As cloud computing and adoption continues to transform industries worldwide, there’s significant worry about the security of both the infrastructure and the sensitive data uploaded to the cloud, as well as the complexity of DevSecOps as more applications are built within cloud environments.

According to recent statistics, 81% of organizations experienced a cloud-related security incident over the last 12 months, with almost half (45%) suffering at least four incidents during the same time frame. These incidents include data leakage, privacy breaches, accidental exposure, non-compliance, and lack of visibility/transparency. To address these risks, organizations are turning to a variety of solutions like cloud security review, cloud security posture management, cloud workload protection, and offensive security approaches like cloud penetration testing.

Implementing some form of cloud security testing is essential to identify, understand, exploit, and remediate critical security weaknesses within cloud environments. There’s no shortage of cloud security testing options designed to mitigate these risks with most focused on misconfigurations; however, many only scratch the surface without accurately assessing how controls stand up against real-world cyber-attacks. By working with skilled assessors who can simulate specific scenarios and identify unintended privilege escalation, organizations can significantly reduce all types of risk to their cloud environments.

This guide illuminates the current challenges in securing the cloud, the approach offensive security takes through cloud penetration testing, and the differences and advantages of investing in CPTs as part of a cloud security program.