Ever since the emergence of cloud computing, it has changed the way we use the internet and our personal computers. Lots of enterprise totally rely on cloud computing to better facilitate their business and quite a lot of regular internet users depend on it for basic things such as music and more. With so much information stored in the unknown cloud, it’s only normal to wonder if cloud computing is safe at all. Although security measures are put in place by cloud storage providers, there could still be a huge security breach if a tiny detail is overlooked. Many organization deal with storing and retrieving huge and sensitive information and cloud computing reduces cost and saves time in this regard. From hack attacks to malware infection, information stored in the cloud may not be totally safe if proper care is not taken.
Some Common Cloud Computing Attacks
There are lots of way that information stored in the cloud can be compromised and as security tightens more and more, so are hackers getting smarter.
1. Denial of Service attack (DOS)
With so many users on the clous sharing the same service, a DOS attack can be a devastating one. When an attack flood a server with illegitimate requests incessantly, the server won’t be able to perform legitimate users requests and are locked out. Security experts suggest that reducing privileges of users connected to a server can help minimize the effect of a DOS attack.
2. Network Sniffing
When data sent and received isn’t encrypted and transferred securely, someone snooping around the network may intercept the flow of information.
3. Man-in-the-middle attack
This sounds very similar to network sniffing but a bit different. This occurs when an attacker places himself between two users’ communication path, intercepting and probably modifying communication. This may happen when SSL is not properly configured.
4. Cloud Malware Attack
This is a very serious security challenge with cloud computing and in most cases, it’s intended to damage or corrupt a service, application or virtual machine.This kind of attack doesn’t just damage stored information, it may also trigger hardware damage as malwares are generally rather destructive in nature.
5. Authentication Attack
Authentication can be a weak point in hosted and virtual services and more often, it’s can be exploited to an attackers advantage based on the authentication method.
There are many more security lapses than can be overlooked and this include browser security, XML signature wrapping, cross site scripting and more. You can secure your virtual machine with DeepSecurity from Trend micro There are certain security measures to be taken by cloud computing companies and employing cloud security experts may be the easiest way out.