Cloud Security Threats in 2026: Top Risks and Fixes

What are the most important cloud security threats?

Cloud security threats in 2026 concentrate around identity abuse, misconfiguration, exposed APIs, ransomware, DDoS attacks, bot traffic, supply chain compromise, and data leakage. The fastest way to reduce risk is to inventory internet-facing assets, enforce least privilege, protect applications at the edge, monitor logs, and test incident response.

Key takeaways:

• Identity is the new perimeter. Stolen credentials, over-permissioned roles, and weak service accounts cause many cloud compromises.
• Misconfiguration remains dangerous. Public storage buckets, permissive security groups, exposed admin panels, and weak TLS settings can turn a small mistake into a breach.
• APIs are a primary attack surface. OWASP’s API Security Top 10 highlights broken object authorization, weak authentication, and unsafe consumption of APIs as core risks.
• Edge controls reduce blast radius. A layered model using CDN, WAF, DDoS protection, bot management, rate limiting, and origin hardening blocks many attacks before they reach cloud workloads.
• Visibility matters as much as prevention. According to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the global average data breach cost reached $4.88 million (IBM). Security teams need logging, alerting, and playbooks before an incident starts.

If you already run public websites, SaaS products, media platforms, APIs, or gaming services in the cloud, start by mapping exposed assets and applying edge security controls. Tencent EdgeOne can help consolidate CDN acceleration, Web Protection, DDoS Protection, Bot Management, and edge compute into one control plane.

What are cloud security threats?

Cloud security threats are events, actors, weaknesses, or attack paths that can compromise cloud-hosted applications, APIs, identities, data, or infrastructure. They are not limited to malware. A cloud security threat may be a stolen token, an exposed object store, a vulnerable dependency, a bot campaign, or an overloaded origin.

A practical definition is:

Cloud security threats are risks that exploit the shared, internet-connected, API-driven nature of cloud environments to reduce confidentiality, integrity, or availability.

That definition matters because cloud risk is different from traditional data center risk. In a private data center, teams often controlled the network boundary, hardware, and deployment flow. In cloud environments, teams provision infrastructure through APIs, ship code through CI/CD, connect third-party services, expose public endpoints, and delegate many infrastructure layers to providers.

Cloud security threats are not the same as cloud vulnerabilities. A vulnerability is a weakness, such as an unpatched framework or public storage bucket. A threat is the possibility that an attacker, bot, insider, or failure mode can exploit that weakness. A risk combines likelihood, business impact, and exposure.

Cloud threat model in one table

Cloud environments also use a shared responsibility model. Cloud providers secure facilities, physical infrastructure, and core cloud services. Customers still secure identities, data, access policies, application code, configuration, and exposed workloads. This model is described across provider security documentation and appears in frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0.

For internet-facing applications, the edge is part of the threat model. A request usually reaches DNS, CDN, TLS termination, WAF, bot controls, load balancers, API gateways, origins, databases, and observability systems. A failure at any layer can affect the whole application.

Tencent EdgeOne is designed for that edge layer. It combines acceleration and security so teams can place controls closer to users and attackers. For an overview of the platform capabilities, see the Tencent EdgeOne product overview documentation.

Why are cloud security threats increasing in 2026?

Cloud security threats are increasing because more business logic now lives behind public APIs, machine identities, SaaS integrations, and globally distributed applications. Attackers target the easiest path: stolen credentials, vulnerable software, misconfigured services, and unprotected endpoints. Defenders need controls that match cloud speed and internet scale.

Several industry signals show why the pressure is growing:

1. Credential and human factors remain central. Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report states that 68% of breaches involved a non-malicious human element, such as social engineering or errors (Verizon DBIR).
2. Vulnerability exploitation is rising. The same Verizon report states that exploitation of vulnerabilities as an initial access step grew 180% in the analyzed dataset (Verizon DBIR).
3. Breach costs are high. IBM’s 2024 report lists the global average breach cost at $4.88 million (IBM).
4. API risk is formalized and widespread. OWASP maintains a dedicated API Security Top 10, separate from the web application Top 10, because API failure modes deserve their own controls.
5. Identity-centric architectures are now standard. NIST SP 800-207 defines zero trust as a model where access decisions are continuous and resource-specific rather than based on network location (NIST SP 800-207).

