What skills do you need for cloud security?

Learn at least one cloud inside and out. AWS, Azure, and GCP are all solid offerings. The fundamentals from one cloud should carry over to another cloud offering. You should be comfortable using the UI, Infrastructure as Code, and standard APIs using the SDK or CLI. It's also essential to learn about the Kubernetes ecosystem that can applied to any major cloud provider.

Learn your basics - Basics of system security (its essentially the same problem every where) - Basics of cloud deployment [... adding extra characters to make LI happy]

Sehr vernachl?ssigt wird der Skill On-Premise Architektur zu kennen, da viele Firmen Expertise in diesem Bereich haben und diese gerne im Cloud Umfeld wieder einsetzen m?chten. Da die Cloud Architektur sich aber von der Datencenter Architektur unterscheidet sollten Sie wissen wie sie die vorhanden Konzepte transformieren und in die Cloud migrieren k?nnen.

Having a grasp of cloud fundamentals is analogous to understanding the blueprints of a building you're securing. It's not just about knowing what IaaS or PaaS is, but discerning how they intertwine with organizational goals, agility, and digital transformation. Cloud services' ephemeral nature demands a dynamic and proactive security stance, differing significantly from traditional static environments.

Very important for you to understand the meanings of CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platform), CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management), CIEM (Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management), CNAPP (Cloud Native Application Protection Platform). You need a very good knowledge about devops, devsecops, CI/CD pipelines and understand network and identity related topics. You need to understand the mechanism of Terraform, Ansible and the whole IaC technology.

Frameworks like CSA's CCM or NIST's guidelines aren't just checkboxes. They're cumulative wisdom distilled from myriad cyber incidents and best practices. Using them should feel less like compliance and more like a roadmap guiding cloud security journeys, ensuring holistic protection.

Following the above mentioned standards is a great start. Out of thr box, AWS, Azure, and GCP have these standards already in place to monitor your environment for compliance. If your organization will be storing Credit Card information you will need to have PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) in place. You should have NIST 800-53 R5 (the latest version) for Systems and Organization protection of PII (Personally Identifiable Information). If you are going to have your applications in Canada or other regions, you will have to have the Canada Federal PBMM controls or that countries standards in place to be in compliance. All of these standards and policies are good to know in cloud security.

I recommend to everybody to build infrastructure with the shift-left methodology, there are various tools and technologies that can help you with this. Once you do this, your IaC pipelines will be more secure, due to the fact that before deployment the code will get double checked and you won't suffer from issues like misconfigured environments in the cloud.

To understand cloud security, you have to look at the big picture. You can not divide everything, you need a compact solution for all of the issues, which in case of cloud the CNAPP technologies can provide. Therefore, it is very important that you ckeck all funtionalities of such tools so that you can have a CNAPP provider for your needs, also from budget perspective.

Beyond the tools and technologies, it's about orchestration. With cloud's sprawling nature, stitching together insights from different tools—DLP, IAM, and firewalls—creates a tapestry of security intelligence, enabling preemptive responses instead of reactive measures. Proficiency in CloudFormation or Terraform, for instance, ensures security can be 'coded' into the infrastructure.

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPPs): CWPPs offer security for workloads running in the cloud, providing threat detection, vulnerability management, and compliance monitoring. Examples include Trend Micro Deep Security and Dome9. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Tools: CSPM tools assist in maintaining the security posture of cloud resources by identifying misconfigurations, compliance violations, and potential security risks. Examples include Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud and Check Point CloudGuard.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Solutions for Cloud: DLP solutions help prevent the unauthorized sharing of sensitive data in the cloud, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations. Examples include Symantec Data Loss Prevention and McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention. Encryption Tools for Cloud Data: Encryption tools help protect data stored in the cloud by encrypting it at rest and in transit, preventing unauthorized access and ensuring data privacy. Examples include AWS Key Management Service (KMS) and Google Cloud Key Management Service (KMS).

Identity and Access Management (IAM) Tools: IAM tools enable organizations to manage user access and permissions for cloud resources, ensuring that only authorized users can access sensitive data and applications. Examples include AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Azure Active Directory. Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs): CASBs provide security policy enforcement between cloud service users and cloud applications, offering visibility, data security, and threat protection. Examples include Bitglass, Netskope, and McAfee MVISION Cloud.

