Cloud security requires specific skills and technologies, but there are solutions available.
A powerful cloud security solution combines scale and accessibility with on-premise control of sensitive data for maximum protection against attackers, especially when combined with encryption technology.
Security
Cloud security concerns center around data and applications hosted on third-party environments, unlike traditional IT where most data was hosted in-house. With this shift in responsibilities come new threats which must be handled through different strategies.
Zero Trust policies are essential components of a strong cloud security posture, as they eliminate all default connections to provider’s infrastructure and mandate encrypted and authenticated communications between client devices and cloud environments. This approach strengthens overall security posture and can prevent many common attacks that exploit flaws in authentication, logging, or other core aspects of IT architecture.
Other essential aspects of strong cloud security postures include protecting application source code against security flaws (SAST) and malware, detecting compromised accounts and insider threats, as well as being able to identify and block all forms of data exfiltration.
Organizations can mitigate these risks by investing in a multilayered security strategy that includes identity and access management, network defense, virtual server security, application protection and threat intelligence. A solution tailored to cloud services should enable organizations to balance security with performance without impeding productivity through restrictive security restrictions.
Another key factor of an effective cloud security posture is being able to monitor and detect issues quickly and effectively. A well-designed solution will offer visibility and control across their infrastructure via monitoring security logs and telemetry from all components in the cloud, allowing organizations to quickly detect security breaches when they occur and respond promptly.
Finalists in search of an effective cloud security solution must select products compatible with their own technology stack in order to maximize efficiency and cut costs. IT tools designed for on-premise environments or one type of cloud often clash when used on another cloud environment and this can result in security gaps being left behind. Furthermore, many organizations find it cost effective to add their own tools into cloud environments in order to enable finer control of security configurations and policies.
Compliance
Cloud security poses new challenges to organizations, particularly without traditional perimeter controls in place. Securing enterprise-critical data and applications hosted on the cloud is made more complex yet vitally necessary, and organizations that rely on it without properly protecting it risk suffering significant productivity, revenue and brand damage losses as a result.
Data breaches can pose significant threats to customer trust and lead to regulatory fines for companies. Therefore, businesses must employ an holistic approach in their cloud security programs by identifying areas of vulnerability before developing and deploying robust protection and compliance capabilities designed specifically for cloud environments to maintain strong security postures.
An effective strategy to achieve and sustain cloud compliance should address several core components:
Security tools provide tools that enable you to encrypt data at rest and prevent its unauthorized transfer over the public internet or to other untrustworthy destinations, including DLP solutions such as cloud DLP that detect and stop leaks of sensitive or regulated information, while integrated identity and access management (IAM) solutions help manage cloud user privileges such as downgrading folder permissions to view-only status for specific users or revoking shared links.
An effective security platform should enable you to safeguard critical workloads by placing them within logically isolated sections of the cloud network. This enables a zone approach for isolating instances, containers and full systems from other customers’ resources while taking advantage of subnet gateway policies for subnet gateway security policies.
Implement cloud segmentation to minimize threats and make compliance with industry regulations simpler, by deploying business-critical resources and applications on virtual devices with the appropriate virtual private computing (VPC) or network (vNET) configuration, as well as applying consistent governance and compliance templates, auditing configuration deviations, etc.
Finally, to break free from implicit trust in the cloud and strengthen security posture. Zero Trust requires that all traffic to and from your environment must be verified – this includes authentication of internal and external traffic as well as only permitting trusted sources into your environment.
Data Privacy
From sensitive remote work files to precious home videos and photos, there is much data worth protecting in the cloud. No matter if it’s stored in a public, private, or hybrid cloud storage solution – data protection tools and technologies offer multiple methods for keeping information safe from attack, loss, or theft.
Encryption is a powerful method for safeguarding data that scrambles it so no one else can read it unless they possess the encryption key. This can help safeguard against theft of your information while it travels from cloud account to devices like computers or phones, such as those hosting it in the cloud. Other technologies, like virtual private networks (VPNs), provide secure connections between these devices and cloud servers storing your information.
CSPs typically provide standard cybersecurity tools with monitoring and alerting functions as part of their service offerings, but these may not meet all your enterprise’s security concerns – leaving gaps that leave your organization exposed to misconfigurations, vulnerabilities and privileged access.
As your IT systems migrate quickly to the cloud, they must interact with an array of applications and services that must also be protected – including endpoint security threats that arise on an endpoint level, software layer level and network level. Unfortunately, traditional security tools often miss these threats that arise at these three levels of these systems.
Security controls in the cloud must be tailored to cover threats at every layer, requiring various detection and prevention techniques ranging from identity and access management (IAM), threat intelligence, risk evaluation, user account protection as well as encryption of applications and data.
Understanding the shared responsibility model when it comes to handling security is of utmost importance for both cloud providers and their customers. This framework establishes which tasks fall solely within the responsibility of a CSP or customer or fall into both categories – by clearly understanding this allocation, organizations can ensure they utilize all available tools to secure their cloud-based data and systems.
Business Continuity
Business continuity plans (BCPs) are detailed plans containing procedures and instructions an organization must enact in the event of a disaster, such as fire or cyberattack, in order to preserve essential functions despite emergency situations and limit financial losses. BCPs help businesses protect their reputation while mitigating losses during an emergency situation by maintaining essential functions during or after emergency events, keeping essential services running and mitigating reputational risk.
As opposed to its common conception, business continuity covers far more than disaster recovery. It refers to all decisions and activities undertaken to ensure an organization remains functional in spite of operational interruptions, crises or disasters.
As part of creating a business continuity plan, the first step should be identifying which functions are critical and the maximum acceptable downtime of those functions. Next comes an analysis of potential risks and contingency plans designed to mitigate them; usually led by IT, but inclusive enough for everyone involved so everyone knows their expectations should disruption occur.
Once a business continuity plan has been developed and tested, it should be reviewed regularly in light of technology development and business environment changes. This process should involve all levels within an organization from top management down to frontline employees; additionally working closely with an IT security team provides invaluable input as to how best protect against threats and vulnerabilities.
Success of any business continuity plan ultimately rests upon an organization’s culture. Employees need to be educated on their responsibilities and potential consequences of breaching the plan; training should therefore form an essential element of any such program.
Cloud security is an intricate matter that necessitates both enterprise and CSP cooperation to keep businesses safe. Enterprises should understand which security responsibilities fall under their CSP’s purview and which they need to manage themselves, in order to minimize gaps in protection. Responsibilities could include managing user access privileges and encryption technologies as well as threat monitoring technologies and threat intelligence platforms.
