Amid digital transformation and the beginning of a new digital age, cloud computing has become a quintessential technology for organizations within all industries across the globe. The cloud’s flexibility allows it to pair seamlessly with the variety of innovative devices and applications, letting it to grow to new peaks, with over 60 percent of the world’s corporate data currently stored in the cloud. However, many enterprises are shifting their focus towards the enhancements of their cloud cyber security, as the technology has become a popular target for modern-day cybercriminals.
The CrowdStrike 2022 Global Threat Report predicted that cloud exploitation would increase this year as more businesses moved operations to cloud environments and more adversaries became “cloud-conscious.” The term refers to threat actors becoming aware of the ability to compromise cloud workloads and using this knowledge to abuse features unique to the cloud for their own purposes.
Over the course of 2022, cloud exploitation increased as expected: “Observed cloud exploitation cases grew by 95 percent, and cases involving cloud-conscious actors nearly tripled from 2021,” according to CrowdStrike. “This growth indicates a larger trend of eCrime and nation-state actors adopting knowledge and tradecraft to increasingly exploit cloud environments.”
This is where businesses are finding that MSPs can play an essential role in thwarting would-be cyber attacks. According to one survey, 78 percent of enterprises said they have reassessed their cyber security strategies since the pandemic, suggesting they are open to guidance from MSPs on this important topic. However, this has created a new priority among MSPs to offer better cyber security solutions, which is easier said than done.
As of today, more than 80 percent MSPs have lost customers because of a lack of security offering. This has prompted MSPs to search far and wide for any application or solution that can improve their cyber security offerings, for their own benefit, and the benefit of their customers.
Recently, Kalibr8 introduced a major new service embedded into its cloud Optimizer Loop, which automatically detects anomalies associated with potential and often subtle attacks on their infrastructure, giving MSPs a new line of defense.
K8 Notifer can create a suite of alerts for MSP to detect suspicious activity in the configuration and patterns of their and their customers cloud services, sudden increases in resource sizes, spikes in usage or unusual increases in monthly forecast cloud costs.
“When businesses consider cloud computing, one of the major advantages cited is more robust security,” said Ben McGahon, Founder and CEO. “In fact, many MSPs have chosen to migrate to the cloud specifically for its security benefits and, today, those MSPs are accountable for not only securing their own infrastructure – they need to make sure all the cloud-based services they manage for multiple end customers are always available and locked down. K8 Notifier is a powerful tool for MSPs, addressing risk management to avoid unintended consequences that could lead to financial and reputational damage.”
According to a report by the Cloud Security Alliance, the following are the top 12 threats to cloud computing:
- Data breaches
- Lack of proper cloud security architecture, strategy
- Insecure interfaces and APIs
- System vulnerabilities
- Account hijacking
- Malicious insiders
- Advanced persistent threats
- Data loss
- Insufficient due diligence
- Abuse and nefarious use of cloud services
- Denial of service
- Shared technology
K8 Notifier uses dynamic collection of real-time data for every cloud instance, across multiple clouds, automatically analyzing that data to detect patterns and anomalies that can signal a breach of VMs, requiring immediate attention and triggering a full investigation that can lead to stopping any number of attacks, including crypto-jacking, data breaches, denial of service, insider threats, account hijacking, theft of computing resources, ransomware attacks and more.
“K8 Notifier is a great tool for MSPs in both its sophistication and simplicity,” McGahon said. “We are working with cyber security partners to continually explore and co-develop faster and more accurate ways to sense nefarious activity, so it can be remediated using the tools MSPs already have in place or are adding as threats to cloud infrastructure, and the data storage, applications and mission critical services continues to grow given the expanding attack surface massive cyber criminal rings are taking advantage of every day.”
The CloudStrike 2023 Global Threat Report says. “Security must parallel the slope of technology innovation. As technology matures, security must mature and match the innovation of the technology running our organizations. The same thing can be said for the adversary. With every innovation we achieve, we can expect the adversary to actively seek ways to exploit it. From the cloud to Kubernetes, from AI to applications and more, as technology gets more complex and provides tremendous operational gains, security must evolve to protect the productivity we gain.”
“It is incumbent that the cloud computing community, including the MSPs who rely on cloud to keep their own business and their customers’ businesses up and running, work together to find new ways to identify and address potential and very real attacks,” McGahon said, echoing the report’s sentiment. “With collaboration, software integration, APIs, and systemic improvements, we can fight back and crush criminals and protect the valuable assets and valuable businesses with greater, collective expertise.”
The company will be demonstrating K8 Notifier as part of its road show in the U.S.A. this month.
Edited by
Erik Linask
