Cryptography is largely taken for granted rarely evaluated or checked a practice that could have devastating consequences for businesses as attack surfaces continue to expand, the cost of a data breach rises year-over-year, and the age of quantum computing nears, according to Quantum Xchange.

Examining more than 200 terabytes of network traffic or the total sum of all packets, for all connections, between all pairs up to 80% was found to have some defeatable flaw in its encryption and 61% of the traffic unencrypted.

56.5% of the single, bi-directional TCP or UDP connections analyzed are unencrypted, compared to 43.4% of encrypted connections.

Old, outdated cryptographic protocols TLS 1.0 and SSL v3 are still in wide use today with industries like healthcare and higher education slow to change. More alarming still, up to 92% of all traffic on a hospital network uses no encryption at all. This suggests a laissez faire attitude and general reluctance to update working systems that are in production.

Strong cryptography is a basic requirement for insurance coverage. It is frightening to see healthcare falling so far behind.

45% of host pairs communicate via an unencrypted channel. 87% of encrypted, host-to-host relationships still use TLS 1.2, demonstrating that a large migration to TLS 1.3 is still forthcoming not a trivial upgrade given the significant differences between versions.

Industries, such as healthcare, have a significant long tail of TLS 1.1 and 1.0 usage, even SSL v3 can be found at scarily high volumes. This suggests an if it aint broke dont fix it attitude and a general reluctance to update working, albeit outdated, systems that are in production.

These findings serve as a snapshot of whats taking place within enterprise systems worldwide, said Vince Berk, Chief Strategist at Quantum Xchange. Zero trust is meaningless if your encryption is not bulletproof. Were trying to bring awareness to the here-and-now problem with cryptography so that organizations can shore up these weaknesses and better protect their systems from everyday cybersecurity risks and yet-to-be-discovered threats.

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Organizations have a variety of options for cloud deployments, each with its own set of capabilities and security challenges. In this article, we will explore the key characteristics, security threats, and best security practices for five key cloud security environments: public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, and multi-tenant cloud.

A public cloud architecture is a shared infrastructure hosted by a cloud service provider. Public clouds enable multiple businesses to share resources from a shared pool over the internet. The provider hosts and manages the environment, allowing for scalability and cost-efficiency. The responsibility for protecting these cloud resources is shared, with the cloud provider responsible for infrastructure security and customers responsible for access, application security, and data management. Users have a large responsibility for maintaining the integrity of their cloud environments under this shared responsibility paradigm.

While public cloud systems offer scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency, they can also pose significant risks if not properly secured. All cloud (and IT) environments share common security issues and solutions, but for public cloud users, compliance, access control, and proper configuration practices are some of the most important.

How they occur: Unauthorized access to sensitive data can happen as a result of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations such as flawed access permissions or unprotected data and instances.

Prevention: Implement robust encryption, access restrictions, data categorization, secure connections, and an incident response strategy.

How they occur: Improperly configured permissions can allow unauthorized individuals to access applications and data, possibly leading to data leaks and breaches and other security risks.

Prevention: Apply the concept of least privilege or zero trust, conduct frequent access audits, and use Identity and Access Management (IAM) tools.

How they occur: Vulnerable APIs and inadequately protected cloud interfaces allow for exploitation, potentially resulting in data leakage and breaches.

Prevention: API security practices and tools, perform regular vulnerability testing, and enforce strict access controls.

How it occurs: Attackers acquire unlawful access using stolen user credentials, which could result in unauthorized account and data access and misuse.

Prevention: Require multi-factor authentication (MFA), educate users on password security, and regularly monitor accounts for suspicious activities.

How it occurs: Without sufficient logging and monitoring, detecting security incidents in real time becomes difficult, leaving the cloud environment susceptible.

Prevention: Activate cloud logging and use SIEM systems to continually monitor network and system activity.

How they occur: Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks overload cloud and network systems, interrupting access and triggering service disruptions.

Prevention: DDoS attacks may be prevented and mitigated by using DDoS protection services, installing traffic filtering, and deploying content delivery networks (CDNs) to handle extra traffic.

How it occurs: Inadvertent data deletion, corruption or theft can result in irreversible data loss, disrupting operations and exposing sensitive data that could also violate data privacy regulations.

