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Misconfiguration of cloud computing security settings Ease of access makes cloud computing attractive to many small businesses, but it’s also the source of potential security risks. In many organizations, employees have varying cloud service access levels. The more people and access levels involved, the easier it is to overlook an unauthorized access setting. Additionally, the infrastructure’s cloud nature means companies must rely on their provider’s security controls. These controls aren’t always straightforward, opening more avenues for misconfiguration.businesscloudsolutions To mitigate this security risk and streamline access management, track all levels of access your team members have to various cloud services. You can even create a basic tracking document in Google Sheets if you keep it updated. Conducting regular cybersecurity audits that include security details and protocols from all cloud providers can also reduce the risk. Insecure APIs APIs allow better control and visibility into your cloud systems and applications. However, external APIs are often insecure and provide an entry point for potential cyberattacks that can compromise confidential data and manipulate services. According to the Salt’s State of API Security Report for Q1 2022, API attack traffic increased nearly 700% from December 2020 to December 2021, showing that it’s a serious threat to small businesses. Building in-house APIs can significantly reduce this security risk. However, not all businesses have the internal expertise or resources to do this. To mitigate the risks, implement authentication and authorization practices, encrypt traffic using TLS/SSL, validate input, log API activity, use API firewalls, and conduct a regular audit and penetration testing to identify and fix outdated APIs. Data loss Two-thirds of the respondents in Bitglass’ 2020 Cloud Security Report named data loss and leakage as their biggest cloud computing security concern. Aside from malware attacks, cloud data can be lost if the cloud provider accidentally deletes it, if there’s a physical catastrophe like a fire or earthquake that damages remote servers, or if an encryption key is lost.