Unit 42 Cloud Threat Report, Volume 6

IAM is the first line of defense
in cloud environments

Both during and after the pandemic, cloud adoption skyrocketed – and there doesn’t seem to be any plan to return to pre-pandemic usage. Consequently, the growing number of cloud identities has also made them major attack vectors, rendering effective identity and access management (IAM) a must for any modern enterprise.

For their latest report, Unit 42 cloud threat researchers discovered shocking statistics surrounding overly permissive IAM policies. New analysis reveals that Cloud Threat Actors are stealing cloud credentials. This led Unit 42 to compile an industry-first Cloud Threat Actor Index, designed as a living set of dossiers on who is targeting cloud infrastructure. We hope that by reading this report, you gain an understanding of the scope of Cloud Threat Actors’ tactics, techniques, and procedures and, as a result, are left well-equipped with techniques to achieve security in your cloud environments.

John Morello
Vice President, Prisma Cloud
Palo Alto Networks

By the numbers …

Unit 42 cloud threat researchers wanted to answer the questions:

Who is attacking cloud infrastructure?

How are they doing this?

What are they targeting?

This opened the door for a new type of threat unique to the cloud: Cloud Threat Actors

Find out how Cloud Threat Actors use vulnerable IAM credentials

How can your organization stay protected?

Download the report to learn how to prevent Cloud Threat Actors from exposing your organization’s low-hanging fruit, such as overly permissive IAM policies. Our elite threat research team provides three actionable recommendations your organization can implement immediately to help achieve security.

Download now to stay protected