Prevention: Back up data on a regular basis, develop data classification and retention policies, utilize versioning features, use Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools, and teach employees about data management and policy adherence.

Consider the following methods for increased security in a public cloud setting:

Also read:

A private cloud environment dedicates resources to a single business, allowing for greater control, privacy, and security. Private clouds offer the additional assurance of data, applications and assets being isolated inside a dedicated environment. Still, private cloud security requires many of the same measures as other cloud environments.

A mix of technology, processes, and strategic planning is required to handle these challenges of private cloud security.

How they occur: Private clouds still need to be configured properly, and misconfigurations can lead to exposed data, accounts, applications and other assets.

Prevention: Conduct frequent security audits and vulnerability assessments, and automate configurations wherever possible to reduce human error. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is one good tool for making sure that cloud environments are configured properly.

How it occurs: A lack of redundancy can cause system disruptions.

Prevention: Make sure your cloud environment includes redundancy, failover measures, and load balancing.

How they occur: Compliance issues can be somewhat easier in private clouds, particularly if they can avoid geographical data location issues, yet compliance challenges still exist.

Prevention: Keep up with compliance needs by utilizing Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) tools.

Consider the following ways to help ensure the security of private cloud systems.

Also read: What is Private Cloud Security? Everything You Need to Know

A hybrid cloud architecture integrates both public and private clouds. It enables businesses to take advantage of the flexibility of public cloud resources while keeping sensitive data in a private cloud. Data exchange across the two environments is possible, providing a balance of cost-efficiency and security. That flexibility introduces complexity, however, and hybrid cloud security must combine on-premises and cloud security controls to protect data both within and between environments.

Hybrid clouds enable enterprises to benefit from the scalability and flexibility of public clouds while protecting more sensitive data within their own infrastructure. However, hybrid cloud security brings particular challenges.

How they occur: As identifying roles and responsibilities is critical in hybrid clouds, shared responsibility can lead to misunderstandings and unintended security weaknesses.

Prevention: Understand your responsibilities and manage data, access, and application security across all environments, including incident response.

How they occur: Managing application security across multiple environments requires consistent rules, controls, authentication, and monitoring in order to prevent possible vulnerabilities and ensure compliance throughout the hybrid configuration.

Prevention: Integrate security into early development (Shift Left) and track issues and fixes with DevSecOps tools.

How they occur: Because hybrid clouds disseminate data across multiple locations, the danger of illegal access or data exposure increases.

Prevention: The intricacies of data encryption, data classification, and access control require careful management. Use encryption techniques to safeguard data in transit and at rest and use DLP and access management tools to control risks.

How they occur: Meeting compliance standards across hybrid settings with multiple vendors and architectures may be difficult.

Prevention: Preventive measures include activating cloud providers built-in compliance capabilities, centralizing compliance and auditing, and automated monitoring and reporting.

How it occurs: Integrating cloud systems can be difficult because of the variety of technologies, potential conflicts, and the need to ensure continuous data flow.

Prevention: Plan integration carefully, maintain seamless data flow, and use API and configuration best practices to secure data across all environments.

There are a number of ways to properly secure hybrid cloud environments while maintaining their advantages.

Also read: What Is Hybrid Cloud Security? How it Works & Best Practices

Multiple public and private clouds are used concurrently in multi-cloud environments. Their design is decentralized, with apps and data dispersed across several cloud providers. Redundancy, cost minimization, and flexibility are all advantages, but maintaining security across various providers may be complicated, requiring uniform security solutions, policies and practices for protection.

Enterprises confront a variety of difficulties in exchange for the flexibility and scalability benefits of multi-cloud environments, not the least of which is a significantly larger potential attack surface. These are some of the major multi-cloud security threats.

How it occurs: Attackers acquire unauthorized access to cloud accounts, which may result in data theft, resource manipulation, and other malicious actions.

Prevention: Even in the case of stolen credentials, strong authentication and access controls and proper configuration management can help secure cloud accounts.

How they occur: With data scattered across many cloud environments, the risk of unauthorized access, data leaks, and breaches rises.

Prevention: Implement strong access controls and authentication and make sure that each cloud instance is properly configured.

