60% in SA victim to public cloud cybersecurity incidents

Issue 5 2020 Information Security

According to The State of Cloud Security 2020[1], a global survey from Sophos, six in ten (60%) organisations from South Africa experienced a public cloud security incident in the last year – including ransomware (25%), other malware (28%), exposed data (28%), compromised accounts (27%), and cryptojacking (26%). Globally, organisations running multi-cloud environments are greater than 50% more likely to suffer a cloud security incident than those running a single cloud.

Europeans suffered the lowest percentage of security incidents in the cloud, an indicator that compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines are helping to protect organisations from being compromised. India, on the other hand, fared the worst, with 93% of organisations being hit by an attack in the last year.

“Ransomware, not surprisingly, is one of the most widely reported cybercrimes in the public cloud. The most successful ransomware attacks include data in the public cloud, according to the State of Ransomware 2020 report, and attackers are shifting their methods to target cloud environments that cripple necessary infrastructure and increase the likelihood of payment,” said Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist, Sophos. “The recent increase in remote working provides extra motivation to disable cloud infrastructure that is being relied on more than ever, so it’s worrisome that many organisations still don’t understand their responsibility in securing cloud data and workloads. Cloud security is a shared responsibility, and organisations need to carefully manage and monitor cloud environments in order to stay one step ahead of determined attackers.”

The unintentional open door: how attackers break in

Accidental exposure continues to plague organisations, with misconfigurations exploited in 39% of reported attacks in South Africa. Detailed in the SophosLabs 2020 Threat Report[2], misconfigurations drive the majority of incidents and are all too common given cloud management complexities.

Additionally, 59% of South African organisations report that cybercriminals gained access through stolen cloud provider account credentials. Despite this, only more than a quarter (28%) of organisations say managing access to cloud accounts is a top area of concern. Data from Sophos Cloud Optix, a cloud security posture management tool, further reveals that globally 91% of accounts have over-privileged identity and access management roles, and 98% have multi-factor authentication disabled on their cloud provider accounts.

The silver lining

Nearly all respondents (89%) from South Africa admit to concern about their current level of cloud security, an encouraging sign that it’s top of mind and important. Appropriately, “Identifying sudden increase in cloud spends” tops the list of security concerns for more than three in ten (31%) of the organisations followed by “ identifying and responding to security incidents” and “convincing senior management to invest in cloud security” (30% and 30% respectively).

[1] The full report, along with a detailed list of cloud security recommendations, is available at https://secure2.sophos.com/en-us/content/state-of-cloud-security.aspx.

[2] https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/pdfs/technical-papers/sophoslabs-uncut-2020-threat-report.pdf




Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page



Further reading:

Highest increase in global cyberattacks in two years
Information Security News & Events
Check Point Global Research released new data on Q2 2024 cyber-attack trends, noting a 30% global increase in Q2 2024, with Africa experiencing the highest average weekly per organisation.

Read more...
Continuous security optimisation.
News & Events Information Security
Cymulate has announced its partnership with SentinelOne, a threat exposure validation and AI-powered cybersecurity platform. The collaboration delivers self-healing endpoint security that empowers businesses to increase protection for every endpoint on their network.

Read more...
Protect your smart home devices
Kaspersky IoT & Automation Information Security Smart Home Automation
Voice assistants, kitchen robots, smart lights and many other intelligent devices have become part of our everyday life. However, with the rise of smart technology comes the need for robust protection against potential vulnerabilities.

Read more...
ISPA’s take-down process protects from local scams
News & Events Information Security
During the recent school holidays, parents could rest a little easier knowing that ISPA, SA’s official internet industry representative body, is removing an average of three to four problematic websites from the local internet every week.

Read more...
NEC XON disrupts sophisticated cyberattack
Information Security
NEC XON recently showcased its advanced cyberthreat detection and response capabilities by successfully thwarting a human-operated ransomware attack targeting a major service provider.

Read more...
What’s your cyber game plan?
Information Security
“Medium-sized businesses are often the easiest target for cyber criminals, because they are just digital enough to be vulnerable, but not mature enough to be fully protected," says Warren Bonheim, MD of Zinia.

Read more...
Upgrade your PCs to improve security
Information Security Infrastructure
Truly secure technology today must be designed to detect and address unusual activity as it happens, wherever it happens, right down to the BIOS and silicon levels.

Read more...
Open source code can also be open risk
Information Security Infrastructure
Software development has changed significantly over the years, and today, open-source code increasingly forms the foundation of modern applications, with surveys indicating that 60 – 90% of the average application's code base consists of open-source components.

Read more...
DeepSneak deception
Information Security News & Events
Kaspersky Global Research & Analysis researchers have discovered a new malicious campaign which is distributing a Trojan through a fake DeepSeek-R1 Large Language Model (LLM) app for PCs.

Read more...
SA’s strained, loadshedding-prone grid faces cyberthreats
Power Management Information Security
South Africa’s energy sector, already battered by decades of underinvestment and loadshedding, faces another escalating crisis; a wave of cyberthreats that could turn disruptions into catastrophic failures. Attacks are already happening internationally.

Read more...










While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.




© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd. | All Rights Reserved.