Cloud security: new report says 60% of major US firms have been hacked

Cloud security: new report says 60% of major US firms have been hacked

The security researchers state that hackers have penetrated the cloud security of 60% of top US companies networks, with nearly all industry sectors hit.

Over the first six months of 2019 security researchers at the enterprise security firm, Proofpoint, said they had detected over 15 million unauthorized login attempts to cloud computing networks of US Fortune 500 companies, of which 400,000 were successful.

Proofpoint researchers said of their findings: “While it only takes one compromised account to achieve wide-ranging effects in an organization, attempted unauthorized logins were pervasive across industries.”

After analyzing 20 million user accounts in more than 1,000 cloud deployments, Proofpoint found 92% of the Fortune 500 companies surveyed were targeted by organised cyber attacks. 60% of the companies had allowed attackers into their cloud networks and 6% had an unauthorized login to an executive account.

Proofpoint researchers said that attackers targeted all industry sectors, but appeared to be more successful in education and food and beverage sectors. Regulated industries such as healthcare and financial services did better, with “significantly lower rates of successful attacks”.

Sales representatives and managers were the most targeted, possibly because their emails tend to be publicly available and their positions give them wide-ranging access to company systems.

After the hackers have gained access, Proofpoint, this often leads to spamming or phishing to get even deeper access to networks (lateral expansion), and allow for “large credential dumps” that can allow even more hackers to access the compromised networks.

 

More
articles