Netskope: How to Avoid Malware Hackers Attacking Your Cloud Apps

By D. Howard Kass • January 11, 2023

A new study by secure access service edge (SASE) specialist Netskope found that in 2022, over 400 unique cloud applications delivered malware. This is almost triple the amount from the previous year.

Where did the malware come from?

Data from the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company also shows that about 30% of all cloud malware downloads in 2022 will come from Microsoft OneDrive. Netskope’s 2022 Cloud & Threat Report found that more than 25% of his users worldwide upload documents to Microsoft OneDrive daily. Meanwhile, 7% used Google Gmail and 5% used Microsoft Sharepoint.

According to Netskope researchers, cloud malware downloads will increase from 2021 to 2022 due to a significant increase in active cloud users across a record number of cloud applications.

Ray Canzanese, director of threat research at Netskope, explains:

“Attackers are increasingly exploiting business-critical cloud apps to bypass inadequate security controls and deliver malware. Inspecting all HTTP and HTTPS traffic, including that of a cloud app, for malicious content is essential.”

survey by numbers

In 2022, several regions saw significant increases in the overall proportion of cloud-delivered versus web-delivered malware compared to 2021.

• Australia (50% in 2022 compared to 40% in 2021)
• Europe (42% in 2022 compared to 31% in 2021)
• Africa (42% in 2022 compared to 35% in 2021)
• Asia (45% in 2022 compared to 39% in 2021)

Cloud-delivered malware is also prevalent worldwide in certain industries.

• Telecom (81% in 2022 compared to 59% in 2021)
• Manufacturing (36% in 2022 compared to 17% in 2021)
• Retail (57% in 2022 compared to 47% in 2021)
• Healthcare (54% in 2022 compared to 39% in 2021)

About cyber measures

Remote and hybrid work dynamics address multiple cybersecurity issues, such as how to securely provide access to the company resources users need to do their jobs, and how to provide users with access to the Internet in a scalable and secure manner. continues to pose challenges.

Netskope recommends that organizations take the following actions to avoid increased risk of security incidents due to cloud and web-delivered malware:

• Adapt policies based on device, location, and risk, and apply granular policy controls to restrict data flow, including to/from apps, between corporate and personal instances, between users, and to the web To do.
• Deploy multi-layered inline threat protection for all cloud and web traffic to block inbound and outbound malware communication.
• Enable multi-factor authentication for unmanaged enterprise apps.