What are the security risks of cloud computing?

We open with a clear distinction: a risk is a potential loss, a threat is the actor that exploits it, and a challenge is the implementation hurdle that keeps controls from working.

Modern cloud expands the unmanaged attack surface as microservices and workloads proliferate. Human error is pervasive; through 2025, 99% of cloud failures are projected to stem from operator mistakes.

We outline common problems leaders face: limited visibility, misconfiguration, human error, and data exposure across multi-tenant environments. These issues raise the chance that one weakness will harm assets, systems, and customers.

Our approach is practical. We stress continuous management: ongoing assessments, control validation, and documented risk acceptance. We also preview shared responsibility so organizations know which controls remain with their teams and which the provider manages.

• Distinguish risk, threat, and challenge to target controls correctly.
• Human error drives most failures—focus on training and automation.
• Limited visibility and misconfiguration are top hazards for data exposure.
• Security is continuous: assess, validate, document, and accept residual risk.
• Shared responsibility must be operationalized between provider and organization.

Cloud adoption has shifted a large share of incidents into provider environments, changing how teams must defend assets. About 45% of reported incidents now originate in those platforms. The average breach cost rose to $4.88 million in 2024, so consequences are material for business and reputation.

Elastic scaling and microservices multiply publicly exposed workloads. Ephemeral instances spin up fast and vanish fast. Without matched visibility and management, each instance becomes a potential entry point for threats and attacks.

Providers secure physical infrastructure and base services. We must secure configurations, access, data, and applications.

• Urgency: Rising incident share and breach cost demand faster program maturity.
• Visibility: Decentralized teams create blind spots that weaken audit and response.
• Controls: Embed checks in provisioning and CI/CD to curb drift as environments scale.

Different cloud models shift control lines between provider teams and your security staff. We map those boundaries so teams know what to harden, monitor, and document.

IaaS gives virtual servers, storage, and networking; your organization controls OS, middleware, and applications.

PaaS abstracts infrastructure and provides runtime and middleware; you secure configs, code, and data access.

SaaS delivers full applications with provider-managed updates; you retain responsibility for identity, data, and integration controls.

• Providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) secure physical datacenters, networks, and the virtualization layer and hold certifications like SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI‑DSS.
• Organizations must enforce IAM (least privilege, RBAC, MFA), protect keys and data, and prevent misconfigured access or open management ports.
• We recommend policy‑as‑code, guardrails, and a mix of native and third‑party tools for continuous telemetry and configuration checks.

Rapid service sprawl creates hidden entry points that attackers can exploit across accounts and regions. We see limited visibility, misconfiguration, and human error combine to expose sensitive assets and data. Below we break down common failures and practical impacts for teams to prioritize.

Decentralized teams often provision services without central oversight. That spawns shadow accounts and unmanaged workloads that hide active threats and stale credentials.

Public buckets, permissive security groups, and open management endpoints are recurring patterns. Defaults differ by provider, so cross‑account controls matter.

Over‑privileged roles, static keys, and missing MFA raise the odds of account compromise. We emphasize least‑privilege and secrets hygiene.

Exposed storage or weak runtime controls can leak PII, PHI, and IP. Insecure APIs (weak auth, stale tokens) and phishing-driven hijacks increase damage and recovery time.

We recommend a layered approach: improve visibility, enforce IAM best practices, and treat backups as mandatory. For a concise security risks overview that complements this summary, consult the linked resource.

Rapid adoption and fragmented ownership let unmanaged instances and services slip outside central controls. This split between teams and central ops creates blind spots that make detection harder and response slower.

Multi-account sprawl, fast provisioning, and decentralized autonomy produce unmanaged assets and control-plane blind spots.

These gaps hide stale credentials, orphaned storage, and services with open access. Attackers exploit these hidden paths to move laterally and exfiltrate data.

We recommend centralizing logs for control plane, data plane, and applications. Standardized logs boost detection fidelity and help forensic readiness.

• Inventory: Use CSPM and CNAPP to unify asset lists and surface misconfigurations across accounts.
• Network telemetry: Enable flow logs and VPC-level monitoring to reveal east‑west movement and anomalous access.
• Baselines: Define normal behavior, tune thresholds to cut noise, and capture meaningful attacks.
• Ownership: Apply tagging and ownership models so alerts route to the correct team fast.
• Automation: Enforce guardrails at deploy time to prevent drift and close visibility gaps.

