

In today’s digital landscape, few businesses can go without relying on cloud computing to build a rock-solid IT infrastructure. Boosted efficiency, reduced expenses, and increased scalability are just some of the reasons behind its increasing popularity.
In case you aren’t familiar with the concept, cloud computing refers to running software and services on the internet using data stored on outside sources. So, instead of owning and maintaining their infrastructure locally and physically, businesses access cloud-based services as needed.
And what is found in the cloud? Well, any crucial business data that you can imagine. Customer information, business applications, data backups, and the list can go on.
Given this data’s sensitivity, cloud computing security is of utmost importance.
Unfortunately, cloud computing isn’t the only aspect that keeps evolving. So do the risks, issues, and challenges threatening its security.
Let’s review the most significant security issues in cloud computing and discuss how to address them adequately.
Understanding Cloud Computing Security Risks
Cloud computing security risks refer to potential vulnerabilities in the system that malicious actors can exploit for their own benefit. Understanding these risks is crucial to selecting the right cloud computing services for your business or deciding if cloud computing is even the way to go.
Data Breaches
A data breach happens when unauthorized individuals access, steal, or publish sensitive information (names, addresses, credit card information). Since these incidents usually occur without the organization’s knowledge, the attackers have ample time to do severe damage.
What do we mean by damage?
Well, in this case, damage can refer to various scenarios. Think everything from using the stolen data for financial fraud to sabotaging the company’s stock price. It all depends on the type of stolen data.
Whatever the case, companies rarely put data breaches behind them without a severely damaged reputation, significant financial loss, or extensive legal consequences.
Data Loss
The business world revolves around data. That’s why attackers target it. And why companies fight so hard to preserve it.
As the name implies, data loss occurs when a company can no longer access its previously stored information.
Sure, malicious attacks are often behind data loss. But this is only one of the causes of this unfortunate event.
The cloud service provider can also accidentally delete your vital data. Physical catastrophes (fires, floods, earthquakes, tornados, explosions) can also have this effect, as can data corruption, software failure, and many other mishaps.
Account Hijacking
Using (or reusing) weak passwords as part of cloud-based infrastructure is basically an open invitation for account hijacking.
Again, the name is pretty self-explanatory – a malicious actor gains complete control over your online accounts. From there, the hijacker can access sensitive data, perform unauthorized actions, and compromise other associated accounts.
Insecure APIs
In cloud computing, communication service providers (CSPs) offer their customers numerous Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These easy-to-use interfaces allow customers to manage their cloud-based services. But besides being easy to use, some of these APIs can be equally easy to exploit. For this reason, cybercriminals often prey on insecure APIs as their access points for infiltrating the company’s cloud environment.
Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks
Denial of service (DoS) attacks have one goal – to render your network or server inaccessible. They do so by overwhelming them with traffic until they malfunction or crash.
It’s clear that these attacks can cause severe damage to any business. Now imagine what they can do to companies that rely on those online resources to store business-critical data.
Insider Threats
Not all employees will have your company’s best interest at heart, not to mention ex-employees. If these individuals abuse their authorized access, they can wreak havoc on your networks, systems, and data.
Insider threats are more challenging to spot than external attacks. After all, these individuals know your business inside out, positioning them to cause serious damage while staying undetected.
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)
With advanced persistent threats (APTs), it’s all about the long game. The intruder will infiltrate your company’s cloud environment and fly under the radar for quite some time. Of course, they’ll use this time to steal sensitive data from your business’s every corner.
Challenges in Cloud Computing Security
Security challenges in cloud computing refer to hurdles your company might hit while implementing cloud computing security.
Shared Responsibility Model
A shared responsibility model is precisely what it sounds like. The responsibility for maintaining security falls on several individuals or entities. In cloud computing, these parties include the CSP and your business (as the CSP’s consumer). Even the slightest misunderstanding concerning the division of these responsibilities can have catastrophic consequences for cloud computing security.
Compliance With Regulations and Standards
Organizations must store their sensitive data according to specific regulations and standards. Some are industry-specific, like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) for guarding healthcare records. Others, like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), are more extensive. Achieving this compliance in cloud computing is more challenging since organizations typically don’t control all the layers of their infrastructure.
Data Privacy and Protection
Placing sensitive data in the cloud comes with significant exposure risks (as numerous data breaches in massive companies have demonstrated). Keeping this data private and protected is one of the biggest security challenges in cloud computing.
