More often than not, I hear executives from various industries using different wordings to convey the same idea: ‘We are safe because our data is stored in the cloud, and we don’t keep anything on premises.’ While using cloud storage and computing services offers numerous advantages to businesses, does the mantra of ‘We’ve delegated the burden of cybersecurity to a cloud provider; therefore, it’s not our issue to deal with’ hold water?”

The recent catastrophic ransomware attack on CloudNordic and its results clearly disprove this notion.

On the night of Friday, August 18th, 2023, CloudNordic, a Danish cloud services provider, fell victim to a devastating ransomware attack that literally took the company offline and threatened its very existence. The next morning, the company’s website posted the following message (translated from Danish): “Unfortunately, during the night of Friday 18-8-2023 at 04:00, CloudNordic was exposed to a ransomware attack, where criminal hackers shut down all systems. Websites, e-mail systems, customer systems, our customers’ websites, etc. Everything. A break-in that has paralyzed CloudNordic completely, and which also hits our customers hard… As we cannot and do not want to meet the financial demands of the criminal hackers for ransom… Unfortunately, it has proved impossible to recreate more data, and the majority of our customers have thus lost all data with us… We are now winding down the activities that have driven azero.cloud. We thank all the customers who have been with us over the years, and we hope that you have progressed well” (source: CloudNordic).

That’s the reality: a company trusted by numerous clients fell victim to a devastating attack that cost its clients everything. The public posts published by the company do not accept responsibility. To put it plainly and bluntly, the message is ‘We sustained an attack, and now it’s your problem.

This is not intended to express malicious joy but to serve as a warning to those who still believe that being on the cloud is a panacea for all cybersecurity issues. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

A review of all service providers and their preparedness for catastrophic cyber incidents should be an integral part of the cybersecurity preparedness building process. It should be regularly reviewed, updated, and conclusions should be drawn regarding providers that do not meet the standard.

In a reality where ransomware attacks strike every 11 seconds, businesses and corporations cannot afford to do otherwise. Transferring the burden bears the risk of having the damages handed back to you.

If you have any questions or need expert advice, CIPTeam is here to provide peace of mind during routine operations and enhance resilience during crises. @CIPTeam #ransomware #crisismanagement #crisis #databreach