To mitigate the risks, many organizations took steps to isolate their traffic, such as using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) links and encryption. "Amazon's approach to networking in its cloud is the same: We maintain packet-level isolation of network traffic and support industry-standard encryption," she says. "Because Amazon Web Services' Virtual Private Cloud allows a customer to establish their own IP address space, customers can use the same tools and software infrastructure they're already familiar with to monitor and control their cloud networks."

That's all well and good, but common mistakes, such as weak authentication methods or an open management port can undo all of the work providers did to secure those infrastructures.

"One problem with moving to the cloud is that you have to manage your resources remotely," said Carson Sweet, CEO of , a cloud security provider. "Many, many companies leave management ports open to the world. Fraudsters are waking up to this."

The big worry Sweet discussed was that poor security practices in the cloud could lead to infections back in the on-premise network. Many companies, wary of cloud threats, simply will not move the most sensitive data into the cloud.