The cloud's expansive perimeter and shared responsibility model make it a unique challenge. Recognizing threats like misconfigurations or insider attacks isn't enough. The real skill lies in continuously adapting to the ever-morphing threat landscape, using AI-driven analytics, behavioral patterns, and predictive threat modeling.

Another important aspect is that you need to train engineers and architects to be aware of security issues and build environments with security involved as it is always an easier job to build a secure environment from the scratch rather then trying to make an existing environment secure.

Data perimeters get very complicated very quickly in cloud environments. You need to take the time to fully understand all the different paths and gateways to your data to ensure you haven't left a gaping hole.

Cloud security architecture and design are critical aspects of securing data, applications, and infrastructure in cloud computing environments. Below are the few aspects needs be completed - 1. Least privileged principle 2. Zero Trust 3. Shift Left 4. Automated Security checks remediation 5. Data classification and encryption 6. Security Monitoring & Incident Response

Cloud-Sicherheitsarchitektur und allgemeine Cloud Architektur h?ngen sehr stark zusammen. Wenn nicht von Grund auf eine saubere Implementierung von Landing Zones und Netzwerksegmentierung durchgeführt wird, ist eine anschlie?ende Eind?mmung der Sicherheitsrisiken nur schwer umsetzbar.

I can partly agree with this statement, however key is to understand the vulnerabilities and vital parts of a cloud infrastructure, possible attack surfaces. Keep in mind, just like in an on-prem system, it is vital to take good care of identity access. Get yourself educated with cloud computing, cloud networking, IAAS,PAAS, SAAS, the 3 pillars. Also very important to know about expenses and costs. Read through the training paths of cloud providers, their documentation.

Security in the cloud era is a collective responsibility. Clear communication bridges the gap between IT, security teams, and business stakeholders. Crafting crisp, actionable reports or driving collaborative threat hunts can be the difference between isolated incidents and widespread breaches.

Cloud Fundamentals: Get comfortable with cloud services (AWS, Azure, GCP). Build up your skills with cloud fundamental courses. More importantly, try using cloud services on your own. Learn Cloud Attacks: Once you understand cloud services and their basics, it's time to deep dive into cloud service attacks and how they work. You may go for cloud attack courses to build your skills. Cloud Security: Now that you understand cloud services fundamentals, you have a fair knowledge of attacks on cloud services, it's time to learn more about securing the cloud - Learn more about security policies, specific security configurations, security tools, and security services available in the cloud. In the end, you will find it's a journey!

Neben viel Theorie ist eine Sache tats?chlich am wichtigsten. Das Doing. Ohne Praktische Erfahrung sind viele Probleme nicht bekannt und k?nnen nicht frühzeitig erkannt und umgangen werden.

I highly recommend to consider 3rd party security systems. From my experience, I can tell you, it is never the most secure way to in-built security tools, or tools offered by the cloud provider itself. These solutions can work up until a certain point, but from a security perspective you won’t be satisfied. You should choose products which cover your vulnerabilities and fit in your budget. Considering cloud security, there are various good solutions, which can cover the whole cloud roster..

Cloud is not a different space that cyber attack gets different but it's same like inhouse infra with a top soft layer on it. Virtualized infra forms inhouse pvt cloud, Scripting required inhouse as well. Serverless is only a software logic combining multiple infra with a feeling of server less. Then IDAM, Storage, DB, nw, host etc. all are same and attck targets only to these basic IT Infra services. What we are doing at logic layer on cloud, we are doing at the OS/ firmware at inhouse. Cost, ease of deployment, power of computing and software defined concepts are the only plus. A person with good security knowledge may not need extra skills except those terms. Remembering service names of the CSPs are the real skills that one needs.

The limit of Cloud Security is not really defined. A person has to know the basics of many security domains including but not limited to IAM, Encryption, Key Management, Monitoring, Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Native Services, Vulnerability Management, Networking, Cloud Operations, Incident Response, Compliance. Becoming a master of all is not really possible and Industry knows this. It's always good to be open to learn and adapt to new challenges because Cloud is really dynamic in nature and adapting to this speed of change is the key to success.