Cloud security incidents spiked 188 percent at the onset of the pandemic. The increase in incidents was particularly high in key sectors such as retail, manufacturing, and government.
Enterprises have moved to the cloud at an accelerated pace over the past few months to address the challenges arising from the coronavirus pandemic, primarily in the face of the need to maintain business despite the restrictions.
But this is having security implications. According to research from Unit 42, the cloud threat intelligence team at Palo Alto Networks, cloud security incidents increased by 188% between April and June 2020.
Unit 42 analyzed data from before and after the health crisis, spanning from October 2019 through last February of this year’s 2021.
The increase in incidents is explained by the accelerated transfer of workloads to the cloud and telecommuting operations. The thing is, after this migration, companies have struggled to automate cloud security and mitigate risks.
Critical industries that are vital in the COVID-19 era have been in the crosshairs. Incidents in the retail, manufacturing, and government sectors grew, respectively, by 402, 230, and 205 percent.
Unit 42 explains, “Industries that play a crucial role in the fight against the pandemic are themselves struggling to secure their cloud operations, as they are aware of the danger and therefore the importance of investing in cloud security.”
It should also be noted that 3 out of 10 organizations expose some sensitive content on the Internet, such as personally identifiable information, intellectual property, financial data, or medical data.
