Cloud security misconceptions have dominated the IT industry since the cloud became a practical choice for hosting infrastructure fifteen years ago. There are many Cloud Security Myths about whether it is viable to host services in the cloud while maintaining security and regulatory compliance.
Since those early days, the IT sector and the cloud have changed beyond all recognition, and the usefulness and strength of the cloud computing model are now broadly accepted.
Despite the fact that the cloud has changed, Cloud Security Myths continue to circulate, notably those regarding cloud security. Previous versions of cloud security myths were overly pessimistic. Today, they are just as prone to overly optimistic cloud compliance and security views.
What is Cloud Security?
Cloud security is a collection of procedures and tools to protect organizations from external and internal threats. As businesses embrace digital transformation and include cloud-based tools and services in their infrastructure, it is crucial to have strong cloud security. To ensure a safe and secure cloud computing environment for the organization’s operations and data management, this helps protect sensitive data, apps, and resources from potential hazards.
Security risks have become more complex due to how quickly the digital world changes, particularly for cloud computing companies. Organizations frequently have little control over how their data is accessed and transferred on the cloud. Without actively attempting to increase cloud security, firms run a lot of risks when handling client information in terms of governance and compliance.
What are the Cloud Security Myths vs Facts?
Here are a few Cloud Security Myths:
Myth 1: More Security Tools Implies Better Security
People generally tend to have Cloud Security Myths that having more tools increases cloud security.
On the contrary, having more security tools does not automatically increase security. The Oracle and KPMG Cloud Threat Report 2020 states that too many technologies are required to safeguard public cloud environments, according to 70% of respondents polled. Each employs more than 100 distinct security controls on average. Several security providers, diverse solutions, and blocking various attack channels cause gaps. And those openings give attackers access opportunities.
Too many security options combined with complex cloud infrastructure and non-cooperative solutions result in a lack of shared intelligence and a risky design.
Implementing tools and resources to simplify cloud security management and help take security control is essential if these gaps are to be closed.
Myth 2: The CSP alone is responsible for security
One of the biggest cloud security myths is that the cloud provider is fully responsible for security.
As a cloud customer, the end user organization still protects the data they upload to the service, according to the well-known “shared responsibility model.” Given that your duties differ depending on the services you’re using, it’s crucial to know exactly where your obligations lie when it comes to safeguarding cloud-native infrastructure.
Organizations fail to implement most of the several approaches to protect data in the cloud.
Myth 3: Successful Breaches Are the Result of Complex Attacks
The Cloud Security Myths that breaches are due to complex attacks is untrue. Although highly sophisticated attackers exist, most successful attacks do not necessarily result from their increasing sophistication. End-user mistakes and incorrect settings cause the vast majority of assaults.
Myth 4: Cloud Visibility is Simple and Easy
Another one of the cloud security myths is that visibility into the cloud is simple and easy. You must be fully aware of all relevant details as you are paying to use cloud resources, like how many accounts you have if your designers have released any new features, whether it has been set up correctly, any weaknesses it has, etc.
Unluckily, keeping track of all this information is far more difficult than most people believe. You can’t spot deviations in resource behavior if you don’t see how they ought to behave. Threats are extremely difficult to recognize and respond to in a timely manner without centralized dashboards.
Myth 5: Compliance is ensured when you use cloud security services
Another one of the cloud security myths we will discuss today is that compliance is ensured when you use a cloud security service. Many cloud service providers tout the compliance of their offerings with information security laws.
For instance, the S3 storage service from Amazon has received certification for compliance with SOC, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and other legal requirements. What does that signify, though? It does not imply that a data storage system based on S3 conforms to those criteria automatically. S3 can be utilized as a component of a PCI-compliant system thanks to its PCI compliance however doing so requires proper configuration. Any system built on S3 may become non-compliant due to a simple configuration error, and it is the user’s responsibility to ensure this doesn’t happen.
The good news is that if you use SentinelOne’s cloud security tool, it can help you be compliant.
Myth 6: A cloud security audit is not necessary for you.
CSPM and vulnerability management or scanning capabilities, are, in practice, a type of cloud security audit. But they’re not enough and miss out on other areas. For a broader context, you have to implement the best cloud security practices. Leading cloud security tools and platforms can offer the capability to effectively perform thorough audits. You have to look at security audits as a whole and not just consider vulnerability management or compliance. There are different areas or elements that cloud security tools and technologies address. So, for the best results, it’s important to combine top security solutions with the best security measures and practices.