How they occur: With a greater cloud attack surface to defend, DDoS attacks can be harder to prevent.

Prevention: For continued service availability, implement DDoS prevention and mitigation methods such as traffic filtering, infrastructure hardening, and overprovisioning.

How they occur: Unsecured accounts and excessive permissions can allow unauthorized access, data disclosure, and resource exploitation.

Prevention: Preventive measures include appropriately configuring IAM policies, conducting regular audits, following the principle of least privilege, and securing privileged accounts.

How they occur: Using third-party suppliers and services in a multi-cloud system might introduce extra risks, and the risk extends to software dependencies in the software supply chain.

Prevention: To successfully manage these risks, third-party risk management (TPRM) tools are a good place to start.

How it occurs: Multi-cloud has many of the same challenges as other cloud computing approaches, only multiplied across more environments.

Prevention: Prioritize visibility and monitoring technologies that can track risks across cloud environments.

See also:

Securing multi-cloud setups requires thorough planning and a well-defined strategy. There are a number of considerations and approaches.

Read more: What Is Multi-Cloud Security? Everything to Know

A multi-tenant cloud architecture is the most common public cloud architecture. It allows multiple customers, or tenants, to utilize the same environment while keeping their data separate. This architecture is frequently used in infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) environments, where data exchange is carefully managed to maintain security and isolation. The degree of multi-tenancy varies based on the architecture of the cloud service provider and the individual needs of users or organizations.

While multi-tenancy provides considerable cost savings and resource efficiency, it also raises a number of security and privacy challenges. These issues must be addressed in order to ensure the safe coexistence of multiple uses inside shared cloud environments.

How they occur: Vulnerabilities, weak passwords, misconfigurations, and API and access control issues matter more than ever in multi-clouds.

Prevention: Strong access management, authentication, encryption, proper configuration, and employee training all play a role, and technologies like DLP can detect problems early.

How it occurs: Inadequate tenant isolation might lead to data contamination or illegal access.

Prevention: Improve tenant isolation by using virtualization, proper controls and configurations, and cloud network segmentation.

How they occur: Meeting regulatory criteria can be made more difficult due to shared resources, data commingling,and even the geographical location of cloud services.

Prevention: Make sure your cloud service provider can meet your specific compliance needs, and DLP and automated data classification can help implement the right controls for the right data.

Access restrictions, data segregation, and compliance must all be prioritized when it comes to securing multi-tenant cloud settings. Consider the following strategies:

Read more: Multi-Tenancy Cloud Security: Definition & Best Practices

Every type of cloud environment public, private, hybrid, multi-cloud, and multi-tenant has its own set of risks and demands. From the shared responsibilities of public cloud to the tailored protection of private clouds, the strategic balance of hybrid cloud, and the challenges of multi-cloud and multi-tenant environments, adopting robust security measures is critical for protecting data and ensuring compliance and business continuity. The good news is that cloud service providers are generally pretty good at securing their environments. By doing their part and applying best practices for each environment, businesses may protect their data and resources while reaping the benefits of cloud computing.

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How to Secure the 5 Cloud Environment Types - eSecurity Planet

What impact does Telegrams heavy encryption have on performance?

Telegram, the popular messaging app known for its emphasis on privacy and security, has gained a reputation for its robust encryption protocols. While this level of security is undoubtedly a boon for users concerned about their privacy, it begs the question: what impact does Telegrams heavy encryption have on performance?

Encryption, defined: Encryption is the process of encoding information in such a way that only authorized parties can access it. In the context of messaging apps like Telegram, encryption ensures that messages and other data are protected from unauthorized access.

Telegrams encryption is based on the MTProto protocol, which employs end-to-end encryption to secure user communications. This means that messages are encrypted on the senders device and can only be decrypted the intended recipient. While this level of security is commendable, it does have implications for performance.

One of the primary impacts of Telegrams heavy encryption is increased data usage. The encryption process adds additional data to each message, resulting in larger file sizes. This can lead to higher data consumption, especially for users on limited data plans or in areas with slow internet connections.

Furthermore, the encryption process itself requires additional computational resources. As a result, devices may experience a slight delay when sending or receiving messages, particularly when dealing with large files or in areas with poor network coverage. However, its worth noting that these delays are generally minimal and may not be noticeable to most users.

