As businesses continue to move workloads and data to the cloud, the cloud security network is an area they can’t afford to compromise. Despite the security tools and encryption most cloud providers offer, securing the network is still the responsibility of the organization.
The reality is though, most organizations often only have basic security solutions and leave the cloud security network not as protected as it should be. Unsurprisingly, this leads to an increase in cyberattacks as well, especially with more employees now working remotely and accessing most data and workloads on secured connections.
According to McAfee Enterprises’ Advanced Threat Research Report: October 2021, financial services were targeted most among reported cloud incidents, followed by healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and professional services.
The report examined cybercriminal activity related to ransomware and cloud threats in the second quarter of 2021. Financial services were targeted in 50% of the top 10 cloud incidents, including incidents in the United States, Singapore, China, France, Canada, and Australia.
The report also showed that 73% of ransomware detections in Q2 2021 were related to the REvil/Sodinokibi family while DarkSide Q2 ransomware attacks extended beyond the oil, gas, and chemical sector to legal services, wholesale, and manufacturing.
“Ransomware has evolved far beyond its origins, and cybercriminals have become smarter and quicker to pivot their tactics alongside a whole host of new bad-actor schemes,” said Raj Samani, McAfee Enterprise fellow, and chief scientist.
“Names such as REvil, Ryuk, Babuk, and DarkSide have permeated into public consciousness, linked to disruptions of critical services worldwide. And with good measure, since the cybercriminals behind these groups, as well as others, have been successful at extorting millions of dollars for their personal gain.”
Remote working continues to increase cloud threats
As Singapore moves back to remote working due to the pandemic, one of the concerns that arise from this is the increase in cloud threats. The report showed that in the second quarter of 2021, there were challenges of shifting cloud security to accommodate a more flexible pandemic workforce and an increased workload, which presented cybercriminals with more potential exploits and targets.
For Jonathan Tan, Managing Director of Asia at McAfee Enterprise, businesses need to ensure they are setting up the right cybersecurity infrastructure to stay resilient against the ever-growing number of supply chain risks and backchannel threats targeting a scattered workforce.
“Adopting a zero-trust approach and educating employees on common cyber threats are critical as cloud technology becomes more and more commonly used,” said Jonathan.
Hence, the cloud security network among businesses needs to be taken more seriously. As more financial services rely on the cloud today, they need to ensure their workloads and apps are well protected on the cloud. More importantly, they need to have visibility on who exactly is accessing the services, which is why a zero-trust approach works best in the industry today.
But the financial services are not the only ones under constant threats. Ransomware continues to target government, telecom, and energy sectors through malware and spam techniques.
Globally, McAfee Enterprise also tracked a 64% increase in publicly reported cyber incidents targeting the public sector during the second quarter of 2021, followed by the entertainment sector with a 60% increase.
