and datacentres that power the cloud and protecting them against theft, natural disasters, and unauthorized access.
Additionally, cloud vendors are responsible for maintaining the integrity of network hardware and software. This means they work to keep the underlying systems functional, reliable, and updated with the latest security patches, ensuring a strong foundation for your operations.
Your Responsibilities as the Customer
While cloud providers manage infrastructure-level security, protecting the data you store and process in the cloud lies with an organization. This includes encrypting data at rest, in transit, and in-use. The organization must also manage the key lifecycle.
They must also manage user identities and permissions. Also, the organizations are responsible to comply with data privacy and security standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, or CCPA.
While this distinction is clearly defined, many organizations mistakenly assume their cloud provider handles all aspects of security—leaving sensitive data unprotected.
Why Organizations Rely Solely on Cloud Providers
Businesses may fall into the trap of over-relying on their cloud vendor for several reasons:
- Lack of Awareness: Small and mid-sized businesses often misunderstand the shared responsibility model and assume their vendor secures everything.
- Convenience: Organizations may find it easier to rely entirely on the cloud vendor rather than managing resources by themselves for additional security.
- Vendor Reputation: Providers like AWS and Azure are known for robust security practices, leading businesses to believe these protections automatically extend to their data.
- Resource Constraints: Companies with limited budgets prioritize operational efficiency over security measures, trusting their vendor will fill gaps.
What Happens When No One Takes Accountability?
When organizations don’t take responsibility for securing their cloud environments, they open the door for attackers to exploit common weaknesses. Misconfigured settings, like overly permissive S3 buckets have led to major data breaches. Not using encryption is another big mistake. Unprotected data, whether stored or in transit, becomes a valuable target for hackers.
Overprivileged access and poor monitoring add even more risk. When organizations don’t limit permissions or enforce basic security rules, attackers can use stolen accounts from the cloud to access large amounts of data.
Breaches can go unnoticed without monitoring or alert systems until too late. Many assume their cloud vendor is handling these risks, but small mistakes turn into major security breaches when no one takes ownership.
Attackers exploit these vulnerabilities using a variety of techniques, such as:
- Exploiting compromised API keys to access cloud resources.
- Deploying malware or ransomware to exploit improper file configurations.
- Launching brute force attacks on poorly secured user accounts.
- Using social engineering to obtain credentials for cloud application access.
How Organizations Can Take Control of Cloud Data Security and Prevent Data Breaches
- Adopt a Zero Trust Security Model
- Invest in Strong Encryption Across All Data
- Centralize Key Management and Visibility
- Limit Data Exposure to Cloud Users
- Control of Shared Data Workloads
Related Read: How to Secure Data in Hybrid and Multicloud Architectures
How Fortanix Can Help
Fortanix Data Security Manager (DSM) provides encryption, key management, and access controls to protect sensitive data at rest, in motion, and in use.
Here are the capabilities of Fortanix DSM and how they help prevent data breaches structured into a clear table format for better readability:
| Security Solution | How It Helps | Prevents Breaches By |
|---|---|---|
| Fortanix Key Management Service (KMS) | A centralized and scalable key management solution that secures cryptographic keys used for encryption across environments. | Consolidating key management features such as automated key rotation, lifecycle management, and protection against unauthorized key access. |
| Fortanix Key Insight | Provides visibility into encryption key usage, access patterns, and risk exposure across an organization’s infrastructure. | Creating a real-time, comprehensive inventory of cryptographic assets and help assess and prioritize the remediation of encryption risks and policy gaps, enabling proactive responses to prevent data breaches. |
| Fortanix FIPS Level HSM | Fortanix’s FIPS 140-2/3 Level HSM provides hardware-based cryptographic services that comply with government-mandated security standards. | Offering tamper-resistant hardware for key management, encryption, and cryptographic operations, while meeting FIPS compliance to ensure regulatory adherence. |
| Fortanix Data Tokenization | Replaces sensitive information with unique tokens that are meaningless. | Minimizing exposure of raw sensitive data and ensuring that tokenized data is unusable to attackers. |
| Fortanix Zero Trust Security | Implements Zero Trust architecture to limit access and enforce strict authentication and authorization for every user, device, and request. | Reducing the attack surface and ensuring users and systems only access what is strictly necessary. |
Conclusion
With Fortanix DSM, you retain control over your data while leveraging the convenience and scalability of the cloud. No matter which cloud vendor you use, you control your data security every step of the way.
Start your cloud data security transformation today with Fortanix DSM. Schedule a free demo and see how we can safeguard your cloud data and your business.
