What are the best cloud security practices for professionals?

When considering a Cloud Service Provider, it is important to assess their security to ensure the safety of your data. The first step is to identify exactly what data will be migrated to the cloud. Once this is determined, conducting a thorough risk assessment is necessary to evaluate potential threats and vulnerabilities. Additionally, a penetration test can provide valuable insight into the security measures in place. It is also recommended to run a security assessment to identify any weaknesses and ensure compliance with any relevant regulations. Taking these measures will help ensure the safety and security of your data in the cloud.

Assessing a potential cloud provider is a critical step, where considerations such as tailoring services to our business needs and ensuring legal compliance with data residency and GDPR regulations are paramount. Regular security audits on the cloud vendor enhance the overall value proposition.

One thing that comes to mind, is that there is no one size fits all type of solution. Whether it is a top to bottom design, bottom to top design, ZTNA or a hop by hop inspect and protect. It is crucial to estimate accurately what is being protected & what is at risk in the first instance, before coming up with a solution. Goes without saying, the solution should be redundant, ideally with no single point of failure, and relatively easy to scale up or down. Building effective designs is like a game of chess. Your view of the battlefield varies according to your position in the game. A soldier on an elephant with a spear will see things very differently than a foot soldier with a sword. But both are fighting the same battle.

Multiple factors will play a key role when it comes to deciding your cloud service provider and making an integral assessment of it. Most companies are primarily biased towards the best pricing and cost-efficient service provider, so consider these aspects: - Pricing structure and data egress/ingress costs - computational resources optimization to control costs, perhaps define a monthly/yearly budget Also, consider technical support, compliance and reliability, including: - Compliance certifications, such as SOC2, GDPR, ISO27001, etc - Incident Response, how strong their procedures are - Find their SLAs and guaranteed uptime (nines of availability) - Ease of scalability and how reliable is their infrastructure, network-wise also compute

In my role as a CISO, I stress the need for comprehensive due diligence on cloud providers. Key points: Shared Responsibility: Understand who manages what in security to avoid gaps. Data Sovereignty: Know where your data is stored and if it complies with governance laws. Incident Response: Examine the provider's incident plans. Fast, clear responses are crucial. Vendor Lock-in: Assess data migration ease. This matters for service changes or security events. Third-Party Audits: Opt for providers audited by reputable organizations for an extra trust layer. These considerations give you a fuller understanding of a provider's security stance, aiding in informed decisions.

While I agree with most of the points that were stated previously, I'd want to add a few more. -Create data security awareness and training. -Implement a robust DLP solution. -adhere to rigorous granular, and least privileged access control standards. -Implement a layered security strategy.

I agree with practically all that’s been said, yet I notice that most contributions emphasize on cybersecurity controls and the strengths of the prospective cloud provider. It’s important to know where your valuable assets are, which, in my opinion, are your data and your users. Your data -and how it is accessed- will be a key input in choosing appropriate cloud services and in deciding how they should be secured. And well protected user access will reduce the surface attack.

Here are some additional perspectives on how to secure your data in the cloud:- * Use a zero-trust security model. * Use least privilege access. * Implement data segmentation. * Use a CSPM tool. * Monitor your cloud environment for suspicious activity. * Back up your data regularly. * Have a comprehensive cloud security strategy in place

Strong algorithms and keys 1. The length of a key needs to start with a binary decision: True or False, On or Off, Opt-in or Opt-out 2. The algorithm then needs to generate a pseudo random string sequence to ensure that reverse engineering must be applied to solving the issue 3. All encryption can be decrypted

All the steps mentioned to secure our data in cloud are clearly mentioned and I completely agree with them. Additionally without proper classification of data applying all the controls to protect the data is irrational because its costly in terms of monetary and non monetary values. Classification should happen at the source of the data while these being generated ,and these are generated through applications or manually created by the end users. For Application, during application software design stage it should be taken care of and for manual extensive awarness programes like recurring awareness sessions, quizes, recongnization and appreciation should be conducted with the end user to improve the organisation classification standard.