The Cloud Security Alliance also tracks cloud-specific risks through its Top Threats research. CSA’s work repeatedly emphasizes identity, insecure interfaces, misconfiguration, and insufficient change control as cloud concerns (Cloud Security Alliance).

As of 2026, many teams are also dealing with AI-assisted development, faster release cycles, multi-cloud expansion, and more machine-to-machine traffic. These trends are useful for productivity, but they increase the number of secrets, APIs, dependencies, and policy decisions that security teams must govern.

For public applications, a modern cloud security program should not rely only on controls inside a virtual private cloud. It should stop malicious traffic before it reaches origins. That is where Tencent EdgeOne Web Protection, Tencent EdgeOne DDoS Protection, and Tencent EdgeOne Bot Management fit into a defense-in-depth model.

Top cloud security threats to prioritize

The most urgent cloud security threats are the ones that combine high exposure with high business impact: identity compromise, misconfiguration, vulnerable applications, API abuse, DDoS attacks, bot automation, data leakage, ransomware, supply chain compromise, and weak monitoring. Prioritize them by likelihood, exploitability, and blast radius.

1. Identity compromise and excessive privileges

Identity is often the shortest path into cloud environments. Attackers phish users, steal session tokens, compromise CI/CD secrets, abuse OAuth grants, or exploit over-permissioned service accounts. Once inside, they search for data stores, secrets, deployment systems, and lateral movement paths.

Common failure patterns include:

• Admin accounts without phishing-resistant MFA
• Long-lived access keys stored in code repositories
• Wildcard permissions such as *:*
• Shared service accounts with no owner
• Unused roles that still have production access
• CI/CD tokens that can deploy to multiple environments

Fixes:

1. Enforce MFA for all privileged accounts.
2. Use short-lived credentials for workloads.
3. Replace static keys with workload identity where possible.
4. Apply least privilege and review permissions quarterly.
5. Alert on impossible travel, unusual API calls, and new privilege grants.

2. Cloud misconfiguration

Cloud misconfiguration is dangerous because it is easy to create and hard to notice at scale. A single public object store, permissive network rule, disabled logging setting, or exposed database can create a direct path to sensitive data.

Examples include:

• Public read access on storage buckets
• Security groups allowing 0.0.0.0/0 to admin ports
• Origins accepting traffic directly from the internet
• Debug endpoints deployed to production
• TLS misconfiguration or expired certificates
• Missing access logs on critical resources

Fixes:

1. Use infrastructure as code with peer review.
2. Scan configuration continuously.
3. Block direct origin access where possible.
4. Use secure defaults for storage, networking, and TLS.
5. Create break-glass exceptions with expiration dates.

For applications served through EdgeOne, review origin and TLS settings with Tencent EdgeOne origin configuration documentation and Tencent EdgeOne SSL/TLS certificate documentation.

3. Vulnerable web applications and APIs

Application flaws remain a major cloud security threat because cloud workloads are usually internet-facing and updated frequently. Attackers exploit injection, broken authentication, insecure deserialization, server-side request forgery, and authorization bugs.

APIs deserve special attention. OWASP API risks include broken object level authorization, broken authentication, broken object property level authorization, unrestricted resource consumption, and unsafe API consumption (OWASP API Security).

Fixes:

1. Put APIs behind an API gateway or edge security layer.
2. Validate authentication and authorization on every request.
3. Use schema validation for request bodies.
4. Rate-limit sensitive endpoints.
5. Log identity, route, method, status code, and latency.
6. Test authorization with object-level cases, not just role-level cases.

EdgeOne supports web protection, rate limiting, and API protection controls. Start with Tencent EdgeOne Web Application Firewall documentation, Tencent EdgeOne Rate Limiting documentation, and Tencent EdgeOne API Protection documentation.

4. DDoS attacks and resource exhaustion

DDoS attacks target availability. Volumetric attacks flood networks. Protocol attacks exhaust connection handling. Application-layer attacks overload expensive routes such as search, login, cart, checkout, and API aggregation endpoints.

Cloud infrastructure can scale, but scaling alone is not a defense. If attackers force expensive compute, database queries, third-party API calls, or cache misses, the application can fail or generate large bills.

Fixes:

1. Put DDoS protection in front of public domains.
2. Cache static and semi-static content.
3. Rate-limit expensive endpoints.
4. Use bot challenges for suspicious behavior.
5. Keep origin servers private or restricted to trusted edge ranges.
6. Predefine incident thresholds and escalation paths.