Myth 7: Serverless functions and containers are inherently more secure
Cloud Security Myths that serverless functions and containers are fundamentally more secure are false. The ephemeral nature of containers, serverless functions, and their tendency for brief lifespans enhance security. Attackers find it challenging to establish a sustained presence in your system.
Although this statement is essentially correct, using event-based triggers from many sources gives attackers access to more targets and attack options. These cloud-native technologies can increase security when configured appropriately, but only if done properly.
Myth 8: The Cloud Is Generally Safer
This particular one in Cloud Security Myths is more of a factoid—a combination of some truth and some fiction.
In general, cloud providers are more dependable in operations like patching servers. Leaving things up to them makes sense, and cloud service providers have well-deservedly high levels of trust.
However, safeguarding everything across numerous clouds entails a number of steps, including managing identities, securing access, and routine auditing. There needs to be more end-to-end context for risk due to the increasing spread of workloads over numerous public and private clouds. The security flaws inescapable with inconsistent remedies only serve to worsen these problems.
Myth 9: Criminals Avoid Targeting the Cloud
Cyber criminals are targeting the cloud because:
- It’s a new technology so security gaps exist. The cloud is not secure by design or by default.
- Cloud infrastructures can grow increasingly complex. Organizations scale up and down. They can rent or remove new or existing cloud services. The interconnected nature of the cloud combined with the organization’s size makes it extra vulnerable.
- Attackers don’t care about surfaces necessarily. They care about their mission. They seek to exploit a customer’s resources, gain access to sensitive data, and manipulate them indirectly (or directly) into giving out confidential information. And in the year 2025, this is likely to occur more and more, be it on public or private clouds.
Myth 10: Businesses are leaving the public cloud
The cloud security myths that workloads are returning from the cloud are mainly made up of legacy suppliers that stand to gain financially from it being true. The majority of businesses haven’t switched cloud workloads back, in actuality. Most relocated people come from SaaS, colocation, and outsourcers rather than cloud infrastructure (IaaS).
This does not imply that all cloud migrations are successful. Instead of abandoning their cloud strategy and relocating apps to their original location, firms are more inclined to deal with issues as they emerge.
Myth 11: To be good, you must be a cloud.
Cloud-washing, or referring to things that are not cloud as cloud, may be unintentional and the consequence of valid confusion. But in order to raise money, increase sales, and satisfy ill-defined cloud expectations and objectives, IT companies and suppliers refer to a wide range of products as “cloud.” This leads to cloud security myths that an IT service or product must be in the cloud in order to be effective.
Call things what they are rather than depending on cloud-washing. Virtualization and automation are only two examples of the many other capabilities that can stand independently.
Myth 12: Everything should be done in the cloud
The cloud is a fantastic fit in some use cases, including highly variable or unpredictable workloads or those where self-service provisioning is crucial. However, not all workloads and apps are appropriate for the cloud. For instance, relocating a legacy program is typically not a solid use case unless it is possible to generate demonstrable cost benefits.
Not all workloads may benefit equally from the cloud. When appropriate, don’t be afraid to suggest non-cloud alternatives.
Myth 13: Cloud Breaches Always Start with Cloud Vulnerabilities
It’s a common misconception that cloud breaches are always start with cloud vulnerabilities. In reality, most major breaches don’t start in the cloud itself. Instead, attacks often begin with a compromised endpoint, a stolen identity, or an exposed secret—regardless of where the resources are hosted. High-profile incidents continue to make headlines, not because of inherent flaws in cloud infrastructure, but due to attackers exploiting gaps in digital security across hybrid environments, endpoints, and identities. Traditional security tools can miss these threats, allowing even small weaknesses to become entry points for bad actors. Effective cloud security needs to protect not just cloud workloads, but the entire environment. They will be stopping attacks wherever they start and providing unified, automated defenses that adapt to threats wherever they emerge.
Myth 14: Compared to on-premises infrastructure, the cloud is less secure
These cloud security myths are primarily a perception issue because there have been very few security breaches in the public cloud – most breaches continue to involve on-premises environments.
Any IT system is only as safe as the safeguards put in place to keep it that way. Because it pertains to their primary business, cloud service companies may more easily invest in robust security, building a better infrastructure.
Myth 15: Multi-Tenant (Public) Clouds Are Less Secure Than Single-Tenant (Private) Clouds
This myth in cloud security myths sounds logical: environments used by a single dedicated tenant organization are more secure than environments used by several organizations.
