Cloud Jacking: How Simple Mistakes Are Spilling Your Data Across the Internet
1 min read
Summary
Cloud jacking is when hackers gain access to data stored in the cloud due to misconfigurations of cloud services, such as publicly accessible cloud storage, unsecured open APIs, and default passwords that have not been changed.
This author became a victim of cloud jacking when uploading family vacation photos to a secure cloud album; two weeks later, a stranger in Norway found the pictures and advised that the author’s router password was easily accessible.
Cloud jacking is especially exacerbated by the ease with which individuals and corporations move data to the cloud, with 86% of corporate data residing in the cloud, making it more important than ever to tighten cloud security.
-The article cites high-profile cloud jacking incidents, including Microsoft’s 2023 Azure blob leak, the TikTok data leak in 2022, and the Uber data breach of 2016, and offers advice on how to prevent cloud jacking.