For a broader strategy, use DDoS Protection Strategies and Best Practices and the Tencent EdgeOne DDoS Protection documentation.

5. Bot abuse and automated fraud

Bot traffic is not always a DDoS attack. Bots scrape prices, test stolen credentials, hoard inventory, spam forms, enumerate APIs, and abuse promotions. These attacks often look like normal HTTP traffic, which makes them hard to block with static IP rules.

Common targets include:

• Login and registration
• Password reset
• Checkout
• Search
• Promo code validation
• Content and pricing pages
• Public APIs

Fixes:

1. Separate verified bots, partner bots, suspicious bots, and malicious bots.
2. Use behavior, device, and request signals.
3. Add adaptive challenges only when risk is high.
4. Protect login with credential stuffing detection.
5. Monitor conversion impact when changing bot rules.

For edge-side controls, review Tencent EdgeOne Bot Management and Tencent EdgeOne Bot Management documentation.

6. Data leakage and weak encryption

Data leakage occurs when sensitive data moves outside intended boundaries. It can happen through public storage, logs, backups, analytics tools, exposed APIs, misrouted traffic, or overly broad third-party access.

Encryption helps, but it is not enough if identities can read decrypted data. A complete data protection plan includes classification, access control, key management, logging, retention, and deletion.

Fixes:

1. Classify data by sensitivity.
2. Encrypt data in transit and at rest.
3. Limit who can decrypt or export data.
4. Avoid logging secrets, tokens, and payment data.
5. Monitor bulk downloads and unusual query patterns.
6. Test backup restore and deletion workflows.

7. Ransomware and destructive attacks

Ransomware has evolved from endpoint encryption to cloud data theft, backup deletion, and extortion. Attackers may compromise identity systems, disable logging, delete snapshots, encrypt storage, and threaten to leak data.

Fixes:

1. Keep immutable or isolated backups.
2. Restrict deletion rights for backups and logs.
3. Monitor mass deletion and encryption events.
4. Segment production, staging, and backup accounts.
5. Rehearse restore procedures.
6. Store incident contacts outside the compromised environment.

8. Supply chain and CI/CD compromise

Modern cloud applications rely on open source packages, containers, CI/CD tools, SaaS services, and infrastructure modules. A compromised dependency or pipeline can ship malicious code into production faster than a manual attacker could.

Fixes:

1. Pin dependencies and verify package integrity.
2. Use software bills of materials where required.
3. Sign artifacts and container images.
4. Separate build and deploy privileges.
5. Protect CI/CD secrets with short-lived credentials.
6. Require approval for production changes.

9. Weak observability and slow response

Many cloud incidents become severe because teams cannot answer basic questions quickly: What changed? Which identity made the call? Which data was accessed? Which edge rule fired? Which origin received the request?

Fixes:

1. Enable audit logs for all production accounts.
2. Send edge, application, identity, and database logs to a central system.
3. Create detections for high-risk events.
4. Keep dashboards for availability, attack traffic, and error rates.
5. Run tabletop exercises.

EdgeOne supports real-time logging, analytics, monitoring, and alerts. See Tencent EdgeOne real-time logging documentation and Tencent EdgeOne monitoring and alerting documentation.

How to assess your cloud security risk

Assess cloud security risk by mapping assets, exposures, identities, data flows, controls, and incident signals. Do not start with a generic checklist alone. Start with what is internet-facing, what stores sensitive data, what can change production, and what would hurt customers if unavailable.

Use this six-step workflow.

Step 1: Inventory public assets

Create a list of:

• Domains and subdomains
• CDN distributions
• API gateways
• Load balancers
• Object storage endpoints
• Admin portals
• Origin IPs
• Third-party SaaS callbacks
• Mobile app API endpoints

For each asset, record owner, environment, data sensitivity, authentication method, logging status, and edge protection status.

Step 2: Map identity paths

List human and machine identities that can:

• Deploy code
• Modify infrastructure
• Read production data
• Change DNS or CDN settings
• Disable security controls
• Create new privileged accounts
• Delete logs or backups

Then identify identities with no owner, no recent use, no MFA, or excessive permissions.

Step 3: Classify data flows

Document where sensitive data enters, moves, and leaves:

• Browser to edge
• Edge to origin
• API to database
• App to third-party processor
• Logs to analytics
• Backups to storage
• Admin exports to laptops

This reveals where encryption, access control, masking, and retention policies matter.

