- What it is: Security incidents involving unauthorized access to, or the leakage of, sensitive data or resources hosted within cloud computing environments. This can affect various cloud service models, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), 1 and can result in the compromise of customer data, intellectual property, or critical infrastructure managed by cloud providers or their tenants.
How it works: Cloud security breaches can occur due to a multitude of factors, including misconfigurations of cloud services (e.g., overly permissive access controls on storage buckets), vulnerabilities in the cloud platform itself, compromised credentials (often through phishing or weak password practices), insider threats, and inadequate security practices by cloud users (e.g., lack of encryption, insufficient monitoring). Attackers may exploit these weaknesses to gain unauthorized access, exfiltrate data, deploy malware, or disrupt services. The shared responsibility model in cloud security means that both the cloud provider and the customer have specific security obligations, and failures on either side can lead to breaches.
Example with key data: In 2019, a significant data breach exposed over 100 million records belonging to Capital One customers that were stored on an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket. The breach was attributed to a misconfigured firewall on a web application, which allowed an external attacker to gain access to the underlying AWS account and subsequently the unsecured S3 bucket. The exposed data included sensitive information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and bank account details. This incident highlighted the critical importance of proper configuration and management of cloud security controls, as well as the potential for massive data exposure when cloud storage is not adequately secured.
