You have used cloud computing if you have ever used an online email account, stored documents on a cloud drive or logged into a work application through a web browser. Cloud isn’t abstract anymore; it’s where the majority of today’s businesses store data, run applications and provide services to customers. Business data protection is a concern wherever the data resides.
Cloud security has come to the rescue. If you’re new to the concept, it’s important to first understand what cloud security is, why it is needed, and how it works.
What Is The Cloud?
Cloud computing is a type of computing that provides computing resources, storage, software, processing power and networking capabilities, or all of these through the internet and not via a local computer or server. Rather than having its own physical data centre, a business leases data centre resources from a cloud provider and only pays for the resources utilised.
Cloud computing comes in three service models. Infrastructure as a Service: This delivers basic computing infrastructure like virtual machines, storage, and so on. Platform as a Service provides developers with the infrastructure and tools to create applications without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure. Software as a Service provides the applications on-demand via the Internet. These can be services such as email, CRM systems, co-working applications, and file storage solutions. For most companies, the SaaS model is the most popular cloud computing approach—applications are accessed by workers from any device, from any location.
The resource provided covers what cloud security is and how it affects these different deployment models, providing a detailed breakdown of the core concepts associated with cloud security.
Cloud Security Is A Critical Issue
If data resides in a third-party environment and is accessed via the internet, then there are different new types of risk. The traditional concept of security is defined by a closed and known network of computers and a physical boundary. That boundary isn’t necessarily present in the cloud. Users use applications on personal devices, at home, at the airport and from a myriad of locations and connections.
This change brings on exposure. Without proper access controls, the wrong individuals can have access to sensitive data. Without encryption, data being transmitted can be read by anyone. Private files can be made public if the resources are misconfigured, for instance, if a storage bucket is opened to the public internet.
Cloud security is the practice that focuses on avoiding such results. It involves the policies, technologies and controls that safeguard cloud environments, the data stored within them and the applications they host.
A Model For Sharing Responsibility
It’s essential to understand the concept of shared responsibility model, especially if you are just starting out in your business. An organization that migrates to the cloud doesn’t give the cloud provider all of their security concerns. Rather, it is split up.
The cloud provider takes care of the infrastructure, the data centres, the hardware, networking, and the hypervisor that enables virtualization. Everything the customer deploys on top of that infrastructure belongs to the customer, the one using the cloud. This involves setting access permissions appropriately, encrypting sensitive information, managing users, and tracking activity to detect any signs of unauthorized access.
By dividing this way, even if the cloud provider has a super secure infrastructure, the customer has the ability to put their data at risk through their own actions. If a cloud provider is given little or no control over whether or not a breach occurs, it could be due to one of several reasons: the employee has too many permissions, the storage container is open to the public, or the employee has a weak password on an administrative account.
The first step to any robust cloud security approach is to grasp and embrace this collective responsibility.
There Are Key Risks In Cloud Environments
Cloud environments have a number of different types of risks that occur more frequently, and identifying them allows organizations to prioritize their security measures and allocate them accordingly.
Misconfiguration
Misconfiguration has been the top reason for cloud security incidents since the beginning. Cloud services configured with default and incorrect settings, overly permissive access policies, unencrypted storage and offline logging, can lead to serious consequences. Cloud resources can be so quickly spun up, so easily and so quickly, and when teams are moving quickly, security is considered an afterthought, not a requirement.
Credential Compromise
Credentials are used in cloud environments – usernames, passwords, API keys and authentication tokens. If the credentials are compromised via phishing, retrieved from other compromised services, or accidentally left in code repositories, an attacker can gain access to cloud resources without setting off any alarms at the infrastructure level. The multi-factor authentication is one of the best solutions to avoid this risk, as it demands a second form of verification in addition to the password.
How To Ensure That Interfaces And Apis Are Secure
Cloud services make their services available via APIs. APIs can be mis-designed or not properly secured and used to gain access to data or functionality not intended to be public. Cloud-based organizations that create integrations between cloud applications or implement API gateways that expose APIs to users outside of the company must approach those APIs with the same security as other attack surfaces.