Lack of Visibility and Control
Once companies move their data to the cloud (located outside their corporate network), they lose some control over it. The same goes for their visibility into their network’s operations. Naturally, since companies can’t fully see or control their cloud-based resources, they sometimes fail to protect them successfully against attacks.
Vendor Lock-In and Interoperability
These security challenges in cloud computing arise when organizations want to move their assets from one CSP to another. This move is often deemed too expensive or complex, forcing the organization to stay put (vendor lock-in). Migrating data between providers can also cause different applications and systems to stop working together correctly, thus hindering their interoperability.
Security of Third-Party Services
Third-party services are often trouble, and cloud computing is no different. These services might have security vulnerabilities allowing unauthorized access to your cloud data and systems.
Issues in Cloud Computing Security
The following factors have proven as major security issues in cloud computing.
Insufficient Identity and Access Management
The larger your business, the harder it gets to establish clearly-defined roles and assign them specific permissions. However, Identity and Access Management (IAM) is vital in cloud computing. Without a comprehensive IAM strategy, a data breach is just waiting to happen.
Inadequate Encryption and Key Management
Encryption is undoubtedly one of the most effective measures for data protection. But only if it’s implemented properly. Using weak keys or failing to rotate, store, and protect them adequately is a one-way ticket to system vulnerabilities.
So, without solid encryption and coherent key management strategies, your cloud computing security can be compromised in no time.
Vulnerabilities in Virtualization Technology
Virtualization (running multiple virtual computers on the hardware elements of a single physical computer) is becoming increasingly popular. Consider the level of flexibility it allows (and at what cost!), and you’ll understand why.
However, like any other technology, virtualization is prone to vulnerabilities. And, as we’ve already established, system vulnerabilities and cloud computing security can’t go hand in hand.
Limited Incident Response Capabilities
Promptly responding to a cloud computing security incident is crucial to minimizing its potential impact on your business. Without a proper incident report strategy, attackers can run rampant within your cloud environment.
Security Concerns in Multi-Tenancy Environments
In a multi-tenancy environment, multiple accounts share the same cloud infrastructure. This means that an attack on one of those accounts (or tenants) can compromise the cloud computing security for all the rest. Keep in mind that this only applies if the CSP doesn’t properly separate the tenants.
Addressing Key Concerns in Cloud Computing Security
Before moving your data to cloud-based services, you must fully comprehend all the security threats that might await. This way, you can implement targeted cloud computing security measures and increase your chances of emerging victorious from a cyberattack.
Here’s how you can address some of the most significant cloud computing security concerns:
- Implement strong authentication and access controls (introducing multifactor authentication, establishing resource access policies, monitoring user access rights).
- Ensure data encryption and secure key management (using strong keys, rotating them regularly, and protecting them beyond CSP’s measures).
- Regularly monitor and audit your cloud environments (combining CSP-provided monitoring information with your cloud-based and on-premises monitoring information for maximum security).
- Develop a comprehensive incident response plan (relying on the NIST [National Institute of Standards and Technology] or the SANS [SysAdmin, Audit, Network, and Security] framework).
- Collaborate with cloud service providers to successfully share security responsibilities (coordinating responses to threats and investigating potential threats).
Weathering the Storm in Cloud Computing
Due to the importance of the data they store, cloud-based systems are constantly exposed to security threats. Compare the sheer number of security risks to the number of challenges and issues in addressing them promptly, and you’ll understand why cloud computing security sometimes feels like an uphill battle.
Since these security threats are ever-evolving, staying vigilant, informed, and proactive is the only way to stay on top of your cloud computing security. Pursue education in this field, and you can achieve just that.
Related posts

The Open Institute of Technology (OPIT) is turning two! It has been both a long journey and a whirlwind trip to reach this milestone. But it is also the perfect time to stop and reflect on what we have achieved over the last two years, as well as assess our hopes for the future. Join us as we map our journey over the last two years and look forward to future plans.
July 2023: Launching OPIT
OPIT officially launched as an EU-accredited online higher education institution in July 2023, and offered two core programs: a BSc in Modern Computer Science and an MSc in Applied Data Science and AI. Its first class matriculated in September of that year.
The launch of OPIT was several years in the making. Founder Riccardo Ocleppo was planning OPIT ever since he launched his first company, Docsity, in 2010, an online platform for students to share access to educational resources. As part of working on that project, Ocleppo had the chance to talk to thousands of students and professors and discovered just how big a gap there is between what is taught in universities today and job market demands. Ocleppo felt that this gap was especially wide in the field of computer science, and OPIT was his concept to fill that gap.
