Remote working has gained immense popularity over the years and has become a viable option for many businesses. It offers more flexibility, better productivity, and reduced overall costs. Because of this, company owners have migrated a variety of business processes and systems to the cloud. 

However, cloud migration poses several security threats to your business. Its mismanagement can lead to data leakage and open the door to data breaches. Below, we’ll delve into everything you should know about cloud security in 2022.

1. Increased Supply Chain Attacks

Expect more cyberattacks targeting supply chains in 2022. Cybercriminals will continue to target weak links and insert malicious codes into your software updates regardless of the security you’ve put up. You have to look out for these threats because they can breach your cloud and attack your sensitive data.

2. Inevitable Cloud Breaches

Almost all companies were forced to transfer a significant amount of data to the cloud at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly, most of these transitions aren’t as smooth as companies would like them to be. As a result, your company may encounter several security threats in the cloud and become a step closer to data breaches.

Since you should be expecting at least one cloud breach this year, invest in tools that can help you respond quickly to the problem. While cyberattacks and breaches continue to rise, the number of software and programs that can help to prevent cloud attacks is also increasing.

3. Better SaaS Security Support

In 2021, many companies had breaches in their SaaS platforms. But this year, you’ll see a rise in security tools and offerings that allow you to maintain your overall operations. One example is the SaaS Security Posture Management tool which lets you onboard, validate, monitor, and alert your cloud-based and SaaS vendors. Understanding that data breaches can start with privileged account abuse, gives all the more reason to incorporate PAM services as a critical component of your security program and a necessary requirement for obtaining cybersecurity insurance.

4. More Multi-Cloud Integration

The beloved multi-cloud strategy will remain as popular as ever this year. It will continue to be fundamental for many businesses looking to create robust architectures with the integration of several cloud service providers. You’ll also see it being integrated into edge computing, as well as the overall operations of factories, offices, and even private data centers. 

However, multi-cloud models pose security challenges such as inconsistent infrastructure security across providers and a larger attack surface. An effective multi-cloud security strategy is essential to overcome these challenges and protect your data. 

5. Full Adoption of Infrastructure-as-Code

With the popularity of autonomous cloud-based environments, most businesses will fully adopt infrastructure-as-code (IaC) in 2022. This new advancement helps reduce increasing concerns from the code to its production.

You can expect more cloud-based technology and third-party software that secures your code before it’s produced. There will also be an increasing demand for the pre-validation of configurations and architecture.

6. More “Zero Trust” Application

“Zero trust” is one of the most important concepts you should know when protecting your cloud infrastructure. To apply this to your business, you must limit and guard your data and resource access by using an uninterrupted security policy that’s consistent throughout your system.

The use of least privilege access also restricts entry to company data, something that’s critically important given the state of ransomware in 2022. If hackers don’t have unfettered access to all your company networks and data, they can’t take control of your systems easily. This alternative approach can enhance the protection and security of your cloud infrastructure. With these benefits, you can expect many companies to start applying the “Zero trust” concept to keep up with larger enterprises and help them manage threats better.

You can easily implement these strategies by managing your network policy, data access, resource configuration, and identity access permissions.

7. Enhanced Cloud Maturity

Companies that have been using the cloud for several years will have more advantages over those that are new to the cloud. These companies already have some knowledge of the ins and outs of their infrastructure. Because of this, they’re often more well-versed in how to manage its security aspect to protect their important data.

Companies that have reached higher levels of cloud maturity may also have fewer risks since they have implemented security procedures and regular check-ups. In addition to these practices, all companies using the cloud should establish security controls for identities, access, and resource and system configurations at every stage of their cloud migration.

8. Increased Significance of Machine Identities

Most companies and organizations have also improved their security on the human front. Users now have to go through multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) to prevent misuse and abuse of credentials. This approach has led to increased threats from cybercriminals who target machine and service identities. 

Cybercriminals have leveraged machine and service identities to access data and systems in cloud environments. Since the primary function of machine and service identities is to perform processes not included in cybersecurity, these breaches are prone to happen.

Instead, ensure that your machine and service identities won’t threaten your organization’s cybersecurity posture by implementing safeguards. For example, an accurate inventory of machine identities, keys, and certificates helps to increase visibility across your ecosystem for more effective machine identity management. Technologies such as automated digital certificate management can reduce human error and prevent downtime caused by expired certificates while simultaneously reducing the demand on your IT team. 

Conclusion

As remote and hybrid working is here to stay, cloud usage will only continue to grow in the following years. That means threats targeting cloud systems and the need for robust cloud security will also increase. Understanding the cloud security landscape and implementing essential cloud security practices will help to protect your systems and data in the cloud in 2022.