Cloud vulnerability management: A full guide to cloud threats and best practices

As organizations increasingly adopt the cloud, protecting the IT environment has become a significant challenge. According to the latest IBM report, the average cost of a data breach in the public cloud reached $5.17M in 2024. Data in public, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments have more risks of being stolen than data stored on-premises or in private clouds. Securing cloud assets requires robust cloud vulnerability management. However, how can this effectively be implemented to safeguard your infrastructure and comply with industry standards? We gathered the top 8 best practices to help you manage cloud vulnerabilities and secure your business.

9 common types of cloud vulnerabilities

Cloud vulnerabilities are weaknesses, mistakes, or gaps within cloud infrastructure that can be exploited by attackers or unauthorized users to infiltrate an organization's environment, potentially causing significant damage. Cloud architects usually highlight these eight vulnerabilities that become the most common causes of attacks and breaches:

• Misconfigurations. These are mistakes in security settings in virtual machines (VMs), containers, data storage, etc, which are the most common causes of defense incidents in the cloud. Misconfigurations include weak password protocols, inappropriate permissions for public and private users, and other simple oversights that impact protection.
• Unencrypted data. All the critical data stored in the cloud should be encrypted to avoid theft. When sensitive information is stored without encryption, it becomes easily accessible to attackers who manage to bypass security defenses. This can lead to severe data breaches, exposing personal, financial, or proprietary information that can be exploited for malicious purposes.
• Unsecured API. APIs are essential to cloud computing, enabling communication between different systems. However, if not properly protected, they can become entry points for attackers. Unsecured APIs can expose sensitive data and permit unauthorized actions.
• Shadow IT. This vulnerability refers to any cloud resource deployed without the formal approval of an organization's IT department. This can lead to significant risks, as these unauthorized resources often lack proper oversight, standardization, and security measures. Without visibility or control over shadow IT resources, organizations risk exposure to backdoors, data leaks, and compliance violations.
• Poor visibility. Lack of visibility is also a vulnerability, as you can't protect what you can't see. Modern environments are constantly changing and rapidly expanding, so it is often hard to keep track of them all. Blind spots may lead to data leakage that remains unnoticed for long periods.
• Improper access management. Insecure identity and access management (IAM) arise when users or services have inappropriate permissions to resources they shouldn't access or don't need. Poor management of personnel accounts can result in exploitations such as account hijacking, malicious software, and brute-force attacks.
• Zero-day vulnerabilities. These are security or software flaws that lack an available patch or fix. As a result, these vulnerabilities often go undetected by many antivirus programs and other signature-based threat detection technologies. Upon exploiting such a vulnerability, attackers may aim to exfiltrate sensitive data, execute remote code, or block legitimate users from accessing their services.
• Insider threats. As we always expect threats from the outside, malicious actions from trusted users often go unnoticed. They occur when individuals within an organization misuse their access to sensitive information and cloud resources. Insider threats are also challenging to detect and mitigate because they originate from employees or partners with authorized access.
• Network-related vulnerabilities. Poorly configured network settings can expose cloud environments to unauthorized access, lateral movement of threats, and data exfiltration. Common risks include misconfigured security groups with overly permissive rules and a lack of network segmentation, which allows attackers to move freely. Poorly configured firewall rules can fail to block malicious traffic, while exposed management interfaces (SSH, RDP, API) increase the risk of credential-based attacks.

Read more: Cloud security monitoring: How to strengthen cloud protection

Why do you need cloud vulnerability management?

Robust vulnerability management cloud strategies can mitigate weaknesses by systematically identifying, assessing, and remediating protection weaknesses within an organization. Here's what cloud-based vulnerability management brings:

• Constant risk assessment: Risk management tools help discover known weaknesses in software, configurations, and network components. Regular scanning provides insights into potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers.
• Automated monitoring: Continuous monitoring detects new risks and changes in the cloud environment. Automated tools can alert teams immediately, allowing for rapid response and mitigation.
• Compliance maintenance: Vulnerability management in cloud computing helps meet security regulation compliance by ensuring systems are regularly scanned and weaknesses are addressed and documented.
• Patch management: By integrating with asset inventory and patch management systems, risk oversight solutions streamline deploying relevant patches and updates, reducing the exposure window.
• Configuration control: Vulnerability management in the cloud identifies misconfigurations and provides guidance on best practices to secure the environment, such as incorrect access controls or unsecured API endpoints.
• Threat intelligence integration: By incorporating threat intelligence, risk management tools can correlate weaknesses with emerging threats, enabling organizations to defend against trending exploits preventively.

Best practices for cloud vulnerability management

While cloud security vulnerability management offers numerous advantages, it is essential to implement it properly to harness its full potential. We consulted our security experts for the tips and essential practices they usually use when working with cloud vulnerabilities. They share these crucial seven:

1. Establish key performance indicators

The first step in establishing effective vulnerability oversight metrics is to define key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your organization's security goals. These KPIs will help you measure and track the efficiency and effectiveness of your management processes.

One of the most crucial KPIs is the Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR), which tracks the duration from when a vulnerability is identified to when it is mitigated. Monitoring this metric helps you ensure that weaknesses are addressed promptly, reducing the exposure window. In addition to this metric, our specialists also set the following:

• Vulnerability detection rate: The number of risks identified within a specific period. This helps you understand how effective your scanning and monitoring tools are.
• Vulnerability remediation rate: The percentage of identified weaknesses successfully remediated within a specific time frame.
• Unpatched vulnerabilities: The number or percentage of unpatched exposures within a predefined period. This KPI helps highlight areas that need immediate attention.
• Time to detect: The average time taken to detect a vulnerability from the moment it is introduced into the system or environment.
• False positive rate: The percentage of alerts or vulnerability identifications that were incorrectly flagged. A high rate could indicate inefficiencies in your scanning tools.
• Incident response time: The average duration from the detection of a reported incident to the initiation of remediation actions.

