Slippy Spider and Deadeye Hawk; the online adversaries identified by CrowdStrike sound like comic book villains. The Texas-based company’s latest annual cyber security report does not make for a relaxing read. Cloud computing is hailed as a secure method of data storage. Yet CrowdStrike reports that observed cloud exploitation rose 95 per cent last year.
As more data moves to the cloud, protection has failed to keep pace. Regulators are imposing stringent penalties on failures. McKinsey predicts a security awakening as annual damage from cyber attacks exceeds $10tn by 2025. It foresees a $2tn total addressable market for security up for grabs.
There is an incentive for cloud providers to increase security spend. But many customers opt to use a mix of on and off-premise storage and work with multiple vendors. It is difficult for one provider to offer comprehensive protection. Particularly for attacks instigated by the theft of valid user identification details.