Cloud's Dirty Little Secret: It Was Misconfigs All Along
Karl Ots
BSides NYC 2025 (0x05) · Day 1 · Tech - Other
In "Cloud's Dirty Little Secret: It Was Misconfigs All Along," Karl Ots, a Cloud Security Lead and consultant at EPAM, delivers a pragmatic and critical assessment of the persistent threat posed by cloud misconfigurations. Drawing from extensive experience as both a cloud builder and breaker, Ots argues that despite the industry's focus on advanced exploits and zero-days, simple misconfigurations remain the overwhelmingly dominant cause of data breaches in cloud environments. The talk emphasizes that this isn't a new problem, but one that continues to plague organizations due to ingrained human error, reliance on insecure defaults, and the complexity of assembling secure cloud components.
AI review
Competent, well-organized tour of cloud misconfiguration categories with honest framing and useful tool callouts. Nothing here will surprise anyone who's been paying attention, but Ots delivers it cleanly and practically — this is the kind of talk that earns its slot at a BSides, not a Black Hat.