Today, cloud misconfigurations are the No. 1 reason for cloud data leaks and breaches. Adversaries can use botnets to exclusively search for misconfigured public cloud databases to exploit. In fact, a cloud misconfiguration is what recently exposed the Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB databases. Termed ChaosDB, the vulnerability affected thousands of Microsoft Azure customers across large including Fortune 500 and Global 2000 businesses – and it could have been lurking in the background for months, or years. This is all too common – a study shows that 90% of companies are vulnerable to breaches due to cloud misconfigurations.
As we continue to digitize business processes, organizations are storing sensitive data across locations -- on-prem, off-prem, in various private and public clouds, structured SQL database, unstructured data lakes, and more. There are no longer set perimeters, making traditional perimeter-based security tools a thing of the past. Instead, organizations must shift their security mindset to adopt a data-centric security approach to protect data no matter where it resides.