FAQ:

Does Telegrams encryption impact battery life?While encryption does require additional computational resources, the impact on battery life is generally negligible. Modern smartphones are equipped to handle the encryption process efficiently, and any potential drain on battery life is minimal.

Can I disable encryption on Telegram?No, encryption is an integral part of Telegrams security measures and cannot be disabled. It ensures that your messages and data remain secure and private.

Is Telegrams encryption secure?Telegrams encryption protocols have been praised security experts for their robustness. However, its important to note that no encryption system is entirely foolproof, and vulnerabilities can emerge over time. Telegram regularly updates its encryption protocols to address any potential weaknesses and maintain a high level of security.

In conclusion, while Telegrams heavy encryption does have some impact on performance, such as increased data usage and slight delays in message transmission, the trade-off for enhanced privacy and security is well worth it for most users. As technology continues to advance, it is likely that any minor performance issues will be further mitigated, ensuring a seamless and secure messaging experience for Telegram users.

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What impact does Telegram's heavy encryption have on performance? - TickerTV News

What are the implications of Telegrams move towards encrypted voice calls?

Telegram, the popular messaging app known for its strong focus on privacy and security, recently announced its plans to introduce end-to-end encrypted voice calls. This move has significant implications for both Telegram users and the broader landscape of secure communication platforms.

What is end-to-end encryption?End-to-end encryption is a security measure that ensures only the sender and recipient can access the content of a message. It prevents any intermediaries, including service providers or hackers, from intercepting or deciphering the communication.

Why is Telegrams move significant?Telegrams decision to implement end-to-end encryption for voice calls is significant because it enhances the overall privacy and security of its users. Voice calls have traditionally been more vulnerable to interception, making this move a crucial step towards protecting sensitive conversations.

What are the benefits for Telegram users?The introduction of encrypted voice calls on Telegram provides users with an additional layer of security. It means that conversations will be protected from unauthorized access, ensuring that private discussions remain private. This feature will be particularly valuable for individuals and organizations that handle sensitive information or have a need for secure communication.

What are the broader implications?Telegrams move towards encrypted voice calls sets a precedent for other messaging platforms to prioritize user privacy. As more users become aware of the importance of secure communication, the demand for encrypted services is likely to increase. This could lead to a shift in the industry, with other platforms following suit and implementing similar security measures.

ConclusionTelegrams decision to introduce end-to-end encrypted voice calls is a significant development in the realm of secure communication. By prioritizing user privacy, Telegram is setting a standard for other platforms to follow. This move not only benefits Telegram users providing them with enhanced security, but it also highlights the growing demand for encrypted services in todays digital landscape. As technology continues to evolve, it is crucial for communication platforms to adapt and prioritize the protection of user data.

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What are the implications of Telegram's move towards encrypted ... - TickerTV News

This sponsored article is brought to you by NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

In our digital age, where information flows seamlessly through the vast network of the internet, the importance of encrypted data cannot be overstated. As we share, communicate, and store an increasing amount of sensitive information online, the need to safeguard it from prying eyes and malicious actors becomes paramount. Encryption serves as the digital guardian, placing our data in a lockbox of algorithms that only those with the proper key can unlock.

Whether its personal messages, health data, financial transactions, or confidential business communications, encryption plays a pivotal role in maintaining privacy and ensuring the integrity of our digital interactions. Typically, data encryption protects data in transit: its locked in an encrypted container for transit over potentially unsecured networks, then unlocked at the other end, by the other party for analysis. But outsourcing to a third-party is inherently insecure.

NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Brandon Reagen, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

But what if encryption didnt just exist in transit and sit unprotected on either end of the transmission? What if it was possible to do all of your computer work from basic apps to complicated algorithms fully encrypted, from beginning to end.

That is the task being taken up by Brandon Reagen, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Reagen, who is also a member of the NYU Center for Cybersecurity, focuses his research on designing specialized hardware accelerators for applications including privacy preserving computation. And now, he is proving that the future of computing can be privacy-forward while making huge advances in information processing and hardware design.

In a world where cyber threats are ever-evolving and data breaches are a constant concern, encrypted data acts as a shield against unauthorized access, identity theft, and other cybercrimes. It provides individuals, businesses, and organizations with a secure foundation upon which they can build trust and confidence in the digital realm.

