Extortion in Cloud Storage

Cloud storage extortion involves attackers stealing data or access and demanding payment for its return, with various vulnerabilities exploited to gain initial access, such as Log4Shell or Spring4Shell, social engineering, and malware. In AWS, attackers can exploit encryption key policies to lock out data access, while GCP and Azure have different methods and safeguards against such attacks, including mandatory encryption and versioning features. However, GCP and Azure have their own susceptibilities, such as GCP's potential for file transfer extortion and Azure's default public access to storage accounts. Tools like Falco can help detect suspicious activities across these platforms, alerting users to potential threats and enabling quicker response to security events. The article emphasizes understanding cloud environment features and maintaining a proactive security posture to mitigate extortion risks, suggesting solutions like Sysdig for real-time threat detection and cloud security posture management.