2. Configure policies

Risk assessment policies must be tailored to address organization-specific risks and cybersecurity needs while adhering to industry standards. It is crucial to configure them carefully at the very beginning to avoid additional weaknesses and non-compliance with regulations. Besides, our experts set and document Service Level Agreements (SLAs) within the organization's policies to establish clear benchmarks for performance expectations.

It is also essential to select a risk management tool with highly customizable security policy options. The right solution can assist you in setting policies that address various complexities within your organization.

3. Utilize automated scanners

One of the main pitfalls IT teams face with cloud vulnerability management is the lack of visibility. A vulnerability scanner can automate security tests, identify misconfigurations, and match your environment against a database of known vulnerabilities, helping you maintain compliance.

When selecting a vulnerability scanner, ensure it provides context for each vulnerability so you can prioritize fixes appropriately. For example, vulnerabilities in non-deployed containers may be less urgent than those in running workloads. Additionally, integrating code scanning into your CI/CD process can catch vulnerabilities before they are deployed live. It's also essential to scan for dependencies in third-party libraries and frameworks during the build process to ensure metadata availability. Finally, both external scans for internet-exposed systems and internal scans from the perspective of an attacker within your network are conducted to get a comprehensive understanding of your security posture.

4. Implement penetration testing

Regular, automated scanning is crucial for managing cloud vulnerabilities, but it has limitations, such as generating false positives or missing vulnerabilities entirely. Penetration testing complements vulnerability scanning by actively exploiting discovered weaknesses to demonstrate the potential impact on business operations. This process helps identify threats that scanning might miss and provides context for detected vulnerabilities.

Penetration testing requires manual exploitation of weaknesses, which demands advanced security skills for successful execution. N-iX can assist by providing proficient experts who offer comprehensive testing services tailored to an organization's needs. Our specialists are experienced in simulating real-world attacks, identifying complex vulnerabilities, and delivering actionable reports with remediation guidance.

5. Prioritize vulnerabilities

Organizations operate with limited resources such as time, budget, and personnel. Prioritizing vulnerabilities ensures these resources are allocated efficiently, focusing on protecting assets that support business continuity and regulatory compliance.

To effectively prioritize findings, security teams must align their efforts with the organization's business goals. This alignment is vital because not all risks are equal in their impact on critical processes. For example, vulnerabilities in applications that hold sensitive customer data demand immediate attention due to the significant risks to customer trust and potential legal consequences.

6. Choose management solutions that seamlessly integrate

While many protection solutions offer impressive features, it's crucial to consider their compatibility with your existing IT and cybersecurity architecture. Your risk management solution must integrate seamlessly with your current IT environment. Chosen data and visualization tools should precisely match potential vulnerabilities within your architecture. Management solutions must enhance, not alter, your existing infrastructure, harmonizing with what is already in place.

Additionally, a risk management tool is only one of the other defense tools your organization uses. Therefore, it is crucial to identify and integrate with all cybersecurity programs and solutions you utilize, including log management systems, Security Configuration Management (SCM), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), and others.

7. Stay ahead with proactive patch management

Regular patching is essential for mitigating weaknesses in cloud environments. Cybercriminals often exploit outdated software, unpatched operating systems, and known security flaws to gain unauthorized access. A proactive patch management strategy helps organizations minimize these risks by ensuring all systems remain up to date.

Our expert security engineers always establish a systematic patch management process to identify and remediate vulnerabilities, reducing risk exposure swiftly. By leveraging automated patch deployment workflows and a risk-based prioritization strategy, they ensure critical updates are applied seamlessly without disrupting operations. Our emergency patch protocols provide rapid response capabilities to neutralize urgent security threats before they escalate.

Our cloud experts also maintain meticulous patch compliance tracking to guarantee that cloud assets always meet industry security standards. To maintain stability across environments, they implement comprehensive rollback and contingency plans so systems remain operational even in the rare case of patch-related issues. With such a complex and proactive approach to patch management, you can achieve security, efficiency, and reliability.

8. Force cross-team collaboration for protection

Lastly, one of the most efficient cloud vulnerability management best practices is well-coordinated teamwork. Organizations must cultivate an environment where security is everyone's responsibility. Risk oversight should not be confined solely to IT and cybersecurity teams.

The success of a weakness management program depends on strong collaboration among development, engineering, and security teams. This collaboration fosters mutual understanding of protection concerns, optimizes resource allocation, establishes security priority lists, and enhances operational efficiency.

Read more: Cloud security assessment: 9 steps to security resilience

Optimize your cloud vulnerability management with N-iX

If you want to protect your cloud infrastructure, set proper policies, and comply with industry regulations, N-iX experts are here to help you. With over 2,200 professionals on board and 22 years of experience, we have a strong team to help you remediate all the potential weaknesses and strengthen your defenses.

N-iX adjusts to data security regulations by complying with PCI DSS, ISO 9001, ISO 27001, and GDPR standards. With plenty of experience in different industries like healthcare, fintech, supply chain, and others, our cloud and DevOps specialists can help you implement the necessary frameworks to identify and avoid risks at every stage of your cloud journey. Being an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner, Microsoft Solutions Partner, and Google Cloud Platform Partner, N-iX guarantees that your cloud solutions will be constructed on a robust and reliable foundation.