Cloud Security Best Practices

Delve into the core of cloud security and discover the best strategies to keep your digital assets safe.

In a world where every click generates data and every connection fuels progress, the significance of cloud security cannot be overstated. As more and more organizations have employees working remotely from home, they can easily access corporate data and applications through cloud computing services. Organizations’ reliance on cloud computing has also brought new emphasis to cloud security.

A staggering 68% of organizations have experienced cloud-related security breaches in the past year alone, underscoring the urgency of addressing cloud security challenges. However, cloud security remains an afterthought for many organizations. Organizational managers can be confused as to who is responsible for public or hybrid cloud security, but in general, cloud computing service providers (CSPs) need to protect cloud computing infrastructure and physical networks.

Organizations are responsible for protecting all of their assets in the cloud, including data, applications, user access, and supporting infrastructure. This confusion about accountability has led to many high-profile cybersecurity and data breaches in recent years.

💡 According to a report by Netwrix, a cybersecurity vendor, 68% of organizations suffered a cyberattack within the last 12 months1. The report is based on a survey of 1,610 IT professionals from 106 countries and compares the results to Netwrix’s Cloud Data Security Reports from 2022, 2020 and 2019 and IT Trends Report from 20201. The most common security incidents are phishing, ransomware and user account compromise

While cloud security should always be a common task, organizations need to increase their efforts to identify potential cloud security threats and respond with best practices and better cybersecurity measures.

In an era where cyber threats loom large, understanding and implementing robust Cloud Security Best Practices is not just a recommendation; it’s a necessity.

Understand the cloud security challenge

Before implementing cloud security best practices, stakeholders in an organization must recognize where security threats come from and the challenges they present. In cloud platforms, one of the biggest challenges is the lack of real boundaries. Another question arises about who is responsible for what aspects of cloud security.

“While major cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform provide some cloud-native security controls, they may not be sufficient to meet users’ security and compliance needs,” said Luis Castro, director of security services at IBM. Users don’t always know where their security responsibilities begin and end.”

As hackers and other cyber threat actors rapidly exploit open ports in cloud systems, the adoption of cloud computing technology expands the attack surface on organizations, and it can also confuse organizations about who has access. Cloud computing providers need to provide security for the infrastructure, and there are weak checks and balances on cloud computing providers and customers having trusted credentials. Therefore, the less control an organization has over a cloud computing setup, the greater the risk.

The global economy is projected to lose trillions of dollars annually due to cybercrime by 2025. This dire forecast emphasizes the criticality of proactive measures to mitigate security risks within the cloud infrastructure. As businesses continue to migrate their operations to cloud platforms, a comprehensive understanding of cloud security best practices is imperative to safeguard digital assets and ensure business continuity.

Cloud Security Threats and Best Practices

People can’t solve problems they don’t know. Identifying the larger security threats to a cloud computing setup is the first step. Once you understand what types of challenges are threatening your organization’s cloud security, you can take steps to implement best practices to mitigate risk.

(1) Data leakage

Challenge: Data breaches are a terrible nightmare for organizations. It results in the disclosure or loss of customer information, intellectual property and employee personally identifiable information (PII), which in turn damages an organization’s reputation and can lead to financial loss. It may also mean that the organization will not be able to comply with government or industry data privacy rules or those stipulated in their contracts.

Best Practice: The proper way to prevent data breaches is encryption. A data breach could still happen, but its critical data would not be compromised. While micro-segmentation of cloud platforms also cannot prevent data leakage, it will limit the amount of data that is leaked. In addition, regular audits and inspections can assess potential risks, with the most sensitive data being assessed first.

(2) Cloud leaks and misconfigurations

Challenge: Sometimes data leaks out of cloud platforms and ends up on the internet. This is usually caused by a misconfiguration in cloud storage buckets, which is considered a bigger threat to cloud security and the main cause of cloud platform data breaches. Some cloud storage buckets are not secure or encrypted. Typically, after someone accesses a bucket, the bucket may be incorrectly configured or left open, leading to data leakage.

Best Practice: Recognize that misconfiguration of buckets is the responsibility of the organization, not the cloud provider (this is usually determined in a service level agreement). Users must understand how to configure and secure buckets, as well as use unique passwords and authentication. In addition, there are some security tools that can be used to test the risks in the bucket.

(3) Login and Trusted Accounts

Challenge: Credential theft is an increasingly popular method of cyber-attack because anyone with the proper credentials can gain access to a cloud computing account without triggering any alarm signals. Some credential theft uses the behavior of malware to log keystrokes, possibly detecting a login with real credentials, so credentials can also be easily stolen.

Best practice: Deploy identity and access management (IAM) tools that can monitor users and look for anomalies in login behavior. Cloud security awareness training is also important, and an organization’s employees should understand how to securely manage their credentials and not share or reuse passwords.

(4) Account hijacking

Challenge: Account hijacking is the malicious takeover of cloud computing accounts. Threat actors tend to use highly privileged accounts, usual subscriptions to cloud services. Account hijacking is also frequently used for identity theft. In this case, thieves use compromised credentials (most commonly email) to take over cloud accounts. Once hijacked, threat actors can manipulate data and applications in cloud platforms.

Best Practice: An organization’s managers know who has access to an organization’s cloud account, whether within the organization or with a cloud computing service provider. Anyone with access to a cloud account should be asked to go through a screening process, especially if it’s a third-party vendor. Organizations need to back up cloud data frequently and have a plan in place to prevent account hijacking. Organizations need to encrypt all sensitive data stored in the cloud, and anyone using a cloud account will need multi-factor authentication.

(5) Insider threat

Challenges: Sometimes threats come from within the organization. The threat may be malicious, or it may be an unintentional error. In addition to data breaches, credential theft, and misconfigurations, insider threats are a major challenge to cloud security. An organization’s employees can fall prey to phishing attacks and other social engineering attacks, leading to data breaches, as they may migrate organizational data from cloud platforms to personal devices.

Best practice: Organizations conduct security awareness training, which can help employees recognize cloud security mistakes and how to recognize and avoid social engineering attacks. Also, restrict access so that employees can only open the applications and databases they need to work on projects and restrict access when completing projects. Additionally, accounts and access rights need to be deactivated when an employee leaves or is transferred to a different department.

Keeping Cloud Security Best Practices in Mind

As remote work becomes more common and employees rely on cloud computing technology for network access, security threats will continue to increase and new challenges will emerge. Organizations need to put security at the forefront of cloud adoption so they can better address these challenges and not deal with them after the damage has been done.

Key Takeaways

1. Embracing cloud security best practices enhances data protection, ensures compliance, and maintains business continuity.
2. Common challenges include data breaches, misconfigurations, and insider threats.
3. Multi-factor authentication adds layers of security, mitigating unauthorized access and phishing attempts.
4. Encryption safeguards data confidentiality, aids in privacy compliance, and enables secure data sharing.
5. Regular monitoring enables real-time threat detection, swift incident response, and adaptive security strategies.

For more insights on navigating the intricacies of modern technology and securing your digital assets, stay tuned to Alltech magazine. We’re dedicated to providing you with actionable information to empower your organization’s technological journey.

Cloud Security FAQ

Safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring uninterrupted operations demand a strategic approach to cloud security. In this FAQ section, we delve into the most pressing questions surrounding cloud security best practices to help you fortify your digital infrastructure.