Cloud computing: Powerful tool for cyberattacks?

MUMBAI, INDIA: As cyber warfare against enterprises grows more brutal by the year, cloud computing technology is also at risk for cyber attacks such as malware and phishing, which have increased the demand for technologies to combat these threats.

With the movement of critical business data to cloud-based solutions such as Google, Microsoft Office 365 and Confluence, cybercriminals are now focussing their attacks more on data stored in the cloud. Cloud storage tools like Dropbox have been subject to notable cyber threats, subsequently compromising the data stored on the cloud by users. The storage service can also be used as a tool by hackers to spread malware for the purposes of cyber attack and cyberespionage.

With this tactical shift, penetrating the data-rich cloud can be easier and more profitable than getting through the "castle walls" of an on-premise enterprise network. While attackers may still infiltrate enterprise networks to target users, steal information and compromise their systems, cloud-based attacks serve as an intermediate step to gain access to third-party cloud services instead of an internal data store.