In 1981, Captain Zap or Ian Murphy was convicted of the first cybercrime after he hacked into the AT&T network. Captain Zap hacked into their computers and changed the peak hour call rates to off-hour call rates and was given 1000 hours of community service as punishment.
Since then, cybercrime has evolved for the worse. As the usage of the internet grows, so does cybercrime. Although companies are getting smarter and are adopting sophisticated cyber forensics, sadly so are the cybercriminals.
Every year, cybercriminals develop new methods of hacking the security of companies and individuals. Therefore, it is no surprise that cybersecurity remains one of the main concerns since the creation of the internet.
Most of the shopping and purchasing trends have also shifted online as compared to in-person shopping. People are now trusting the internet with sensitive information such as their addresses, credit card details, and other personal information. Moreover, business data is all online and on the cloud.
Whether you are a digital marketing agency or a software development company, all your data is available on the cloud. These trends are making it a challenge for cybersecurity services to ensure the security of information from malicious activities.
According to research by Enterprise Strategy Group, 28% of companies are now collecting more data for security than they were 2 years ago. This indicates that with the passage of time organizations are keener to look for improved solutions to cybersecurity.
Stats and Figures
Cloud computing has become fairly common, and more and more organizations are now relying on cloud systems. Following are a few stats about cloud usage by organizations for you to have a better understanding. Let’s have a look at a few stats:
- The global public cloud computing market went $330 billion in 2020.
- Providing data access from anywhere is the top reason for cloud adoption.
- The average yearly cloud budget of organizations was $2.2 million in 2018.
- One-third of companies’ IT budget goes to cloud services.
- Hybrid cloud adoption is estimated to be at 58%.
Cloud Computing and Cybersecurity
Cloud computing has revolutionized web-delivery technologies in the past few years. However, the major downside of cloud computing is cybersecurity threats. With millions of GBs of information present online, it has become a huge issue to ensure cybersecurity.
Let’s have a look at a few threats of cloud computing with cybersecurity:
1. Lack of Transparency
Cloud storage mostly involves a third party which is why transparency becomes a challenge. You must know the model that the third party is using and whether the data present is publicly accessed or is privately secured.
Moreover, concerns like if there are enough barriers between the data holdings of multiple customers. To ensure transparency uptime has to be hashed out at a service level. This is why it is essential to go for trusted and reliable services. Alternatively, you can also look for in-house cloud storage but the threat of cyberattacks is still there.
2. The Cybersecurity Threats are Growing
As more and more businesses are opting for establishing online systems for their operations, the potential risk of cyber-attacks is increasing every day. Cyber attackers are now learning to hack and attack cloud-based systems considering most businesses are now relying on cloud systems.
These attacks are likely to grow with time as people rely more on cloud systems. Companies are now more aware of the threats of cybersecurity and are actively investing in protection measures. While people work from home, they are now using VPN networks and other cybersecurity software which are helping organizations to protect their data from any harm.
3. Vulnerable APIs
API is the application programming interface is a set of code that helps transmission between two products of software. API works as a connecting node in modern architecture, but an insecure API can result in several issues for cybersecurity.
Insecure APIs can create a big issue for programmers, and it is a challenge to protect them from attackers. The communication between service and server, or services and the browser must be protected as no one wants their details to go public.
4. New Topographies and the Internet of Things
Internet of things (IoT) technology is becoming mainstream, and people are now getting comfortable with smart devices. These devices are interconnected and monitor human behavior to give suggestions. For example, through home assistants, you can now control the lights and air conditioning of your house.
Although beneficial, IoT has its own potential threats to cybersecurity. The data that is being collected and the process can be vulnerable, and it makes it even easier for cyber attackers to get information from the cloud considering the widespread use of IoT.
5. Always Connected to the Web
As time passes, everything is moving virtually which means there is a lot of data that is present on the internet. Cloud services are always connected to the web which makes them vulnerable to cyberattacks and potential threats. The more we depend on the internet the more we are exposed to threats of malicious activities. Considering cloud technology, which is entirely dependent on the internet, it becomes difficult to protect it.
It would have been a challenge for hackers to attack if the cloud wasn’t connected to the global internet. However, since cloud services are delivered over the Internet, it becomes easy for attackers to hack systems.
Attacks such as DDoS or Man-in-the-Middle attacks and similar server attacks can all utilize cloud connectivity.
Moving Forward
With the advancements of technology every day, it is now impossible to avoid the internet. The facilities that we are now experiencing due to the internet are unmatched.
However, the more we depend on the internet for our operations, the more vulnerable we get to attacks and cybercrimes. Research shows that 68% of business executives worldwide feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing.
This increased threat of cyberattacks is an indication that we must take extra precautions and consider strong cybersecurity tools to protect our data. Advanced systems require advanced security of data hence organizations must consider this aspect and work towards more secure systems.
Author Bio:
Shoaib provides ghostwriting and copywriting services. His educational background in the technical field and business studies helps him in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. He occasionally writes articles for Dynamologic Solutions.