Step 4: Score threats by likelihood and impact

Use a simple 1-to-5 scale. Do not overcomplicate the first pass.

Step 5: Validate controls with tests

For each high-priority item, test the control. Examples:

• Send a request directly to the origin IP.
• Attempt excessive login attempts from a test client.
• Confirm WAF logs show blocked payloads.
• Verify API rate limits return the intended response.
• Confirm audit logs capture privilege changes.
• Restore a backup into a test environment.

Step 6: Track risk reduction

Create a monthly risk review. Use metrics that engineers can influence:

• Number of internet-facing assets without owner
• Number of privileged identities without MFA
• Percentage of domains behind edge protection
• Number of APIs without rate limits
• Mean time to detect critical alerts
• Mean time to revoke exposed credentials

This method creates a bridge between cloud security threats and operational work. It also gives executives a clearer picture than a long list of abstract vulnerabilities.

For a full edge security model, use Edge Security Complete Guide: WAF, DDoS & Bot Protection.

How to mitigate cloud security threats with layered controls

Mitigate cloud security threats with layered controls across identity, configuration, application security, data protection, edge defense, monitoring, and incident response. No single product stops every attack. The goal is to prevent common attacks, reduce blast radius, detect abnormal behavior, and recover quickly.

Layer 1: Identity and access

Minimum controls:

• Phishing-resistant MFA for admins
• Least privilege access
• Separate production and non-production roles
• Just-in-time privileged access
• Short-lived workload credentials
• Quarterly access reviews
• Alerts for new admin grants

Layer 2: Secure configuration

Minimum controls:

• Infrastructure as code
• Policy-as-code checks
• No public storage by default
• Restricted admin ports
• TLS everywhere
• Centralized secrets management
• Configuration drift detection

Layer 3: Edge security

Minimum controls:

• CDN in front of public applications
• WAF for web exploits
• DDoS protection for availability
• Bot management for automation abuse
• Rate limiting for login and API routes
• Origin access restrictions
• Security headers

With EdgeOne, teams can combine these controls in one edge platform. Use Tencent EdgeOne CDN for acceleration and caching, Tencent EdgeOne Web Protection for application-layer defense, and Tencent EdgeOne DDoS Protection for availability protection.

Layer 4: Application and API security

Minimum controls:

• Secure coding standards
• Dependency scanning
• SAST and DAST where appropriate
• API schema validation
• Object-level authorization tests
• Request size limits
• Per-route rate limits
• Safe error handling

Layer 5: Data protection

Minimum controls:

• Data classification
• Encryption in transit and at rest
• Key rotation
• Tokenization or masking for sensitive fields
• Access logging for sensitive data
• Backup protection
• Retention and deletion policies

Layer 6: Detection and response

Minimum controls:

• Centralized logs
• Alert routing
• Runbooks
• Incident roles
• Tabletop exercises
• Forensic retention
• Post-incident reviews

Practical EdgeOne setup for a public application

Use this configuration workflow when putting a cloud-hosted application behind EdgeOne:

1. Add the site in EdgeOne and verify the domain.
2. Configure DNS so user traffic reaches EdgeOne.
3. Set the origin to your load balancer or application endpoint.
4. Enable HTTPS and upload or issue certificates.
5. Configure caching for static assets.
6. Enable WAF managed rules.
7. Add rate limits for login, search, checkout, and API routes.
8. Enable DDoS protection and bot management.
9. Configure real-time logs and alerts.
10. Test direct origin access and block it where possible.

Relevant setup references:

• Tencent EdgeOne Getting Started documentation
• Tencent EdgeOne CDN documentation
• Tencent EdgeOne cache configuration documentation
• Tencent EdgeOne Rule Engine documentation

Cloud security controls selection matrix

Choose cloud security controls based on attack path, asset criticality, response speed, and operational ownership. Identity controls protect access. WAF and API controls protect applications. DDoS and bot controls protect availability and business workflows. Logging and incident response connect all layers.

Build versus buy considerations

Some controls belong inside your engineering workflow. For example, threat modeling, dependency pinning, and authorization tests must happen in development. Other controls are more effective at the edge because they need scale, global reach, and low-latency enforcement.

Use edge controls when:

• The endpoint is public.
• The attack generates high traffic volume.
• The same rule applies across regions.
• You need protection before origin.
• You need rapid mitigation without redeploying application code.

