Integral security architectures ensure consistent protection of cloud-based assets. This involves identifying and translating business requirements into control and protection policies.
Secure architectures effectively segment lower risk public services from more sensitive backend services that need additional protection, using encryption both during transmission and at rest on cloud servers.
1. Security Policy Management
Security policy management refers to how an organization approaches cloud-based data and systems. This involves policies and procedures on how to handle breaches, hacking attempts and other threats as well as the roles and responsibilities assigned for cloud security by all involved – users to IT staff alike.
Your security policy should include setting clear security goals and outlining steps necessary to meet them. This may involve using firewalls, encryption technologies and backup solutions as means of protecting data while creating backup copies for critical functions. Furthermore, penalties for noncompliance should also be laid out, from verbal warnings in personnel files through to fines or legal actions against external activities if necessary.
Once your security policy has been written and distributed to all stakeholders and cloud service users, its distribution should be prioritized to help prevent breaches from within your own company. Employees should read their copies regularly so they are aware of threats as well as how to act if something arises that threatens security.
Based on the nature of information stored and managed in the cloud, compliance with regulations such as GDPR or CCPA may be necessary. Thankfully, technologies exist that can assist in this regard, including cloud security posture protection (CWPP). These solutions compare security configurations against best practices to identify required actions – making achieving regulatory goals simpler than ever! Additionally, using solutions which also include active security tasks like hardening operating systems or applications, whitelisting or performing integrity checks may further strengthen your cloud architecture’s security posture.
2. Access Control
The access control layer of cloud security architecture protects your data against cyber attacks by only allowing authorized personnel to view it and systems, using encryption or other measures, for instance by isolating multiple isolated areas so as to prevent attackers from breaking in through one point of entry.
Identity and Access Management (IAM), for instance, plays an integral part in cloud security architecture. IAM tools enable administrators to assign specific privileges within applications hosted on cloud servers; additionally they create an effective firewall between company networks and cloud applications.
IAM systems have become even more essential in an age of DevOps and rapid deployment, where there is often no time between app releases. They help ensure that configuration of apps cannot be altered without IT’s consent – an integral aspect of secure architecture that protects against threats that exploit vulnerabilities in software.
Cloud security architecture must also include key components like root of trust, firmware resilience and stack validation processes to help ensure an attack doesn’t affect the firmware layer of systems, detect corruption quickly and restore them back to their known good states.
Firmware resilience utilizes cutting-edge technologies to increase security against attacks on firmware layers. This feature offers protections such as boot integrity and memory encryption to make it harder for hackers to gain entry, and reduce downtime due to firmware corruption. Intel processors now come equipped with Intel Platform Firmware Resilience technology which is designed to keep critical data safe. Stack validation analyzes every piece of software within a system in order to detect issues before IT teams and is integral in providing a healthy secure architecture.
3. Network Security
With more of our infrastructure shifting into the cloud, there are more points of attack. Therefore, network security in the cloud must be part of an overall security architecture plan, taking into account how people use and access it as well as any data flows that involve or come through it.
An effective security architecture can assist in the identification and design of systems’ weak spots, creating efficient solutions. Furthermore, it streamlines security measures to make them consistent over time as cloud deployment and redeployment takes place; additionally it makes security designs more coherent and straightforward thereby improving security levels over time.
Security protocols like firewalls, VPNs and IDS to protect networks connecting to a cloud environment from external threats is important, while network segmentation helps restrict attacks by isolating machines into smaller pieces so that should a hacker gain entry they are less likely to move laterally across networks.
Security tools used during redeployment or deployment include encryption, which converts text and data into encrypted ciphers that only authorized parties have access to, firmware resilience (to reduce attacks against machines’ firmware layers) and validation techniques that ensure all components and software in a system stack are complete and error free before being delivered back to an architect for deployment or redeployment.
Security architecture should also take into account how cloud-native events are collected and managed to enable SOCs (security operations centers) to operate effectively in hybrid and multicloud environments. This includes collecting logs and event data in the cloud for exportation to a SIEM and using automation for rapid threat detection, response, and recovery in case of breaches.
4. Identity Management
Identity management (IAM) is integral to creating a secure cloud architecture, as it ensures all users and systems that access a cloud service are authenticated, authorized and audited. IAM includes governance tools such as directory services and multifactor authentication enablement as well as separation of duty analysis, access certification and compliant provisioning – these capabilities form the basis of Zero Trust network access that limits privileges only to those authorized.
Cloud service models that involve shared responsibility models – IaaS (virtual host provision), PaaS (platform tools and middleware), and SaaS (complete application delivery via CSP) present unique security challenges. Since responsibilities for providing services can be distributed among multiple entities, no clear boundary can protect it against attacks.
As such, cloud environments present many of the same vulnerabilities found in on-premises environments; such as loosely configured user roles granting more privileges than intended or required; malicious applications exploiting an operating system to gain privileged access to sensitive data can also present serious vulnerabilities.
The multilayered approach of a security architecture framework helps mitigate vulnerabilities by isolating applications and cloud assets into logically isolated zones that only permit authenticated users access – this can be accomplished using IAM solutions which offer authentication as a service and identity as a service (IDaaS), segmentation or IAM services respectively. By employing these measures together they help prevent any unwarranted connections as well as any lateral movement from the cloud provider into on-premise networks or external cloud providers while providing comprehensive protection of applications themselves.
5. Data Security
A strong cloud security architecture should encompass three key domains – confidentiality, integrity and availability. Confidentiality refers to safeguarding information against unapproved access by attackers or staff with insufficient permission levels within an organization; integrity refers to making sure systems and data behave according to expectations; losses could occur if someone changes data without adequate verification processes in place; availability refers to having data ready when needed, such as during customer withdrawal transactions or to support system operations.
Enterprise architects must employ various tools in order to secure their cloud environment, including security monitoring tools that detect and mitigate malware; cloud workload protection (CWP) software to protect cloud applications against malicious code or exploits; encryption technologies like Intel(r) Software Guard Extensions (SGX), which uses memory enclaves to separate data from other applications in order to increase security isolation; as well as Intel(r) Software Guard Extensions (SGX).
As enterprises adopt more automated Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) approaches and transient workloads, it’s crucial that they consider how this technology impacts their security architecture. Because environments change dynamically due to rapid onboarding/offboarding of assets, traditional security tools may not always be capable of providing protection policies in these environments, thus increasing risk.
Enterprises should carefully consider the security implications of cloud migrations, with potential misconfiguration a potential risk. Given their complex nature and lack of an identifiable separation between network applications and cloud applications, misconfiguration may occur during migration processes resulting in vulnerabilities being exposed that CASBs or similar security tools can address through managing connections between networks, apps, devices in the cloud.
