“Cloud threat landscape is evolving rapidly”: Google study warns that hackers are targeting third parties and software vulnerabilities to gain entry

• A Google report shows that attackers are turning to software vulnerabilities due to weak credentials.
• Vulnerabilities now account for 44.5% of cloud breaches, exploited within days
• Third-party SaaS integrations are increasingly used for data theft and access purposes.

To break into cloud environments, cybercriminals are relying less on weak credentials and more on vulnerabilities in third-party software, according to a new Google study.

The Cloud Threat Horizons report claims that as of early 2025, most compromises still relied on weak or missing credentials. However, during the second half of the year, attackers began to increasingly exploit vulnerabilities in externally managed software.