Cloud account hijacking occurs when an attacker gains unauthorized access to an individual’s or organization’s cloud account. This is a common tactic in identity theft schemes, where stolen credentials are used to impersonate the account owner and carry out malicious or unauthorized activities.
While cloud computing offers significant benefits — such as reduced capital costs and on-demand scalability — it also creates an attractive target for cybercriminals. Large volumes of sensitive data are stored in centralized environments, and these resources are often accessed by multiple users across different devices. This shared nature increases the risk of compromise, making cloud account hijacking a serious security concern.
Cloud Hijacking Risks
In a survey, 69 percent of North American IT professionals shared their belief that the risks of using cloud-based services outweighed the benefits. The main reason they cited was a concern for data security. Similarly, the Cloud Security Alliance identified service traffic hijacking as the third-greatest cloud computing security risk. These types of security breaches occur when attackers hijack cloud accounts by stealing security credentials and eavesdropping on activities and transactions. Attackers manipulate data, insert false information, and redirect clients to illegitimate sites.
Cloud account hijacking at the enterprise level can be particularly devastating, depending on what the attackers do with the information. Company integrity and reputations can be destroyed, and confidential data can be leaked or falsified causing significant cost to businesses or their customers. Legal implications are also possible for companies and organizations in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare, if clients’ or patients’ confidential data is exposed during cloud account hijacking incidents.
Be Proactive When Choosing a Cloud Service Provider
Businesses should take proactive measures when selecting a cloud service provider. Start by thoroughly reviewing contracts and comparing the provider’s security and data integrity practices. A data-driven evaluation is essential — consider factors such as the provider’s history of data loss or interference incidents, frequency of downtime, and how vulnerabilities are monitored and managed.
Additionally, choose providers that offer transparency and allow clients to audit their performance in these areas. This level of accountability helps ensure your organization’s data remains secure and accessible.
Solutions for Cloud Account Hijacking Protection
There are simple, effective steps businesses and organizations can take to keep their data secure on the cloud. Be sure to:
- Check with your service provider to make sure they have conducted background checks on employees who have physical access to the servers in their data centers.
- Have a strong method of authentication for cloud app users.
- Make sure all of your data is securely backed up in the event that your data is lost in the cloud.
- Restrict the IP addresses allowed to access cloud applications. Some cloud apps provide tools to specify allowable IP ranges, forcing users to access the application only through corporate networks or VPNs.
- Require multi-factor authentication. Several tools exist that require users to enter static passwords as well as dynamic one-time passwords, which can be delivered via SMS, hardware tokens, biometrics, or other schemes.
- Encrypt sensitive data before it goes to the cloud.
More Secure Solutions for Defending Against Cloud Account Hijacking
To strengthen protection against data theft, organizations should adopt security platforms that extend beyond traditional systems to include cloud and mobile environments. These platforms should offer advanced capabilities such as:
- End-to-end encryption to safeguard data in transit and at rest
- Application control to manage which apps can access sensitive data
- Continuous data monitoring for real-time visibility into potential threats
- Behavioral and contextual risk controls that can block or restrict risky activity based on user behavior, event type, and data access patterns
This data-aware, comprehensive approach enables businesses to mitigate cloud security risks while fully leveraging the benefits of cloud computing.
