What are the most common cloud misconfigurations that lead to data breaches in AWS or Azure?

All answers to this question.

The biggest issue I see is "IAM bloat." People often give users or services "Admin" access because it’s easier than figuring out the exact permissions needed. This violates the principle of least privilege. If those credentials are stolen, the attacker has the keys to the entire kingdom. Another big one is leaving default "Allow All" rules in Security Groups during testing and forgetting to close them. You should be using automated CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) tools to scan for these daily. In 2025, nearly 80% of cloud breaches were due to these simple user errors.

   Answered 2025-08-25 by Heather Bennett

Have you looked into Infrastructure as Code (IaC) scanning to catch these mistakes before the resources are even deployed?

   Answered 2025-08-26 by Patrick Sullivan

• IaC scanning is a lifesaver. By integrating security into the CI/CD pipeline, you can block any deployment that includes a public S3 bucket or an unencrypted database. It’s part of the "shift left" movement in security. Instead of fixing a hole in a running server, you stop the hole from ever being built. It saves so much stress for the security team and keeps the developers accountable.

     Commented 2025-05-27 by Russell Peterson

Always enable "Block Public Access" at the account level for your storage buckets. It’s a simple toggle that prevents 90% of the horror stories you hear about.

   Answered 2025-08-28 by Raymond Jenkins

• Simple but effective! I’d also add that turning on CloudTrail logs is essential so you actually have a record of who changed what when things go wrong.

     Commented 2025-08-29 by Pamela Reed