How Hackers Use Cloud To Infect The System.

In this new age of technology it is essential we know how hackers use cloud, the reason being data plays a huge role in storing important information, but with technology, our way of storing the data is evolved, and we seemed to move on from the conventional method of storing data in hard drives or discs.

In current times, we seem to trust cloud storage more than anything, thousands of our personal pictures, video, and private information is stored in the cloud now and the surprising thing is that many of us don’t know that it’s in the cloud, for an example if you ask your mother she doesn't know what's cloud storage but most of the apps she uses stores their data in the cloud. Cloud storage has indeed become a part of our daily lives in one way or another.

In the past researchers have found cases of hackers using cloud services to host malware and botnets, which are then downloaded, often unknowingly, by end-users and wreaked havoc on various systems. A recent study showed that a group of Russian hackers is targeting the cloud with malware that monitors network traffic in search of ways to steal and infect files and documents. Once a cloud account is compromised, attackers can obtain the personal information or corporate data of users and compromise cloud computing services.

Most often, hackers distribute ransomware using phishing emails. Hackers often distribute ransomware through a malicious link that initiates the download of malware. Once the malware is on your computer, it can encrypt your data, holding it hostage, allowing only the one with the decryption key to access it. It tends to play in data files, programs, or the boot sector of a computer's hard drive and makes the file/system inaccessible. This sort of malware is known for introducing backdoors into your security system, allowing attackers to remotely monitor your actions.

Also, malware is occasionally placed on your system as soon as you click the download button and open the attachment, allowing the hacker complete access to your device and data. Scan domain names and email addresses for spelling and grammatical problems. In these attacks, a hacker uses phishing emails to gain control of a user's email account. Once inside, a hacker can distribute ransomware that encrypts victims 'emails and can also cause further damage and chaos by using a compromised email account to spread more malware to victims' contacts.

Once inside a machine, malware can scan other connected machines on the same network and infect them. Hackers can also try to access your computer and personal information directly if you are not protected by a firewall. A hacker in control of your system can steal your social and financial account credentials, as well as install malware into legitimate websites you trust. Hackers can compromise a company's website in order to steal data (cross-site scripting) and/or disseminate malware and viruses to unwary users.

How to Safeguard Cloud

Uploading files unknowingly infected with malware to the cloud can potentially damage stored data and greatly increase the risk of infection for any device used to access that data. The cloud can leave you vulnerable to data leakage (theft), data loss, and service compromise. Even worse, if you are sharing your cloud with multiple parties, one infected file is enough to spread to multiple users, which can lead to serious data breaches and even ransomware attacks. An attacker can acquire significantly more dangerous levels of access to components that could transfer malware onto the next client on the server by renting a machine in a bare-metal configuration.

Penetration testing (or ethical hackers) can ensure that attackers cannot access your system. Sophisticated hackers often break into systems with complex lines of code to steal data, harm, or provide hackers with alternative entry points. In addition, hackers can use malicious applications to infect your endpoints with ransomware. If this happens on a company network where the infection spreads locally, the company's entire cloud sharing system may also be compromised, which will have a multiplied impact on the number of computers on the network.

Researchers have made it clear that the cloud clean-up issue does not affect all cloud servers. Making servers even more vulnerable is the fact that they often have applications that provide services over the network, and these services can be compromised by affecting or infecting multiple machines.

A previous study by Eclypsium even showed that damaged BMC can be used to overwrite the firmware of other components, lock up computers or paralyze them for potential ransomware attacks. Although they only made minor changes to the IBM server firmware during the demonstration, they warned that the same technique can be used to inject malware into the hidden code of the server without being noticed even after someone else has taken control of the machine to arrive. , It allows hackers to monitor the server at will, modify its data or destroy it. The report pointed out that some cloud attacks, mainly those involving data theft and information leakage, are the result of poor security practices, including credentials available in public source code repositories or the use of weak passwords.

How dangerous a Cloud hack could be

How hackers use cloud can be extremely dangerous, the reason being they can infect a lot of systems at once, and it's very hard to detect and fix the problem in the cloud. Hackers often inject malware into websites, and then use content or social engineering to trick users into visiting the website. Hackers use elaborate phishing emails to trick victims into opening attachments or clicking links containing malicious files. spam. Malware creators often use tricks to trick you into downloading malicious files.

While early incidents of these attacks were sometimes limited to blocking access to the web browser or Windows desktop - and they did so in ways that could often be easily decrypted and reopened - since then, hackers have created versions of ransomware that use encryption keys to block access files on your computer. Hackers can use powerful cloud capabilities to send thousands of possible passwords to the target user's account.

Hackers can use low-cost cloud services to launch DoS and brute force attacks against users, businesses, and even other cloud providers. However, Trend Micro recently discovered that hackers are using popular cloud services to host their C&C software.

In addition, if a cyber attack attacks the original version of a file, and the infected copy of the data in the cloud is now the only copy, the situation becomes more serious.

Conclusion

We need to be smart while using technology, especially when it comes to our phones and computers so we can avoid becoming another victim of some hacker who is laying traps digitally, we need to have a basic understanding of cybersecurity and should know what kind of files and links might harm our privacy and device. So next time you see an unknown link or receive an email from a person you don’t know be careful.