Finally, align logging and retention with audit needs so evidence meets governance for large-scale environments. These steps improve cloud security posture and reduce organizational risk in modern computing.

Critical technical gaps—APIs, identity, and drift—often become the fastest path to compromise. We focus on these areas because incidents there lead to broad access and rapid data exposure.

APIs are a frequent attack vector when auth or encryption is weak. Enforce OAuth2 or OIDC, require TLS everywhere, and validate schemas to block malformed payloads.

Use centralized gateways to apply rate limits, policy checks, and token revocation. Runtime WAF and API abuse detection catch logic attacks and misused tokens.

We enforce least-privilege roles, short-lived credentials, and mandatory MFA for all users and service principals.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) should mediate break-glass workflows with approvals and full audit logs. Just-in-time elevation reduces standing privileges and narrows attack windows.

Automated scans, IaC policy checks, and drift detection keep baselines consistent across accounts and regions.

Combine managed secrets (vaults with rotation) and workload identity to remove long-lived keys from code and images. This reduces insider and external misuse.

Defense-in-depth ties these controls together: network segmentation, egress rules, and explicit deny guardrails contain any breach. Standardized policies and control mappings make attestations easier across providers and systems.

Compliance must be operational, not paper-based. Major providers publish attestations (SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI‑DSS, GDPR) that cover infrastructure and managed services. Your organization still owns data classification, access controls, encryption, and continuous audits.

We translate obligations into runnable controls mapped to services and evidence artifacts. Embed policy checks in CI/CD and IaC so controls travel with code and reduce audit friction.

Providers supply attestations; customers must validate configurations and produce evidence for data processing activities. Regular assessments catch misconfigurations before they become compliance failures.

• Continuous evidence: centralized logs, config snapshots, and access review reports that auditors can consume.
• Automation: policy-as-code gates in pipelines to enforce encryption, least privilege, and tagging.
• Control testing: periodic tabletop exercises and simulated audits to prove readiness.
• Insider measures: separation of duties, approval workflows, and recurring role reviews to limit privilege creep.

Automate attestations and exception workflows so deviations carry business justification and remediation timelines. Demonstrable compliance builds customer trust and speeds business in regulated environments.

We embed defenses early so new services reach production with fewer exploitable flaws.

Secure coding and CI/CD integration

We shift left with SAST, SCA, IaC scanning, and image signing to stop defects before deployment.

Encryption and key management

Encrypt sensitive data in transit (TLS) and at rest (AES‑256). Rotate keys and separate key material in a dedicated KMS with strict access boundaries.

Operationalize telemetry with agented or agentless feeds into SIEM/SOAR. Run proactive hunts for control-plane anomalies and misuse of temporary credentials.

Backups and ransomware readiness

Design immutable backups, test restores regularly, and isolate backup credentials from production access. This limits downtime and counters ransomware and operator error.

• Harden workloads with baseline configs and patch automation.
• Secure apis with gateways, quotas, and schema validation.
• Measure KPIs (MTTD, MTTR, drift rates) to tune controls and delivery speed.

When leadership ties risk reduction to product goals, security becomes a market advantage rather than a cost center.

We position robust cloud security as a growth enabler. Clear responsibility models and paved guardrails reduce buyer uncertainty and ease regulatory reviews.

We quantify benefits: lowering breach likelihood cuts expected damage (the average breach cost hit $4.88 million in 2024). Faster recovery saves time and preserves customer trust.

Our recommended approach is phased and measurable.

• Assess: map assets, access, and third-party software.
• Remediate: fix high-impact misconfigurations and shore up keys and IAM.
• Automate: deploy guardrails and policy-as-code to scale controls.
• Optimize: tie investments to MTTD and MTTR gains.

Governance should empower product teams with automated guardrails and clear escalation. Invest in talent and platforms to scale posture across organizations without linear headcount growth.

A concise set of guardrails—inventory, least privilege, encryption, and centralized monitoring—delivers outsized reduction in incidents.

We recap core risks: visibility gaps, misconfiguration, human error, insecure integrations, account abuse, and high-volume threats that converge in dynamic environments.

Shared responsibility matters. Providers secure infrastructure; we must secure access, data, and configs they do not manage.

Our recommended program is programmatic: continuous assessment, prioritized remediation, and controls embedded in delivery pipelines to sustain posture over time.

Start small and act fast: inventory assets, baseline configurations, enforce least privilege, enable encryption everywhere, and centralize monitoring. With disciplined controls and clear accountability, an organization can unlock business value while reducing exposure.