While IAM tools, MFA, and strong passwords are foundational, they must be complemented with real-time monitoring capabilities. Constant vigilance enables us to quickly detect anomalous behavior that could be indicative of a security incident. Additionally, temporary access, or "just-in-time" access, can further reduce the attack surface. This ensures that even if someone has role-based permissions, they only receive access for the time required to complete the task. Auditing isn't a one-time event but an ongoing process. Automation can aid in scrutinizing access logs and flagging irregularities, saving time and reducing the chance of human oversight. Thus, access management should be dynamic and continuously evolving.

Even the best IAM strategy can be defeated when someone misconfigures cloud resources to allow for inappropriately broad access. Cloud resources need to be continually audited for access to identify and prevent these types of access errors that can expose data and resources.

Organizations struggle to manage access rights in the cloud due to increasing data, users, and roles. This requires a change in IAM framework, as many organizations lack experience with identity data outside of their own. Robust IAM is crucial to minimize security risks, and immediate action is necessary to address this issue.

Identity access management should be a top priority when moving to the cloud and it is highly recommended to apply the principle of least privilege and use the role-based access control (RBAC) mechanism, these controls are native features of the public cloud, but we can improve access management by aligning it with the zero trust framework for context-based authentication and authorization of users.

I mentioned access in the previous section as it is hard linked to security: Data (information) must be manageable and compartmentalized; enterprises must have role-based security controls and these controls must be easy to use and administer locally. Many enterprises will be compliance driven in this regard.

It's important to be aware of unpatched software, which refers to systems or applications that have known vulnerabilities that have not yet been addressed through updates or patches. These vulnerabilities can be exploited, potentially compromising the security of the affected system. Thankfully, software vendors work hard to develop patches as soon as vulnerabilities are discovered and acknowledged. It's essential to implement a clear patch management strategy to keep systems updated and patched. Failure to do so can put systems at risk of potential exploits, as threat actors are often aware of the vulnerabilities before patches are released. Stay vigilant and keep your systems updated to protect against potential security breaches.

One thing I've found helpful is to conduct regular application security audits on your cloud-facing environment. This could be a combination of black box testing (e.g. VAPT, DAST) or white box testing (source code review, SAST). This will help you understand which systems need to be remediated, patched, or updated first.

From my perspective, there are two pillars that should be considered. One of the most important aspects while migration from On-Premise deployments to one of the CSPs is adopting a flexible architecture that allows flexibility, scaling and cloud service controls and limitations. On the other hand, Black-box and white-box security testing should be conducted periodically whenever the applications are hosted out of company's premises. My usual recommendation is the hybrid solution, companies need to classify their data/information so that they can identify which data can be exposed and stored on the cloud and which are confidential enough to reside internally on their premises..

Software systems and applications are designed based on the current state of the art; as the world and threats landscape evolve, these software solutions must evolve and need to be patched/updated. Vulnerabilities will exist in systems and attackers will exploit them, so part of a solid security plan is a patching strategy, including monitoring new vulnerabilities that are based on the inventory of software assets.

Some systems are implemented "out of the box" using default settings. It is not only important to update systems, but ensure they are installed and configured to optimize existing security and privacy capabilities.

To ensure cloud security, educate employees on using new technology like Wifi networks, VPNs, encryption keys, passwords, and access keys. Employees should undergo specific training and compliance audits to comply with cloud security requirements. Attacks can begin with gathering information through social networks, so all collaborators must be prepared for different approaches. Information security management requires procedures to deal with attacks and theft, as risk can only be minimized but not completely avoided.

Educating staff is not just about teaching them the technicalities but also about instilling a security-conscious culture. Based on my experience, training sessions should be relatable, engaging, and realistic—centered around scenarios that employees may encounter in their day-to-day activities. Furthermore, training isn't a one-time event but a continuous process, adapting to the evolving threat landscape. Phishing simulations and red teaming exercises are effective ways to test awareness and preparedness. In parallel, a well-defined incident reporting mechanism should be in place so that staff know exactly what steps to take in case of an incident. This should be backed by an incident response team prepared to take immediate actions.