Use application controls when:

• The decision depends on business logic.
• The request requires user-specific authorization.
• The application must validate object ownership.
• The control needs transactional context.

Strong programs use both. For example, a login route should use secure password handling and MFA inside the application, while EdgeOne handles bot detection, rate limiting, WAF rules, DDoS protection, and edge logging before the request reaches the origin.

For performance and security planning together, read Website Acceleration and Performance Optimization and The Complete CDN Selection Guide.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

The most common cloud security mistakes are treating cloud as a data center, trusting private networks too much, skipping ownership, ignoring APIs, and deploying controls without testing. Most mistakes are operational rather than purely technical. They can be fixed with clear ownership, automation, and routine validation.

Mistake 1: Leaving origins directly reachable

If attackers can bypass your CDN or WAF and hit the origin directly, edge controls lose value. This is common when origin IPs are exposed in DNS history, logs, certificates, or error pages.

How to fix it:

• Restrict origin access to trusted edge traffic.
• Rotate origin IPs after onboarding.
• Remove direct DNS records where possible.
• Monitor direct-to-origin requests.
• Use private connectivity where available.

Mistake 2: Applying one WAF policy to every route

A marketing page, login endpoint, file upload route, and payment API do not have the same risk. A single policy may be too strict for one path and too weak for another.

How to fix it:

• Group routes by function.
• Apply stricter controls to authentication and transaction routes.
• Use different rate limits by path.
• Monitor false positives during rollout.
• Keep an emergency bypass process with approval.

Mistake 3: Rate-limiting by IP only

IP-only rate limiting can fail with mobile networks, NAT, proxies, and distributed bots. It can also block legitimate users who share an IP.

How to fix it:

• Combine IP, account, session, path, method, and device signals.
• Use bot management for behavior-based detection.
• Apply lower limits to unauthenticated endpoints.
• Use adaptive challenges for suspicious sessions.

Mistake 4: Logging everything but reviewing nothing

Logs are useful only when teams can search, alert, and act on them. Raw logs without ownership become expensive storage.

How to fix it:

• Define critical detections.
• Route alerts to named teams.
• Keep dashboards for attack traffic and origin health.
• Review high-severity events weekly.
• Run incident drills using real log fields.

Mistake 5: Forgetting cost-based attacks

Attackers can create cost damage without fully breaching the system. They can force cache misses, expensive searches, image transformations, login attempts, or third-party API calls.

How to fix it:

• Cache safe content.
• Limit request sizes.
• Rate-limit expensive routes.
• Add bot controls to high-cost workflows.
• Set billing and usage alerts.

Mistake 6: Treating compliance as security

Compliance frameworks help, but passing an audit does not guarantee resilience against cloud security threats. Attackers do not follow audit scope.

How to fix it:

• Map controls to real attack paths.
• Test detection and response.
• Include APIs, bots, DDoS, and third-party services.
• Track risk reduction, not only checklist completion.

30-day cloud security action plan

A 30-day plan should focus on high-exposure, high-impact improvements: asset inventory, identity hardening, edge protection, API rate limiting, logging, and incident readiness. Do not try to solve every cloud security problem at once. Reduce the easiest attack paths first.

Days 1-5: Find what is exposed

Deliverables:

• List all public domains and APIs.
• Identify origin endpoints and admin panels.
• Mark assets that process sensitive data.
• Identify owners for each asset.
• Find assets without WAF, DDoS protection, or logging.

Questions to answer:

• Which domains are production?
• Which origins can be reached directly?
• Which APIs are unauthenticated?
• Which assets have no owner?

Days 6-10: Harden identity

Deliverables:

• MFA enforced for admins.
• Privileged roles reviewed.
• Unused access keys removed.
• Service accounts assigned owners.
• Alerts created for new admin grants.

Questions to answer:

• Who can change production?
• Who can delete logs or backups?
• Which identities have wildcard permissions?
• Which credentials are long-lived?

Days 11-15: Put edge controls in front of public apps

Deliverables:

• Critical domains routed through EdgeOne or equivalent edge controls.
• HTTPS enabled.
• WAF managed rules enabled.
• DDoS protection enabled.
• Origin access reviewed.

