With the cost-efficiencies and scalability that cloud computing provides businesses, it’s no surprise that it’s the IT tool of choice for growing startups and established enterprises alike. Knowledge truly is power in this Information Age, which is why countless hackers are always spawning new and more sophisticated malware that will let them into clouds and steal valuable data.
 
If your business has a cloud, would you know if a hacker has already infiltrated it? To help you out, we’ve collected five telltale signs you always need to watch out for.
 

#1 Unusual outbound traffic from your network

Malware that gets past your cloud-based detection systems often doesn’t do much damage on its own. Rather, it sends signals to the hacker’s command-and-control server to upload nastier malware (i.e., programs that can exfiltrate data or encrypt it and hold it for ransom) into your network.
 
These signals distinctly break from your usual outbound network traffic patterns, so recognizing and shutting them down early can mean nipping disaster in the bud.
 

#2 Atypical activity from an admin or privileged user

Cloud administrators and users with privileged access rights are the closest to your precious data, so when their accounts are compromised or misused, it can spell gloom and doom for your company.
 
You need to implement a monitoring system that considers user roles and normal behavior patterns to actively determine if someone with special privileges is behaving differently. If their actions are found to be anomalous, then you can suspend their access rights to prevent them from causing damage to your business.
 

#3 Strange login behaviors and unfamiliar outbound traffic destinations

To make themselves hard to trace, hackers virtually jump across different parts of the world prior to accessing your cloud. As an additional protective measure, they won’t stay long in one pretend location. That is, they’ll log in and out in rapid succession, each time popping up in an entirely new place. While this is a sneaky maneuver, it’s also noticeable, especially when you find your network sending outbound traffic to a geographic location your company doesn’t do business in.
 

#4 Spray-and-pray data requests

Online marketers disseminate all sorts of digital marketing collaterals in the hopes that one of them will snag a paying customer. Hackers do something similar, but instead of using marketing collaterals, they’ll use different tools and methods to request a data type or permission setting — all in the hopes that one of their strategies will work.
 
Since clouds and computer systems are configured differently, this spray-and-pray approach makes sense. However, the number of requests for the same data or permission setting will become so abnormally large as to make it apparent to those who are vigilant enough in monitoring their network.
 

#5 Signals that mass exfiltration of data is about to commence

Hackers often want to act quickly so as to get as much useful data as they can without getting caught. This means that, as soon as they’re ready, they’ll exfiltrate data from your cloud on a massive scale. Commencing this will lead to a sharp spike in file-read requests, database read volume, and application record access, so being able to set thresholds and implement shutdown protocols for when those thresholds are exceeded are keys to preventing massive data theft.
 
Protecting your cloud is simple with SImplyClouds. Contact our specialists to learn more about how we can protect and optimize your cloud today.