I'd like to add -Make security training mandatory during the orientation. -Create a culture for information security. -Training should be frequent, and it would be a good idea to link security training with employee appraisals.

Getting staff "involved" in a two-way dialogue has been an effective training approach in my experience. Creative training methodologies enables individuals to exhibit vigilance and demonstrate their understanding in defending threats. It enables the staff to know the actions they need to take to prevent being victimized or actions needed after a compromise. The observed average attention span for trainings is generally less than 5 minutes. Hence, short snippets of specific visuals should help the staff learn efficiently. Also, establishment and enforcement of policies and guidelines could be automated to limit user activity and ensure a "workflow" based approach to the procedures keeping security, simplicity and user experience in mind.

Most breaches are related to human factors. Educating staff is not only sending them to some annual security camp. Education and training should be continuous. Phishing-simulation platforms, hands-on demonstration and tests, internal study of security cases and other methods need to be used to improve general awareness of staff. Additionally, one should use some metrics to see if the education of new and existing staff is improving at all.

Establish Security Baselines Security baselines are very necessary for detecting misconfigurations and adhering to security best practices and compliance requirements. Here are some useful tips when establishing security baselines: - Document the baselines. It's easier to communicate security requirements when it's well documented. - Only use necessary security requirements. Every environment is different and thus has different needs. Focus only on what's necessary for a particular environment. - Work with regulatory or compliance requirements. It's easier to fulfill compliance requirements when they're already part of your security baselines. - Monitor, Detect and Fix non-conforming resources using automation.

In most cases Third party risk assessment and will assist you in realizing your security posture. Measure those with the in house assessments and then you can resolve any inconsistencies and bridge any gaps.

Need to follow Define scope and objectives. Identify potential threats. Review service configurations. Check access controls. Ensure data protection. Review incident response readiness. Monitor and log activities. Meet compliance requirements. Manage third-party risks. Provide security training. Recommend improvements for ongoing security.

To evaluate and continuously monitor cloud security posture is by using robust solutions such as Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) are useful specifically by identifying, detecting misconfigurations in the cloud and remediating them automatically or with human intervention. CNAPP simplifies monitoring, detecting and acting on potential cloud security threats and vulnerabilities and auto remediation.

Continuous Monitoring: Implement real-time monitoring to detect and respond to threats promptly. This would help identify and act on threats immediately.

1. Use strong, unique passwords for cloud accounts. 2. Enable two-factor authentication. 3. Regularly update and patch cloud software. 4. Encrypt sensitive data stored in the cloud. 5. Monitor and analyze cloud log data for anomalies. 6. Limit user access and privileges to only what is necessary. 7. Conduct regular security audits and assessments. 8. Implement network and application firewalls. 9. Backup cloud data regularly. 10. Keep up-to-date with cloud security best practices and industry standards.

Make your software more secure! If you deliver vulnerable code and it is breached, the damage can be huge and your reputation can be ruined. In a cloud environment this is an even bigger challenge. Application security is no longer an afterthought, but a requirement. There is growing pressure and incentive to ensure security within the applications themselves. Current software security solutions mostly lack focus on the cloud environment and have a high percentage of noise (false positives). Also, they don't give precise remediation advice for real vulnerabilities. There are new approaches addressing the above challenges. Example is the Glog.AI team, which develops security solutions based on AI. It provides precise remediation advice.

-Implement benchmarks and other controls based on the applicable compliance and posture management standards. -Establish incident response to aid your security monitoring infrastructure.

Artificial Intelligence: Most of the current cloud providers, offer some kind of AI capabilities, ones already known as machine learning, but others offer advanced analytics almost out of the box. The provider should be assessed so there is no "automatic" collection of customer data to offer insights without approval, since this might involve model training and other unexpected uses of the data.