Uncovering Security Risks in the Cloud: Best Practices for Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM). Many companies are now relocating their data to the cloud, but the increasing use of the cloud also increases the associated uncontrolled risks.
According to a Gartner report, the majority of successful attacks on cloud services result from misconfiguration. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) has therefore grown in popularity in recent years. Put simply, this technology cleans the cloud environment, warns the company of possible security risks and can fix some problems automatically. There are no additional configuration costs and users benefit from scalable provisioning and visibility into the security status.
Cloud Security Posture Management basics
As the cloud environment expands, companies must be able to monitor their sensitive data in the cloud and protect it from misconfigurations. Cloud Security Posture Management makes it possible to consolidate possible misconfigurations and to create a transparent platform for the transfer of information. CSPM can expose problems such as lack of encryption, improper management of encryption keys, excessive account permissions, and other risks.
In addition, software tools such as Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) are increasingly being used in conjunction with CSPM. A CASB secures the flow of data between the internal IT architecture and the cloud environments and extends a company's security guidelines beyond the internal infrastructure.
The advantages of CSPM at a glance
• Finding misconfigured network connections
• Assess data security risk and identify excessively high account permissions
• Continuous monitoring of the cloud environment to detect policy violations
• Ability to automatically correct the misconfigurations in some cases
• Compliance with common best practice standards such as SOC2
Reasons for using Cloud Security Posture Management
Some human error can leave vulnerabilities in even the most robust and secure cloud networks. For example, when developers are under pressure to deliver DevOps data, they may rush to launch new virtual machines that can leave the network unprotected. CSPM helps companies proactively identify and minimize cloud security risks.
In recent years, CSPM has evolved from a misconfiguration reporting tool to a tool that can fix problems automatically. In this way, CSPM can identify accesses, check compliance with guidelines, and identify and mitigate risks. In addition, CSPM can also integrate security procedures into DevOps processes. This makes it easier for the IT team to resolve issues ranging from cloud security settings to service configurations. Companies that have multi-cloud platforms also benefit from the interoperability of CSPM between risk monitoring and automatic problem resolution.
Cloud Security Posture Management Best Practices
Here are some key best practices that organizations should keep in mind when using CSPM:
- Consideration of cloud-specific benchmarks
Companies should monitor the security situation of their cloud using cloud-specific benchmarks created by the Center for Internet Security (CIS). It should be ensured that their security practices are designed to take into account the dynamic nature of the cloud. - Quantifying the risk and prioritizing security breaches
Security teams can be overwhelmed by the number of security alerts, so the risk should be quantified and the most critical violations prioritized. The security breaches affecting mission-critical cloud assets should be given high priority. - Security checks in dev channels
With applications constantly using new resources, it becomes difficult to enforce security in the cloud. This is especially true for dynamic applications. If security vulnerabilities are discovered too late, this can have serious consequences. Misconfiguration checks should be defined as a pipeline so that when organizations run the deployment pipelines, they can immediately begin uncovering potential violations. In addition, remedial steps should be embedded in the re-deployment pipeline so that any misconfigurations discovered can be corrected immediately.
The unique nature of the cloud requires a new security concept that can address the distributed and dynamic cloud infrastructure. Cloud Security Posture Management automatically scans the cloud environment for security breaches and best practices to find issues and provides steps to resolve them. In some cases, the technology also automatically solves problems to strengthen security and reduce the burden on the security team. This enables companies to effectively counter the risks of their growing cloud infrastructure.
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