Cloud environments most threatened by identity risks, report finds

Identity-related vulnerabilities accounted for 44% of cloud security tool alerts, making identity issues the leading threat in enterprise cloud environments, according to Cybersecurity Dive.

Over 50% of such alerts entailed privilege escalation, while 99% of cloud identities had excessive privileges, a report from ReliaQuest revealed. Further analysis revealed that nearly one-third of all alerts were linked to identity, with the "dual burden" of being the leading source of alerts and reason for confirmed breaches increasing operational costs among security teams.

Such findings should prompt organizations to improve privilege management. Organizations using Amazon Web Services and other cloud platforms have also been advised to secure accounts with broad access and implement zero standing privileges as more threat actors launch identity-based attacks for covert compromise.

"Organizations must realign their security strategies to treat identity as the true modern perimeter. This shift requires a proactive stance that starts beyond the boundaries of the network," said ReliaQuest.