The drastic increase in active cloud users across a record number of cloud applications led to a sizable increase in cloud malware downloads in 2022 from 2021, after remaining close to flat in 2021 compared to 2020. Over 25% of users worldwide uploaded documents daily to Microsoft OneDrive, while 7% did so for Google Gmail and 5% for Microsoft Sharepoint. The most significant change in cloud application use in 2022, compared to 2021, was the marked increase in the percentage of users uploading content to the cloud. “That is why it is imperative that more organizations inspect all HTTP and HTTPS traffic, including traffic for popular cloud applications, both company and personal instances, for malicious content.” Rise in uploads to cloud apps means rise in malware-delivered downloads “Attackers are increasingly abusing business-critical cloud apps to deliver malware by bypassing inadequate security controls,” said Ray Canzanese, Threat Research Director, Netskope Threat Labs. Researchers examined how these cloud security trends are shifting and advise organizations on how to improve their security posture based on those shifts. Over 400 distinct cloud applications delivered malware in 2022, nearly triple the amount seen in the prior year, and 30% of all cloud malware downloads in 2022 originated from Microsoft OneDrive, according to Netskope.Ĭloud applications are widely used by businesses, a fact not lost on attackers, which view these apps as an ideal home for hosting malware and causing harm.

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