The goal of cybersecurity researchers is the protection of your data from all sorts of bad actors cybercriminals, data-hungry companies, and authoritarian governments. And Reagen believes encrypted computing could hold an answer. This sort of encryption can give you three major things: improved security, complete confidentiality and sometimes control over how your data is used, says Reagen. Its a totally new level of privacy.

My aim is to develop ways to run expensive applications, for example, massive neural networks, cost-effectively and efficiently, anywhere, from massive servers to smartphones Brandon Reagen, NYU Tandon

Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), one type of privacy preserving computation, offers a solution to this challenge. FHE enables computation on encrypted data, or ciphertext, to keep data protected at all times. The benefits of FHE are significant, from enabling the use of untrusted networks to enhancing data privacy. FHE is an advanced cryptographic technique, widely considered the holy grail of encryption, that enables users to process encrypted data while the data or models remain encrypted, preserving data privacy throughout the data computation process, not just during transit.

While a number of FHE solutions have been developed, running FHE in software on standard processing hardware remains untenable for practical data security applications due to the massive processing overhead. Reagen and his colleagues have recently been working on a DARPA-funded project called The Data Protection in Virtual Environments (DPRIVE) program, that seeks to speed up FHE computation to more usable levels.

Specifically, the program seeks to develop novel approaches to data movement and management, parallel processing, custom functional units, compiler technology, and formal verification methods that ensure the design of the FHE implementation is effective and accurate, while also dramatically decreasing the performance penalty incurred by FHE computations. The target accelerator should reduce the computational run time overhead by many orders of magnitude compared to current software-based FHE computations on conventional CPUs, and accelerate FHE calculations to within one order of magnitude of current performance on unencrypted data.

While FHE has been shown to be possible, the hardware required for it to be practical is still rapidly being developed by researchers. Reagen and his team are designing it from the ground up, including new chips, datapaths, memory hierarchies, and software stacks to make it all work together.

The team was the first to show that the extreme levels of speedup needed to make HE feasible was possible. And by early next year, theyll begin manufacturing of their prototypes to further their field testing.

Reagen who earned a doctoral degree in computer science from Harvard in 2018 and undergraduate degrees in computer systems engineering and applied mathematics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2012 focused on creating specialized hardware accelerators for applications like deep learning. These accelerators enhance specialized hardware that can be made orders of magnitude more efficient than general-purpose platforms like CPUs. Enabling accelerators requires changes to the entire compute stack, and to bring about this change, he has made several contributions to lowering the barrier of using accelerators as general architectural constructs, including benchmarking, simulation infrastructure, and System on a Chip (SoC) design.

My aim is to develop ways to run expensive applications, for example, massive neural networks, cost-effectively and efficiently, anywhere, from massive servers to smartphones, he says.

Before coming to NYU Tandon, Reagen was a former research scientist on Facebooks AI Infrastructure Research team, where he became deeply involved in studying privacy. This combination of a deep cutting-edge computer hardware background and a commitment to digital security made him a perfect fit for NYU Tandon and the NYU Center for Cybersecurity, which has been at the forefront of cybersecurity research since its inception.

A lot of the big problems that we have in the world right now revolve around data. Consider global health coming off of COVID: if we had better ways of computing global health data analytics and sharing information without exposing private data, we might have been able to respond to the crisis more effectively and sooner Brandon Reagen, NYU Tandon

For Reagen, this is an exciting moment in the history of privacy preserving computation, a field that will have huge implications for the future of data and computing.

Im an optimist I think this could have as big an impact as the Internet itself, says Reagen. And the reason is that, if you think about a lot of the big problems that we have in the world right now, a lot of them revolve around data. Consider global health. Were just coming off of COVID, and if we had better ways of computing global health data analytics and sharing information without exposing private data, we might have been able to respond to the crisis more effectively and sooner. If we had better ways of sharing data about climate change data from all over the world, without exposing what each individual country or state or city was actually emitting, you could imagine better ways of managing and fighting global climate change. These problems are, in large part, problems of data, and this kind of software can help us solve them.

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The Future of Fully Homomorphic Encryption - IEEE Spectrum