The latest study titled “Web, Network and Cloud Attacks”, issued by Proofpoint, confirmed that organizations and companies are struggling to secure new cloud environments deployed during the pandemic, while preserving old equipment and trying to adapt their comprehensive security strategy to the evolving threat landscape. . This study, conducted in collaboration with the Cloud Security Alliance, involved more than 950 IT and security professionals from various sizes of organizations and locations, to best understand the information, behaviors, and perspectives of cyber threats across clouds and the web.
Emile Abu Saleh, Regional Director of Proofpoint in the Middle East and Africa, said: “After more than two years of turmoil due to the pandemic, and the new methods and business models that it imposed, the heads of information security in the UAE had to intensify their efforts to address the cyber threats that threaten their lives. Aimed at the ubiquitous workforce with a hybrid working system, their focus was on addressing the most important attacks targeting their organizations such as cloud account hacking (O365 or G Suite accounts hacked) which topped the list of cyber threats according to 35% of CIOs in the UAE ».
“Following the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have dramatically accelerated their digital transformation initiatives to accommodate remote workforces,” said Hilary Barron, lead author and research analyst at the Cloud Computing Security Alliance, the nonprofit organization. These initiatives seek to improve worker productivity, product quality, or other business objectives, but have faced unintended consequences and challenges due to large-scale structural changes, including developing a comprehensive approach to cloud and web threats, while managing legacy and on-premises security infrastructure.”
As organizations continue to move to the cloud, reliance on third parties and partners is increasing, exacerbating the risks of threats across the supply chain, as the study indicates that 81% of organizations participating in the study are moderately to severely concerned about the risks surrounding with suppliers and partners, and that nearly half (48%) are specifically concerned about data loss as a result of these risks.
The study revealed the reasons for this concern, noting that 58% of organizations confirmed that third parties and suppliers were the target of data breaches via the cloud in 2021.
In this context, the study revealed that data preservation is a top priority for companies and organizations, with 47% of respondents stating that “loss of sensitive data” is the most concerned about cloud and web attacks, and that certain types of data organizations are more careful with customer data and data. Accreditation and intellectual property. 43% of organizations state that protecting customer data is a primary cloud and web security goal for 2022. Despite this, only a third (36%) of organizations surveyed have a dedicated Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution.