Cloud technology has been a great enabler for small and medium businesses, allowing them to effectively compete with, and at times, leapfrog larger enterprises. With cost-effective storage, rapid deployment, effortless scaling, and facilitating access on the go, the cloud has become the mainstay for most businesses.

While great for business, the reliance on the cloud exposes the organization to potential business risks. Business needs and the pressure to keep up with market trends often trump security considerations, leading to the rapid adoption of cloud technologies without proper scrutiny or strategy.

A basic understanding of cloud security, your responsibilities as a cloud user, common vulnerabilities, and best practices will help you continue leveraging the benefits of the cloud without compromising the security of your virtual environment. This blog post shares these key cloud security concepts you need to know.

Before we begin, let’s tackle the most important question…

The security of a cloud environment depends on several factors, including the cloud service provider, the type of cloud deployment - public, private, or hybrid, and the security measures implemented. Most large cloud providers offer a comprehensive suite of security features that allow you to make your cloud environment as secure as, if not more than, traditional on-premise infrastructure.

Nevertheless, it’s important to note that no system can remain invulnerable; security is an ongoing process. Regular security assessments, audits, and staying up-to-date with the latest security threats are essential for maintaining a secure cloud environment. However, the first step in cloud security is understanding the terms of service and security features offered by your chosen cloud provider.

How To Verify The Security Claims Of A Cloud Provider?

Every cloud provider will make tall claims about their security but you don’t have to take their word for it. If a cloud provider is compliant with security standards or regulatory requirements such as SOC- 1,2,3, HIPAA, etc., it means that they have adequate security and privacy controls in place and independent third-party auditors have attested to it.

Another thing you can do is check who else is using the services of the cloud provider. If a cloud provider is being used by large banks, the military, or government agencies, it is safe to say that its service offerings and associated supply chain must have been adequately vetted.

But What About The Cloud Breaches That We Often Hear About?

Cloud providers operate on a shared responsibility model in which the customers also share some burden for the security of the cloud environment. Most, if not all, of the security breaches happen due to customer failures. The cloud service providers’ infrastructures, as such, haven’t been compromised.

Understanding the shared responsibility model is, therefore, crucial for implementing effective security measures. We’ll elaborate on this model in the following section.

Most cloud providers follow a shared responsibility model, where the provider is responsible for the security of the cloud infrastructure, and the customer is responsible for securing their data and applications within that infrastructure.

What Is The Responsibility Of Cloud Providers?

The cloud provider is responsible for the security of its infrastructure. Cloud data centers are highly secure facilities with strict access controls, surveillance, and other physical security measures. Cloud providers implement robust access controls to limit who can access data and resources.

In addition, the cloud infrastructure also has security features such as fraud, abuse, and intrusion detection. They also use encryption to protect data during transmission and storage to ensure privacy and the integrity of the data.

However, the cloud provider has little to no control over how its services are used by the customer. It cannot control the implementation, usage, or security of the cloud workload of its customers. This is where it relies on the customer to share the burden of security.

What Is The Responsibility Of The Customer For Security In The Cloud?

In the shared responsibility model, the customers are responsible for security configurations, enforcing security measures, internal data governance, and compliance. The exact responsibilities will differ depending on the specific cloud services, such as storage, running applications, databases, etc.

Overall, the customer is responsible for the security of their account and the applications hosted on the cloud.

What Is The Difference Between Account Security And Application Security?

Your cloud account and the hosted applications present the two primary attack vectors for adversaries. Each of these vectors is vulnerable to different kinds of threats and requires different security controls.

• Account Security

Resources stored in the cloud are accessible through public application programming interfaces (APIs). A compromised account can give the attacker access to your data and applications stored in the cloud, leading to data breaches and may even compromise the entire security architecture.

• Application Security

Cloud-hosted applications and services are just as susceptible to attacks as accounts. External attacks such as cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), and brute-force attacks have the potential to disrupt or prevent cloud access, bringing the entire business operations to a standstill.

A robust cloud security strategy, therefore, has to adequately address both account and application security.

The most common cloud security risks fall into the following categories:

Misconfigurations

Misconfiguration of cloud components is arguably the most significant cloud risk that businesses face. Mistakes in configurations can have several causes, including lack of knowledge, lack of training, and complexity of the cloud environment. Whatever the reason, misconfigurations leave security gaps, which can be leveraged by attackers to gain access and steal, encrypt, or destroy your cloud resources.

The following are some risks associated with misconfigurations of cloud components:

• Misconfigured access controls can allow unauthorized users to access sensitive data or resources, leading to data breaches, modifications, or data theft.

• Misconfigured storage buckets or databases can expose sensitive data to unauthorized users, leading to the loss of confidential information and regulatory non-compliance.

• Misconfigured network settings, such as open ports or improperly configured firewalls, can lead to vulnerabilities that can be exploited for unauthorized access or denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

• Misconfigurations can also expose internal resources or services to the internet, allowing unauthorized users to utilize your cloud resources without your knowledge. This results in higher cloud services costs.

• Misconfigurations in cloud backup and recovery processes can lead to data loss. Without proper configurations, it will be challenging to recover data in the event of accidental deletion, corruption, or other security incidents.

Insecure APIs

Insecure APIs expose sensitive data and critical services to attackers, who can exploit them to extract or manipulate data. Insecure APIs are those that are publicly available, are unencrypted, lack authentication, and are not monitored. Attackers can use such APIs to gain access even if they don’t have the exact username and password for your cloud account.

Insider Threats

Insider threats are actions taken by people within an organization that can harm the organization’s operations, assets, or reputation. These actions typically involve the theft of data or other sensitive information such as financials, intellectual property, etc. But they can also include deliberate malware infection or sabotage of your cloud infrastructure.

Insider threats may be deliberate or unintentional, nevertheless, they present a very clear danger. Additionally, it should also be noted that such threats can also originate from former employees, contractors, or third-party service providers.

I’ve covered insider threats and how to protect against them in an earlier blog post that you can access here: How To Protect Your Business From Insider Threats

Malicious Attacks

Although they have a lower frequency of occurrence, malicious external attacks can absolutely cripple your business and destroy your cloud infrastructure. Examples of common malicious attacks include DDoS attacks, malware infections, ransomware attacks, cryptojacking, and password attacks.

Cloud Security Best Practices

The goal of cloud security is to mitigate the risk posed by the threats, protect sensitive data, and stay operational even during attacks. The following are some best practices that help you achieve these goals of cloud security:

1. Use Identity And Access Management (IAM)

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a crucial element of cloud security essential for reducing the risk of unauthorized access, and ensuring compliance with security policies and regulations. It involves the management of user identities, their authentication, and the authorization of their access to your cloud resources.

In addition to authentication and authorization, IAM covers all aspects of user management throughout their lifecycle, including creating accounts, managing changes in user roles or permissions, and disabling or deleting accounts.

IAM also facilitates Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), which assigns permissions to roles rather than individual users. Users are then assigned to specific roles based on their job functions. This simplifies access management and helps enforce the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP).

2. Introduce Zero Trust Principles

The Zero Trust Principle is a security architecture ideal for cloud-first and mobility-driven modern businesses. Since modern businesses operate in a complex, heterogeneous mix of physical networks and cloud-based infrastructure, the traditional approach of trusting devices based solely on their location within the corporate network is no longer secure.

The Zero Trust security architecture does not trust devices by default, even if they are connected to the organization’s network or were previously verified. It assumes that threats can originate from both external and internal sources, therefore, it requires continuous authentication and authorization regardless of the device’s location or previous verification.

Zero Trust security considers the real-time visibility of user attributes, continuously vetting access requests before granting access to corporate resources. In addition to user authentication, it also takes into account the device identity and device health before granting access privileges.

The Zero Trust Principle plays a crucial role in cloud security by providing a more robust and adaptive security framework that traditional security frameworks are not capable of.

3. Implement Cloud-Native Security Tools

Internet-facing resources and applications in the cloud are vulnerable to cyberattacks such as XSS, SQL injection, DDoS, and brute-force attacks. To protect against such attacks, cloud providers offer network and application protection tools and services.

Examples of cloud security tools include web and network firewalls, threat detection, data security and privacy tools, DDoS mitigation, and security audit tools. While the cloud providers do offer several security tools to help secure the cloud infrastructure, it is the responsibility of the customer to figure out exactly what they need and effectively implement those tools.

4. Invest In Security Awareness Training

Security is built on three pillars - products, processes, and people. To build robust and holistic cloud security, you need to focus on all three pillars. Security tools and processes will achieve little if the employees are not encouraged to actively participate in security or empowered to act autonomously when faced with security incidents.

Continuous employee education through regular security awareness training plays an important role in creating a security-conscious culture, where employees feel empowered to make secure choices.

Conclusion

For small and medium businesses, strategic investment in the cloud is a business necessity. But in the pursuit of operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness, security must not be forgotten. Navigating the dynamic intricacies of cloud infrastructure is daunting but unavoidable if you are serious about security.

Given the financial constraints often faced by smaller companies, it may not be possible to have a dedicated security team for cloud protection. Therefore, it becomes imperative to understand the complexities of the cloud and carefully select tools that assist in managing those complexities.

Do you need help securing your cloud infrastructure? Reach out to us by clicking the button below to learn how we can help improve the security of your cloud environment.

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