CLOUD SECURITY

Cloud Security refers to the protection of data, applications and infrastructure that are hosted on cloud computing platforms. The cloud refers to a network of remote servers that allows users to access and store data and applications without the need of physical storage devices or servers in user's premises. 

Cloud security is essential because cloud computing involves the storage, processing and transmission of sensitive data and information.

Cloud security involves a set of technologies, policies, controls and procedures designed to protect cloud-based resources from unauthorised access, data breaches and other security threats. 

There are several aspects of cloud security that organizations need to consider and it is also essential to have proper security policies and procedures in place and ensure that employees are trained to follow them.

  • Application Security : Cloud providers should ensure that applications hosted on their servers are secure and protected against cyber attacks. And organizations should includes using secure coding practices, dynamic application security testing, static application security testing and other measures to protect the application infrastructure.
  • Data Protection : Cloud providers should ensure that data stored on their servers is encrypted and protected from unauthorised access. Organizations should ensure that they use strong password policies and two factor or multi factor authentication (MFA) to access their cloud accounts. Data encryption in both rest and wire is very important.
  • Network Security : Cloud providers should ensure that their networks are secure and protect against cyber attacks. This includes using firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and other security measures to protect the network infrastructure.
  • Compliance : Organizations should ensure that their cloud providers comply with relevant regulations and standards, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).



One of the key challenges in cloud security is the shared responsibility model. 
Cloud service providers are responsible for security the underling infrastructure and platform, while customers are responsible for securing the data and applications they store in the cloud. Therefore, it is essential to understand the division of responsibilities and ensure that both parties are meeting their obligations.

Some of the common threats to cloud security include data breaches, account hijacking, insider threats, and denial-of-service attacks. 

To mitigate these risks, it is important to have a 
  • Comprehensive security strategy that includes risk assessment
  • Threat modeling
  • Vulnerability scanning
  • Monitoring cloud environments
  • Penetration testing
  • Application security testing
  • Using strong password with MFA authentication
  • Implementing comprehensive backup strategies for data loss prevention & disaster recovery
  • Incident response planning.  
Regular security assessments and testing are also critical to identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities. 

Cloud workload protection platform 

        Growing adoption of cloud and organizations moving their operations and technology to cloud, the need for effective cloud security solutions has increased. One such trend that has emerged is the adoption of cloud workload protection platforms (CWPP).

        Cloud workload protection platforms (CWPP) provide organizations with comprehensive visibility and protection at the host-level helping to secure several workload layers like applications, database, and functions. CWPP is combination of tools and services work to detect and mitigate public cloud threats that could cost organizations in terms of significant workload data time, expensive data breaches or even legal costs associated with lack of security compliance.

There are many solution providers available in Cloud provider Marketplace enhance the security posture of your workloads through the integrated features of CWPP.
These features include the scanning of operating systems and containers, host configuration and compliance checks, host-based network segmentation, system integrity monitoring, log management and application control.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chaos Engineering

Image
Chaos engineering is a discipline that focuses on deliberately introducing controlled instances of chaos or failure into a system in order to discover vulnerabilities and weaknesses. It involves running experiments on a system to test its resilience, robustness and ability to withstand unexpected conditions. The primary goal of chaos engineering is to proactively identify and address potential issues in a system's design or infrastructure before they cause significant problems in real-world scenarios. By intentionally causing failures, such as network outages, server crashes, or database failures, chaos engineers can observe how the system responds and identify areas that need improvement. Chaos engineering typically involves the following steps: Steady state : Defining the steady state of the system, this refers to the desired, normal functioning of the system. Hypothesising potential weaknesses : Brainstorm potential failure scenarios or vulnerabilities that could disrupt the ste...
Read more

Cloud Landing Zone

Image
A cloud landing zone (CLZ) is a pre defined set of best practices and guidelines that organisations can use to setup a cloud infrastructure with secure, scalable and well architected environment to easily deploy and manage the workloads in cloud.  It provides a standardised way of creating and operating a cloud environment that can serve as a foundation also adhering to organisational policies and best practices. Usually CLZ is defined by an organisation's IT or Cloud Center of Excellence (CCoE) and covers a variety of areas, such as identity and access management, network architecture, security, logging, monitoring and cost optimisation.  A CLZ can be thought of as a blueprint for setting up a cloud environment that is optimised for an organisation's specific needs and also defines how it will be managed.  The main benefits of having a cloud landing zone as follows reducing the time and effort required to setup a cloud environment improved cloud governance reduces the co...
Read more