Updated April 13, 2025
Cloud infrastructure is becoming increasingly common as organizations see it as an increasingly flexible option to meet their needs. Many different providers have a myriad of solutions that can meet the needs of almost any company. Moving away from traditional on-premise networks also reduces the risk of many common attacks by threat actors to compromise a network. This is not to say that cloud networks are inherently secure, as they tend to introduce their own suite of vulnerabilities.
Advantages of Cloud Infrastructure
Moving to a cloud or hybrid environment is a great decision for many organizations. It can be surprisingly affordable, and the provided flexibility is extremely valuable. Many providers allow users to seamlessly manage and integrate different aspects of their organization in much less time than manually. Administrators can also easily manage users and interactions between components through cloud networks, as it can often be more straightforward than management on on-premise networks.
Cloud networks can also allow employees to collaborate seamlessly in remote locations. Remote work has grown massively in recent years and likely will continue to grow, adding more appeal to providing employees with the flexibility to work from anywhere. Even just adding some cloud components to existing infrastructure can be a good idea for many organizations. Hybrid cloud environments have many benefits of strictly cloud environments without the need to rebuild physical infrastructure completely.
Cloud and On-premise Security Considerations
Directory services are used by most organizations, with Microsoft’s Active Directory being by far the most common. Active Directory provides administrators with easy ways to provide access management and security for large organizations and quickly distribute these changes across large networks. Active Directory takes up a staggering percentage of the market share, with over 90% of Fortune 1000 companies using the access management tool.
Unfortunately, when misconfigured, Active Directory is prone to vulnerabilities. Even without exploiting software vulnerabilities, abuse of built-in tools can allow threat actors to compromise a network quickly. Great consideration needs to be taken when configuring Active Directory or any other access management tool to ensure that it is properly configured. Misconfigurations can be extremely costly and damaging for organizations in the event of a breach.
Cloud networks offer alternative solutions to on-premise networks and, as part of that, provide alternative security solutions. Unfortunately, this does not mean that they are inherently secure. Many similar problems faced in traditional networks remain present in cloud environments, and many new ones are introduced as well. Cloud market share is not as clearly monopolized as traditional access management systems, with Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google’s Cloud each taking up a large portion of the market.
Each of these products has its benefits and drawbacks, and each introduces a new threat landscape. Attacks against Azure may be completely different from attacks against AWS despite functionally operating similarly. Each cloud network will be unique and require a different set of skills to assess the security of the environment properly. Despite the differences, many general best practices can be applied universally.
Social engineering is the most common attack when seeking initial access to any access management system. Training users on the importance of spotting these attacks will go a long way in preventing attackers from gaining an initial foothold in the network. Weak credentials or breached credentials can be another extremely common attack angle.
These techniques can be used very similarly in cloud and on-premise environments. One attack with more variety is attacking a network component, such as a poorly designed web server. If an attacker can compromise one of these in a cloud-joined network, they will be able to move directly to the cloud system with secrets stored on any joined component. It is crucial to regularly assess levels of access based on the assumption that a component may eventually get compromised and understand what could happen next.
Assess Cloud And On-premise Security With Blue Goat Cyber
Whatever your network may look like, we can help protect it against cyber criminals. Our team is highly experienced in defending both on-premise and cloud environments. We can help you identify the best security solutions for your organization. We understand that every network is unique, and solutions must be unique.
Contact us to schedule a discovery session.
Cloud Threat Landscape FAQs
Key threats include data breaches, misconfigured cloud storage, insecure APIs, insider threats, lack of visibility, account hijacking, and shared tenancy risks. These are particularly critical for cloud-hosted medical data and device ecosystems.
Misconfigured storage buckets, access controls, or encryption settings can expose sensitive PHI or intellectual property. Many breaches result from default settings or improper access privileges that leave systems wide open to attack.
Cloud attacks exploit virtualized infrastructure, APIs, and multi-tenant environments. They often target cloud service misconfigurations, escalate privileges through identity federation flaws, or manipulate poorly secured container environments.
Shadow IT—unauthorized cloud applications or services—can bypass established security controls, creating blind spots in monitoring and exposing sensitive data without proper governance or compliance oversight.
We provide cloud security architecture assessments, secure configuration reviews, and threat modeling. Our experts identify risks tied to data sovereignty, access control, and hybrid environments in alignment with FDA and HIPAA guidance.
Not always. While necessary, default tools can fall short if poorly implemented. Strong encryption must be coupled with secure key management, multi-factor authentication, and continuous monitoring for anomalous behavior.
Cloud providers secure the infrastructure; customers are responsible for securing applications, configurations, and data. Misunderstanding this model can lead to dangerous gaps in protection.
Yes—but only if the cloud service provider signs a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and you implement strong access controls, encryption, audit logging, and breach notification processes as part of a holistic compliance strategy.
APTs are stealthy, long-term attacks by sophisticated adversaries targeting sensitive cloud-hosted data. They may leverage spear phishing, credential theft, or software vulnerabilities to gain persistent access over time.
We continuously analyze evolving attack vectors, leverage real-world threat intelligence, and apply principles from Christian Espinosa’s Medical Device Cybersecurity guide to secure cloud-hosted medical environments with a zero-trust approach.
