Cloud Security

Are you sure you’re managing the cloud security effectively or even correctly?

The advent of cloud security revolutionized the way businesses operated, providing on-demand access, massive scalability, more excellent business continuity, as well as a variety of other benefits, not having to use expensive physically-based data centers.

Cloud Security Posture Management

Even as more businesses are moving to the cloud, however, they still think about the traditional security of the data center. They’re still not coming to the realization cloud security has to be dealt with differently and using a different method. This will be a problem for organizations as the cloud becomes more critical to business, and they start to consider the implications of Cloud Security Posture Management or CSPM.

However, there’s a lot of activity and many sources of access to the cloud to be a viable solution. Secure your cloud requires an in-depth view of every configuration, asset, and change, as well as the capability to identify risk constantly. Teams often have difficulty changing their mindset. 

Here are some common issues I’ve witnessed teams unfamiliar with CSPM confront and the best ways to make those difficulties opportunities.

Challenge 1: Unbalanced Approach

The biggest hurdle that teams face about cloud security is changing how they have previously approached security in data centers before. One of the significant mindset shifts is the realization that security should not be left to security personnel within a separate unit. Cloud-based infrastructure is developed in the form of code, and automation is the central element which means that security is integrated into the complete development lifecycle. The trick is to get everyone to recognize the roles and responsibilities of each person in the life cycle of a product.

This can achieve through the strategic planning process that includes brainstorming, collaboration, and buy-in, not just within teams but also from senior management. This shift in perspective will need team members to know how security must be integrated throughout the deployment process.

Challenge 2: Not Considering Cloud Security Early

However, many teams do not consider security, or often, overall governance until it’s late. It doesn’t matter if they lack enough funds, believe they’re not ready for the capacity, or are not on their radar. Delaying cloud security could make an enterprise vulnerable to security breaches and non-compliance, among other risky issues. On the other hand, companies may have adopted a too sloppy approach and implemented such stringent security measures that prevent their ability to fully realize the potential of cloud computing and DevOps for the coming years.

Thinking about cloud security must begin early, which means installing the best tools, the correct methods, and the right people. It’s never too late to start because safety should be integrated into your workflow right from the beginning. It’s not enough to set up a process, however, but to ensure that it is agile enough to adjust to the needs of a continuously evolving cloud-based environment.

Challenge 3:  Lack of Education

Implementing an actual CSPM program to keep an eye on your cloud environments is a crucial step to ensure cloud security. However, many organizations rely on the technology alone, believing that just using a CSPM or using vendor-specific capabilities is enough, which leaves their team uninformed about the active responsibility they have to take on. Businesses that wish to stay current with their cloud security should focus on continuous education and upskilling in traditional security that is applied to cloud computing and the best practices of the industry and cloud fundamentals. 

Contact our team who are willing to take it further and connect with our experts from the industry within the company. You can also utilize free learning tools provided by major cloud service providers to ensure that your team’s knowledge base is vast and constantly evolving.

Fourth Challenge: Think CD/CI covers you.

Companies are often fooled into thinking that they have cloud security in place by correctly incorporating safeguards into their CI/CDpipeline, believing that they’ll ensure the perfect implementation if they discover difficulties in the pipeline. However, this is rarely the case because changes are often made in the cloud outside the channel. Cloud providers can make updates to configurations, and templates are changed without going through the correct procedure (humans aren’t flawless) and many other documented alterations, making it difficult to track everything.

To reduce this, you should have a strategy to monitor your cloud, in addition to the controls for your pipeline to ensure that you don’t only be able to see the development process and what’s been put into use, but also be able to see the changes happening outside of your pipeline and develop a plan of action to deal with that change, too.

Challenge 5: Unaware about the Cloud Security Baseline

Additionally, many companies do not know whether their assets have been set up correctly, conforming, and secured within the cloud and in multi-cloud environments. It means that they cannot reap the benefits of scaling up in the cloud without having visibility into the assets they have within the cloud and how that’s changing in time.

Begin by defining a set of requirements for your business to govern what is allowed within the cloud, for example, CIS, as well as NIST, are the industry-standard frameworks that can help you define your security practices and then utilize CSPM instruments to get insight across your entire cloud infrastructure to assess your assets against the standard to ensure you are aware of any future and current shifts and rectify any issues fast.

Cyber Security Experts

Need cyber security assistance by creating a risk assessment plan? Reach out to our Cisco Cyber security experts at rogue logics today! Because we care for your privacy.