More than 1.5 billion sensitive files – ranging from payslips to medical scans – are visible on the open internet, according to a new report. Security researchers have warned the documents are “freely available” to anyone with minimal technical knowhow, and 36% of the exposed files were located in the European Union. Confidential corporate data – including details of yet-to-be-released products – were also out in the open. In one case, a point of sale terminal was leaking data on customer transactions, times, places, and even partial credit card numbers. Javvad Malik, Security Advocate at AlienVault commented below.
Javvad Malik, Security Advocate at AlienVault:
“Cloud brings many benefits to organisations of all sizes. Data is easy to store and always available. However, with this convenience there is the temptation to store more data than is necessary. Secondly, due to the ease of use, many companies can overlook their responsibilities in the security of the data. While cloud providers are responsible for some parts of security, the organisations have their own obligations to ensure the protection of data in the cloud.
A lack of cloud expertise is another potential contributor – failure to secure cloud environments can largely be put down to human error.
Organisations should always look to gain assurance that cloud environments are secured as intended and deploy cloud security tools that can monitor and detect threats.”
