Cloud data security: An empirical study of user awareness, perceived risks and protective measures

Cloud-based storage services have grown exponentially, offering many advantages, such as scalability, affordability, and instantaneous data access. However, the increased reliance on servers owned and operated by third-party providers for cloud storage raises concerns regarding data security and vulnerability efficiency. Therefore, this study investigated the vulnerability of cloud-based storage services following a quantitative approach and using a random sampling methodology and online surveys to gather data from professionals. The survey data was analyzed descriptively to summarize the responses and to provide an overview of the responses. Statistical techniques such as frequency distributions, means, and percentages were measured using SPSS. Results revealed that cloud service users were familiar with the prevailing threats such as ransomware, zero-day vulnerabilities, data sabotage, encryption, misconfiguration, insider threats, and overconfidence resonating from the usage. A substantial portion, representing 40.9%, emphasized the implementation of two or more security measures as critical steps for enhancing cloud storage security, 22.7% recommended Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), 13.6% each mentioned Access Control and management, Employer Training and Awareness, and Regular Audit and Monitoring. 9.2% each, advocated for Data Encryption, Misconfiguration leading to data loss, and Manual Backup, while 4.5% each proposed measures like Regular patch Update, Integration of AI for threat detection like Quantum Resistance Encryption, and Implementing Zero Trust Principles. Recommendations and proposed measures crafted from participant insights were validated by industry professionals with expertise in cloud-based services.