This, however, isn’t always the case. Multi-tenant systems “provide an additional layer of content protection… like tenants in an apartment building who use one key to enter the building and another to enter their individual apartment, multi-tenant systems uniquely require both perimeter and “apartment-level” security,” as stated in a CIO article on myths about cloud security. This makes it more difficult for outside hackers to access your system.
Why SentinelOne for Cloud Security?
Today’s cloud landscape demands a unified, AI-driven approach to security, and SentinelOne’s Singularity™ Cloud Security rises to the challenge with its AI-powered, agentless CNAPP. It’s a single platform that delivers deep visibility into your entire environment—containers, Kubernetes, VMs, and serverless workloads—empowering security teams to detect and neutralize threats in real time. With agentless CSPM, you can deploy in minutes, eliminate misconfigurations, and ensure multi-cloud compliance, while AI-SPM lets you discover AI pipelines, models, and assess AI services with advanced configuration checks and Verified Exploit Paths™. But that’s just the start.
- CWPP delivers active AI-powered defense across any cloud or on-premises environment, while CDR provides granular forensic telemetry and customizable detection for swift containment and expert incident response service. CIEM empowers you to tighten entitlements and prevent secrets leakage, EASM uncovers unknown assets and automates external attack surface management, and Graph Explorer visually correlates alerts across your cloud, endpoint, and identity assets to assess threat impact at a glance. By integrating seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines, SentinelOne enforces shift-left security early on. It monitors and detects threats continuously with over 1,000+ out-of-the-box and custom rules. KSPM ensures continuous protection and compliance for containerized and Kubernetes environments.
- SentinelOne uses no-code hyperautomation, comes with an AI security analyst, and delivers world-class threat intelligence.
- One platform. All surfaces. No blind spots. Zero false positives.
CNAPP Market Guide
Get key insights on the state of the CNAPP market in this Gartner Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms.
Read GuideConclusion
Organizational leaders tasked with cloud computing security must understand the common misconceptions around cloud computing security. Those who can distinguish between facts and Cloud Security Myths stand to gain significantly more from cloud computing and use it to advance their business and assist their customers securely and sustainably.
Companies adopting cloud technologies must build the appropriate security solution to defend against cloud-based risks and help protect the overall cloud surface, data, and assets.
Cloud Security Myths FAQs
No. Cloud platforms invest heavily in securing infrastructure—physical data centers, hypervisors, and networks. Their teams patch systems around the clock. In fact, many public clouds meet high assurance standards like ISO 27001 and SOC 2. The key is how you configure and use those services; misconfigurations, not the cloud itself, cause most breaches.
Not at all. Under the shared-responsibility model, providers secure the underlying infrastructure, while you manage data, identity, and configuration. You choose encryption keys, access policies, and network controls. Properly set up, you maintain full control over who can see or change your data, even when it lives off premises.
No. Providers secure “of the cloud” components—hardware, host OS, and virtualization layers. You’re responsible for “in the cloud”: your workloads, data, user permissions, and network settings. Ignoring your side of the model leaves gaps that attackers can exploit, so you still need to apply security best practices and continuous monitoring.
Passwords help, but they’re just one layer. Multi-factor authentication is essential to stop credential theft. You also need role-based access controls, just-in-time permissions, and session monitoring to guard against compromised credentials. Continuous visibility into login patterns and anomaly alerts rounds out a strong defense.
No. Compliance frameworks list required controls and audits, but passing a compliance check doesn’t guarantee you’re safe from novel threats. You still need real-time monitoring, vulnerability remediation, and incident response. Compliance is a baseline; security is an ongoing practice that adapts as attackers change tactics.
Logs and alerts are critical, but they’re reactive by nature. You need proactive measures—configuration hardening, automated misconfiguration scans, and continuous posture management—to prevent incidents in the first place. Alerts should tie into XDR or SOAR playbooks that contain and isolate threats before they escalate.
Cloud-native security tools often use pay-as-you-go pricing, making them affordable for SMBs. You avoid big up-front hardware or software costs. Many providers include built-in security features—like IAM, encryption, and basic threat detection—at no extra charge. Leveraging those and augmenting with targeted add-ons keeps costs in check.
Shift-left security applies just as well in the cloud. By embedding security checks into infrastructure-as-code templates and CI/CD pipelines, you catch misconfigurations before resources spin up. That avoids costly hotfixes on live environments and ensures new services launch with secure settings from day one.