Week 3 Learning Journal: Cloud Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Security Controls

During Week 3, I learned that the quick move to working from home and using cloud computing has had a big effect on cybersecurity. The COVID-19 pandemic made many businesses move their data and systems to the cloud much faster than they had planned. This made it easier to access things from afar and gave people more options, but it also added new security risks that attackers can use. This week, one of the main things we talked about was how to recognize the different risks and weaknesses that come with cloud environments and specialized technologies. I learned that cloud systems aren't always safe and still need to be set up, controlled, and watched over correctly. Incorrectly set up storage, weak authentication, and misunderstandings about who is responsible for what can all make systems very weak. We also talked about software and infrastructure weaknesses, like systems that aren't patched, protocols that are out of date, and virtual machines that aren't secure. This week, I also learned a lot about how mitigating controls work in cloud security. Companies can lower their risk by finding weaknesses before attackers do. They can do this with tools like vulnerability scanners, patch management, and configuration baselines. We also talked about how keeping systems up to date, using strong access controls, and using defense-in-depth strategies are all very important for keeping systems safe. This week helped me understand that cloud security isn't something you set up once and forget about. You need to keep an eye on it, have the right tools, and manage it proactively to stay ahead of new threats.

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