Use these references:

• Tencent EdgeOne Web Protection
• Tencent EdgeOne DDoS Protection
• Tencent EdgeOne security overview documentation

Days 16-20: Protect APIs and expensive routes

Deliverables:

• Rate limits on login, search, checkout, and API routes.
• Bot controls for authentication and transaction flows.
• Request size limits for uploads and APIs.
• API error dashboards.
• Test cases for object-level authorization.

Questions to answer:

• Which routes are expensive?
• Which routes are abused most often?
• Which APIs expose sensitive objects?
• Which endpoints lack authentication?

Days 21-25: Improve logging and alerts

Deliverables:

• Edge logs enabled.
• Application logs correlated with request IDs.
• Identity audit logs centralized.
• Alerts for DDoS spikes, WAF blocks, login anomalies, and origin 5xx errors.
• On-call routing tested.

Days 26-30: Test response

Deliverables:

• DDoS runbook.
• Credential exposure runbook.
• Public bucket runbook.
• API abuse runbook.
• Backup restore test.
• Post-incident review template.

Run one tabletop exercise with engineering, security, operations, and customer support. Use a realistic scenario: leaked CI/CD token, credential stuffing on login, or direct-to-origin DDoS.

Accelerate integration with Tencent EdgeOne AI Agents Skills

Tencent EdgeOne AI Agents Skills can help teams turn cloud security requirements into implementation tasks faster. Load the relevant EdgeOne skill into your AI assistant context, then ask for configuration plans, rule ideas, validation checklists, and migration steps that match your application routes.

Useful EdgeOne skills for cloud security work:

• waf-configuration
• ddos-protection-setup
• bot-management-guide
• cdn-setup-guide
• edge-functions-security
• api-protection-setup

Example prompts you can use after loading a skill:

• “Create a Tencent EdgeOne WAF rollout plan for a SaaS application with login, billing, and admin routes.”
• “Design EdgeOne rate limiting rules for /api/login, /api/search, and /api/checkout.”
• “Write an EdgeOne validation checklist to confirm origin traffic cannot bypass the edge.”
• “Generate an incident runbook for a Layer 7 DDoS attack using EdgeOne logs and alerts.”
• “Recommend bot management policies for credential stuffing and inventory scraping.”

Use AI output as a draft, not as final policy. Security owners should review rule scope, false-positive risk, business impact, and rollback steps before production changes.

FAQ about cloud security threats

Cloud security threats raise practical questions about priorities, tools, ownership, and implementation. The answers below are written for teams that run public cloud applications and need a direct path from risk awareness to action.

What is the biggest cloud security threat in 2026?

Identity compromise is often the biggest cloud security threat because one stolen credential or over-permissioned token can unlock many cloud resources. Prioritize MFA, least privilege, short-lived credentials, access reviews, and alerts for privilege changes.

Are cloud misconfigurations still a serious risk?

Yes. Misconfigurations remain serious because cloud resources are created quickly and often through automation. Public storage, open admin ports, direct origin exposure, and missing logs are common examples. Continuous scanning and infrastructure-as-code reviews reduce this risk.

How does a WAF help with cloud security threats?

A WAF helps block common web attacks before they reach cloud applications. It can detect malicious payloads, suspicious patterns, and exploit attempts. A WAF should complement secure coding, API authorization, rate limiting, and logging rather than replace them.

Why do APIs need separate protection?

APIs need separate protection because they expose business logic and data directly to clients, partners, and services. API attacks often abuse authorization, object access, request volume, and schema weaknesses. Use authentication, object-level authorization, schema validation, and rate limits.

Is DDoS protection necessary if my cloud provider can scale?

Yes. Scaling helps availability, but it can also increase cost when attackers force expensive compute, database queries, or cache misses. DDoS protection, CDN caching, bot controls, and rate limits reduce malicious load before it reaches origins.

How should small teams start with cloud security?

Small teams should start with five actions: enforce MFA, inventory public assets, put critical domains behind edge protection, enable logs, and rate-limit sensitive routes. These steps reduce common cloud security threats without requiring a large security team.

What is the difference between cloud security and edge security?

Cloud security covers identities, workloads, data, networks, applications, and operations inside cloud environments. Edge security protects traffic before it reaches cloud origins, using controls such as CDN, WAF, DDoS protection, bot management, TLS, and rate limiting.

What should I do next?

Start with your most critical public application. Inventory its domains, APIs, origins, identities, data flows, and logs. Then deploy layered edge controls with Tencent EdgeOne Web Protection and review the broader Edge Security Complete Guide.