Cloud Resources Have Become Biggest Targets for Cyberattacks According to New Research

Thales recently announced the release of the 2024 Thales Cloud Security Study, its annual assessment on the latest cloud security threats, trends and emerging risks based on a survey of nearly 3000 IT and security professionals across 18 countries in 37 industries.

As the use of the cloud continues to be strategically vital to many organizations, cloud resources have become the biggest targets for cyber-attacks, with SaaS applications (31%), Cloud Storage (30%) and Cloud Management Infrastructure (26%) cited as the leading categories of attack. As a result, protecting cloud environments has risen as the top security priority ahead of all other security disciplines.

This comes as organizations continue to experience cloud data breaches. Forty-four percent of organizations have experienced a cloud data breach with 14% reported having an incident in the last 12 months. Human error and misconfiguration continued to lead the top root cause of these breaches (31%), followed by exploiting known vulnerabilities (28%), and failure to use Multi-Factor Authentication (17%).

Growing cloud usage across enterprises has seen an accompanying growth in the potential attack surface for threat actors, with 66% of organizations using more than 25 SaaS applications and nearly half (47%) of corporate data being sensitive. Despite the increased risks to sensitive data in the cloud, the data encryption rates remain low, with less than 10% of enterprises encrypting 80% or more of their sensitive cloud data.

Sebastien Cano, Senior Vice President for Cloud Protection and Licensing activities at Thales: “The scalability and flexibility that the cloud offers is highly compelling for organizations, so it’s no surprise it is central to their security strategies. However, as the cloud attack surface expands, organizations must get a firm grasp on the data they have stored in the cloud, the keys they’re using to encrypt it, and the ability to have complete visibility into who is accessing the data and how it is being used. It is vital to solve these challenges now, especially as data sovereignty and privacy have emerged as top concerns in this year’s research.”

As organizations gain more experience in using cloud computing, many have modernized their investments to meet new security challenges. For organizations that prioritized digital sovereignty as an emerging security concern, refactoring applications to logically separate, secure, store, and process cloud data was the top way they would attain or achieve sovereignty initiatives ahead of other measures such as repatriating workloads back to on-premises or in-territory. Future-proofing cloud environments (31%) was the number one driver behind digital sovereignty initiatives, while adhering to regulations came in at a distant second at 22%.

Featured

  • New Report Reveals Top Trends Transforming Access Controller Technology

    Mercury Security, a provider in access control hardware and open platform solutions, has published its Trends in Access Controllers Report, based on a survey of over 450 security professionals across North America and Europe. The findings highlight the controller’s vital role in a physical access control system (PACS), where the device not only enforces access policies but also connects with readers to verify user credentials—ranging from ID badges to biometrics and mobile identities. With 72% of respondents identifying the controller as a critical or important factor in PACS design, the report underscores how the choice of controller platform has become a strategic decision for today’s security leaders. Read Now

  • Overwhelming Majority of CISOs Anticipate Surge in Cyber Attacks Over the Next Three Years

    An overwhelming 98% of chief information security officers (CISOs) expect a surge in cyber attacks over the next three years as organizations face an increasingly complex and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital threat landscape. This is according to new research conducted among 300 CISOs, chief information officers (CIOs), and senior IT professionals by CSC1, the leading provider of enterprise-class domain and domain name system (DNS) security. Read Now

  • ASIS International Introduces New ANSI-Approved Investigations Standard

    • Guard Services
  • Cloud Security Alliance Brings AI-Assisted Auditing to Cloud Computing

    The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, today introduced an innovative addition to its suite of Security, Trust, Assurance and Risk (STAR) Registry assessments with the launch of Valid-AI-ted, an AI-powered, automated validation system. The new tool provides an automated quality check of assurance information of STAR Level 1 self-assessments using state-of-the-art LLM technology. Read Now

  • Report: Nearly 1 in 5 Healthcare Leaders Say Cyberattacks Have Impacted Patient Care

    Omega Systems, a provider of managed IT and security services, today released new research that reveals the growing impact of cybersecurity challenges on leading healthcare organizations and patient safety. According to the 2025 Healthcare IT Landscape Report, 19% of healthcare leaders say a cyberattack has already disrupted patient care, and more than half (52%) believe a fatal cyber-related incident is inevitable within the next five years. Read Now

New Products

  • PE80 Series

    PE80 Series by SARGENT / ED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin

    ASSA ABLOY, a global leader in access solutions, has announced the launch of two next generation exit devices from long-standing leaders in the premium exit device market: the PE80 Series by SARGENT and the PED4000/PED5000 Series by Corbin Russwin. These new exit devices boast industry-first features that are specifically designed to provide enhanced safety, security and convenience, setting new standards for exit solutions. The SARGENT PE80 and Corbin Russwin PED4000/PED5000 Series exit devices are engineered to meet the ever-evolving needs of modern buildings. Featuring the high strength, security and durability that ASSA ABLOY is known for, the new exit devices deliver several innovative, industry-first features in addition to elegant design finishes for every opening.

  • Unified VMS

    AxxonSoft introduces version 2.0 of the Axxon One VMS. The new release features integrations with various physical security systems, making Axxon One a unified VMS. Other enhancements include new AI video analytics and intelligent search functions, hardened cybersecurity, usability and performance improvements, and expanded cloud capabilities

  • Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems V07

    Automatic Systems, an industry-leading manufacturer of pedestrian and vehicle secure entrance control access systems, is pleased to announce the release of its groundbreaking V07 software. The V07 software update is designed specifically to address cybersecurity concerns and will ensure the integrity and confidentiality of Automatic Systems applications. With the new V07 software, updates will be delivered by means of an encrypted file.