Implementing security in a cloud environment may seem like a difficult task and slows down, or even prevents, some organizations from migrating to the cloud. Some cloud security models have similarities to traditional data center or on-premises security; however, there are opportunities to implement new security measures as well as tweak your existing security plan. Here are five tips for getting started with cloud security.
- Secure your application security code
Knowing and understanding account usage and the types of coding languages, inputs, outputs, and resource requests is essential. - Implement a solid patch management and configuration management strategy
These strategies are usually more people and process driven, but are important components to the care of feeding of the technology solution. Organizations should take inventory of all the data they are maintaining and understand what type of data it is, where it is being stored, what accounts have access to this data, and how is it being secured. - Dedicate time and resources to the design and maintenance of identity and access management solutions
Attackers continue to use brute force attacks against accounts to crack passwords and gain authenticated privileges in your environment. Accounts should follow the least privilege concept and account activity should be logged. A robust logging and log review system should be a standard implementation for all systems, accounts, and configuration modifications to ensure accountability of legitimate activity. - Understand the shared responsibility of security
Generally, cloud providers will have security implemented throughout their core infrastructure, which is primarily designed to safeguard their systems and the basic foundational services for each of their customers. Cloud providers will maintain and secure their infrastructure; however, they won’t necessarily provide customers reports or notifications from this layer unless it impacts a significant amount of customers. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you implement a customized security plan within your own cloud environment.At the moment a cloud provider drops a network packet onto your systems, you should employ security monitoring and network threat detection. The customer responsibility for security increases when moving from the network level to the host level and further to the application level. Once you have access to your operating system, you are giving root/administrator access and therefore, that system is yours to secure and manage.
At this point, the customer is responsible for the security of the applications and the application code that is used on the host systems. Cloud customers need to pay particular attention to the application code that is used in their environment since web application attacks are the most prevalent type of attacks used by adversaries.
- Stay informed about the la threats and vulnerabilities
Organizations should also stay informed about the la threats and vulnerabilities to their cloud systems. Adversaries, hacking groups and security researchers are constantly working to discover new vulnerabilities within systems and keeping up with these threats is imperative. Organizations that have dedicated resources to monitoring and responding to the la threat activities are able to anticipate cyber activity and minimize the impact of an attack.Implementing effective security within a cloud environment may seem to be a challenging task; however, a strategic plan and the proper integration of people, process, and technology enable organizations to overcome this challenge.
Learn more about 2W Managed Cloud Security and how our partnership with Alert Logic can ensure your environment’s security.
Blog contributed by Alert Logic