Excessive Access And Privilege
The more access that is made available to users or applications, the more severe the risk when they’re compromised. A user with access to the whole cloud environment can cause much more damage if his account is compromised than a user who can only read a subset of those files. The principle of least privilege, which means only those users and systems who need access to something should have access to it, helps to ensure a limited blast radius should there be a security failure.
Getting Saas Applications Specified
Certain security concerns apply to SaaS applications. SaaS software is provided by a third party and is used via a browser, so the application itself, its infrastructure and its back-end systems are all the responsibility of the SaaS provider. The customer is responsible for protecting their own data in the application, ensuring the appropriate access to it, as well as the security settings they have in their account.
Shadow IT is a typical challenge in Saas environment. Staff members install new applications without authorization from IT or security, as they see a need to do so for their to-do list. These unauthorized applications could deal with sensitive business data without the controls, oversight and vendor review that sanctioned software would.
The security problems encountered in a complex, multi-application cloud environment are well-known. The challenge of keeping an eye on all those SaaS tools performing various functions, each with its own access control, APIs and communication abilities only increases when the organization is using many at once. As more and more enterprises adopt SaaS applications, and the interdependencies between applications continue to increase, it is critical that organizations understand the security risks associated with a multi-SaaS environment.
Security Controls And Features With A Central Focus
There are some basic controls on which effective cloud security at any level of maturity is built.
IAM sets the rules for access to information and to services. It contains authentication mechanisms, role-based access policies and account provisioning/deprovisioning as employees join and leave an organisation.
Encryption keeps data safe, no matter if it’s being stored at rest in cloud databases and file systems, or in transit between users and cloud services. The security of the encryption keys are crucial; encryption itself is as secure as the security of the keys that can be used to decrypt it.
Logging and monitoring gives visibility of what is going on in cloud environments. If there are no access logs, configuration changes or system behaviours then it can be extremely difficult to detect any activity that isn’t supposed to be there or determine where a breach originated.
Cloud security posture management tools continuously evaluate cloud configurations against security baselines and highlight misconfigurations that can be exploited and deviations from expected cloud security states as they happen.
Overall, the cloud data security landscape is evolving, as businesses grapple with new threats from artificial intelligence, growing regulatory mandates, and complex multi-cloud configurations. Keeping up-to-date with data security trends in the enterprise allows businesses to become familiar with the direction the threat landscape is going and where investing in controls is most appropriate.
Where To Go From Here?
Cloud security is not an offering from the cloud nor is it a project that you finish. It is a continuous practice and demands constant care as cloud infrastructure expands, evolves and gets exposed to new threats. When someone is just getting started with cloud security, whether they are an IT professional, a business decision-maker, or a stakeholder looking to learn more about how their organization is handling data protection, it all starts with the basics: Understanding the shared responsibility model, what data resides in the cloud and who has access to it, and making sure that basic security controls such as multi-factor authentication and encryption are implemented.
Organizations can then incrementally develop more advanced posture management, monitoring, incident response, and vendor risk management capabilities as they become more advanced with cloud adoption.
Frequently Asked Questions
So, What Exactly Is Cloud Security?
Cloud security is the collection of practices, technologies and policies used to safeguard data, applications and infrastructure deployed to cloud environments from unauthorized use, data loss, and other security risks. It can range from limiting who has access to a cloud account and encrypting data to monitoring activity for any possible signs of a breach.
Can Sensitive Business Data Be Safely Stored In The Cloud?
While it is possible to achieve a high level of security with cloud storage, the level of security relies on the organization’s access control, encryption, and monitoring methods. A significant number of breaches are not a result of compromising the cloud provider’s infrastructure, but from the customer’s failure to properly secure data or provide too much access to users or applications.
What Is The Worst Security Blunder Done By Novices?
One of the most common and significant errors is taking cloud security as a sole responsibility of the cloud provider. The shared responsibility model provides the underlying infrastructure, while the customer is responsible for securing their data, accounts and configurations.
