Encryption is the word that comes up most often in cloud security, but the point where systems actually collapse is almost never "the encryption itself" — it's "who handles the keys, how, and where." AES-256 itself looks unbreakable for the next several decades even once quantum computers arrive, yet if you look at AWS security incidents, 90%+ happen because "keys and credentials were exposed the wrong way." The 2017 Verizon Wireless S3 bucket exposure, the 2019 Capital One SSRF + IAM Role theft, the 2022 Uber MFA bombing — in every case the core wasn't "the encryption algorithm was broken" but "the key management scheme fell apart."