The vision was to provide university-level teaching that was accessible around the world through digital learning technologies and that was also affordable. Ocleppo’s vision also involved international professors and building strong relationships with global companies to ensure a truly international and fit-for-purpose learning experience.
One of the most important parts of launching OPIT was the recruitment of the faculty of professors, which Ocleppo was personally involved in. The idea was to build a roster of expert teachers and professionals who were leaders in the field and urge them to unite the teaching fundamentals with real-world applications and experience. The process involved screening more than 5,000 CVs, interviewing over 200 candidates, and recruiting 25 professors to form the core of OPIT’s faculty.
September 2023: The Inaugural Cohort
When OPIT officially launched, its first cohort included 100 students from 38 different countries. Divided between the BSc and MSc courses, students were also allowed to participate in one of two different tracks. Some chose the standard track to accommodate their existing work commitments, while others chose to fast-track to complete their studies sooner.
OPIT was pleased with its success in making the courses international and accessible, with notable representation from Africa. In the first cohort, 40% of MSc students were also from non-STEM fields, showing OPIT’s success at engaging professionals looking to develop skills for the modern workplace.
July 2024: A Growing Curriculum
Building on this initial success, in 2024, OPIT expanded its academic offering to include a second BSc program in Digital Business, and three new MSc programs in Digital Business & Innovation, Responsible Artificial Intelligence, and Enterprise Cybersecurity. These were all offered in addition to the original two programs.
The new course offerings led to total student numbers growing to over 300, hailing from 78 different countries. This also led to an expansion of the faculty, with professionals recruited from major business leaders such as Symantec, Microsoft, PayPal, McKinsey, MIT, Morgan Stanley, Amazon, and U.S. Naval Research. This focus on professional experience and real-world applications is ideal for OPIT as 80% of the student body are active working professionals.
January 2025: First Graduating Class
OPIT held its first-ever graduation ceremony in Valletta, Malta, on March 8, 2025. The ceremony was a hybrid event, with students attending both in person and virtually. The first graduating class consisted of 40 students who received an MSc in Applied Data Science and AI.
OPIT’s MSc programs include a capstone project that sees students apply their learning to real-world challenges. Projects included the use of large language models for the creation of chatbots in the ed-tech field, the digitalization of customer support processes in the paper and non-woven industry, personal data protection systems, AI applications for environmental sustainability, and predictive models for disaster prevention linked to climate change. Since many OPIT students realized their capstone projects within their organizations, OPIT also saw itself successfully facilitating digital innovation in the field.
July 2025: New Learning Environments
The next step for OPIT is not just to teach others how to leverage AI to work smarter, but to start applying AI solutions in our own business environment. To this end, OPIT unveiled its OPIT AI Copilot at the Microsoft AI Agents and the Future of Higher Education event in Milan in June 2025.
The OPIT AI Copilot is a specialist AI Agent designed to enhance learning in OPIT’s fully digital environment. OPIT AI Copilot acts as a personal tutor and study companion, and but rather than being trained on the World Wide Web, it is specifically trained on OPIT’s educational archive of around 3,500 hours of lectures and 3,000 proprietary documents.
The OPIT AI Copilot then provides real-time, personalized guidance that adapts to where the student is in the course and the progress they have shown in grasping the material. As well as pulling from existing materials, the OPIT AI Copilot can generate content to deepen learning, such as code samples and practical exams. It can also answer questions posed by the students with answers grounded in the official course material. The tool is available 24/7, and also has an intelligent examination mode, which prevents cheating.
In this way, OPIT AI Copilot enriches the OPIT learning environment by providing students with 24/7 personalized support for their learning journey, ideal for busy professionals balancing work and study. It is a step towards facing the challenge of “one-size-fits-all” education approaches that have plagued learning institutions for millennia.
September 2025: A New Cohort
On the heels of the OPIT AI Copilot launch, OPIT is excited about recruiting its next round of students, with applications open until September 2025. If you are interested in joining OPIT, you can learn more about its courses here.

Have questions?
Visit our FAQ page or get in touch with us!
Write us at +39 335 576 0263
Get in touch at hello@opit.com
Talk to one of our Study Advisors
We are international
We can speak in: