Secure Your Cloud: Understanding CSA Domains, CCM Matrix, and Cloud Security

The Rising Importance of Cloud Security

As organizations continue to embrace the cloud for its scalability and agility, the importance of Cloud Security is soaring. With increased adoption, new challenges arise, including data breaches, unauthorized access, and the abuse of cloud resources. By proactively addressing these risks, organizations can protect their sensitive information, maintain compliance, and build trust with their stakeholders.

What is the Cloud Security Alliance?

Cloud Security Alliance is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. In 2019 they released a report called "Top Threats to Cloud Computing: The Egregious 11". The report highlighted the 11 highest ranked threats, risks and vulnerabilities in the cloud based on a survey of 241 industry experts!

The Top 11 Security Issues:

1. Data Breaches

2. Misconfiguration and Inadequate Change Control

3. Lack of Cloud Security Architecture and Strategy

4. Insufficient Identity, Credential, Access and Key Management

5. Account Hijacking

6. Insider Threat

7. Insecure Interfaces and APIs

8. Weak Control Plane

9. Metastructure and Applistructure Failures

10. Limited Cloud Usage Visibility

11. Abuse and Nefarious Use of Cloud Services

The Cloud Security Alliance also provides a security guidelines document called "Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing", which highlights 14 different domains of best practices to mitigate security risk.

The 14 CSA Domains:

1. Cloud Architecture and Design
2. Governance and Enterprise Risk Management
3. Legal and Electronic Discovery
4. Compliance and Audit Management
5. Information Lifecycle Management
6. Management Plane and Business Continuity
7. Infrastructure Security
8. Virtualization and Containers
9. Incident Response
10. Application Security
11. Data Security and Encryption
12. Identity, Entitlement and Access Management
13. Security as a Service
14. Related Technologies

Based on the Security Guidance and its 14 Domains of security best practices, the Cloud Security Alliance created the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM). This matrix is composed of 197 specific control objectives that are structured in 17 domains covering all key aspects of cloud technology. It can be used as a tool for the systematic assessment of a cloud implementation, and provides guidance on which security controls should be implemented by which actor within the cloud supply chain.

In this report I will be evaluating the Top 11 Security Issues outlined above, and discuss which CSA domains are relevant for them, and which specific controls from the Cloud Controls Matrix should be utilized to mitigate the risk of these security issues occurring.

Security Issue 1: Data Breaches

A data breach refers to the unauthorized access, disclosure, or release of sensitive information, such as personal, financial, or intellectual property data. If left unchecked, data breaches can have severe consequences for organizations. They can lead to a loss of reputation and trust among customers and partners, potential theft of intellectual property, regulatory penalties, financial expenses for incident response, and legal liabilities. The impact can also extend to brand damage and decreased market value.

Mitigation measures

To mitigate data breaches, organizations should focus on:

Understanding data value: Organizations must assess the business value of their data and understand the potential impact of its loss to prioritize security measures effectively.

Data access control: Implementing robust access control mechanisms is crucial to ensure that only authorized individuals have access to sensitive data.

Secure configurations: Properly configuring and securing data accessible via the internet is essential to prevent misconfigurations or exploitation by attackers.

Encryption techniques: Encryption can protect data from unauthorized access, but it may impact system performance and user-friendliness. Organizations should carefully consider encryption options based on their specific needs.

Incident response planning: Having a well-defined incident response plan that takes into account the cloud service provider (CSP) and data privacy laws is vital. It enables prompt and effective response to data breaches and aids in the recovery process.

Relevant CSA Domains

Domain 2: Governance and Enterprise Risk Management: This domain emphasizes the need for organizations to establish governance frameworks and risk management processes to address data breaches effectively. It helps ensure that adequate security measures are in place and that risk assessments are conducted regularly.

Domain 11: Data Security and Encryption: This domain specifically focuses on data security and encryption, which directly relates to mitigating data breaches. It provides guidance on protecting data through encryption techniques, access control, and data classification.

Relevant CCM Controls:

AIS-01: Application Security: This control emphasizes the importance of implementing robust application security measures. It helps protect against vulnerabilities and potential exploits that could lead to data breaches.

DSI-02: Data Inventory / Flows: This control highlights the significance of understanding data inventory and data flows within an organization. It assists in identifying sensitive data, its locations, and the potential points of vulnerability, allowing for better protection against breaches.

EKM-03: Sensitive Data Protection: This control focuses on the protection of sensitive data through encryption and other security measures. It ensures that sensitive data is adequately protected and inaccessible to unauthorized individuals, reducing the risk of data breaches.

By implementing these controls, organizations can enhance their application security, gain better visibility and control over their data inventory and flows, and effectively protect sensitive data through encryption and other protective measures.

Security Issue 2: Misconfiguration and Inadequate Change Control

Misconfiguration refers to the improper setup of computing assets, leaving them vulnerable to malicious activity. In a cloud environment, misconfiguration can lead to data breaches, resource deletion or modification, and service interruptions. Inadequate change control, often caused by the dynamic and complex nature of cloud resources, further contributes to misconfiguration issues. The exposure of sensitive data stored in cloud repositories is a commonly reported consequence of misconfiguration.

Mitigation measures:

To address misconfiguration and inadequate change control, organizations should consider the following mitigation measures:

Embrace automation: Automation tools can help streamline the configuration process and reduce the risk of human error. Automated scanning and monitoring can continuously identify misconfigurations and remediate them in real-time.

Continuous scanning and remediation: Implement technologies that regularly scan cloud resources for misconfigurations. Coupled with automated remediation processes, this approach ensures that any misconfigurations are detected and resolved promptly.

Rethink change management: Traditional change management approaches may not be effective in the dynamic cloud environment. Organizations should adopt agile and proactive change management processes that account for the rapid pace of cloud resource changes. This includes leveraging technologies that support efficient change control and monitoring.

Relevant CSA Domains

Domain 4: Compliance and Audit Management: This domain provides guidance on maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements and conducting effective audits. It ensures that organizations have appropriate controls in place to prevent misconfigurations and address change control issues.

Domain 7: Infrastructure Security: This domain focuses on securing the cloud infrastructure. It highlights the importance of proper configuration management and change control to prevent misconfigurations that could compromise the security of the infrastructure.

Relevant CCM Controls

AIS-01: Application Security: This control emphasizes the need for robust application security measures to prevent misconfigurations that could lead to security breaches. It ensures that applications are developed, tested, and deployed securely.

CCC-05: Production Changes: This control addresses the importance of effective change management processes for production environments. It ensures that changes made to cloud resources, particularly in production, undergo proper testing, approval, and monitoring to minimize the risk of misconfiguration.

DSI-04: Handling / Labeling / Security Policy: This control focuses on proper handling, labeling, and implementation of security policies for data. It ensures that data is appropriately classified, and security policies are enforced, reducing the risk of misconfiguration and unauthorized access.

Security Issue 3: Lack of Cloud Security Architecture and Strategy

When organizations migrate to public clouds without implementing appropriate security architecture and strategy, they expose their data to various threats. This happens when organizations assume that cloud migration is simply transferring their existing IT stack and security controls without considering the unique challenges and shared security responsibility model of the cloud. The lack of understanding and prioritization of security during migration leaves organizations vulnerable to successful cyber-attacks. The absence of proper security architecture and strategy can have severe consequences for businesses. These include financial losses, reputational damage, legal repercussions, and potential fines.

Mitigation measures

To address the lack of cloud security architecture and strategy, organizations should consider the following steps:

Align security architecture with business goals: Security architecture should be designed to align with the organization's overall objectives and risk appetite. It should take into account the specific requirements and challenges of the cloud environment.

Develop a security architecture framework: Establish a framework that outlines the necessary security controls, policies, and procedures for the cloud environment. This framework should address areas such as identity and access management, data security, network security, and monitoring.

Continuously update threat models: Regularly update threat models to stay abreast of emerging threats and vulnerabilities in the cloud environment. This ensures that security measures are aligned with the evolving threat landscape.

Implement continuous monitoring: Adopt a proactive approach to security by implementing continuous monitoring mechanisms. This enables real-time detection and response to security incidents, helping to minimize the impact of potential compromises.

Relevant CSA Domains:

Domain 1: Cloud Computing Concepts and Architectures: This domain focuses on understanding the fundamental concepts and architectures of cloud computing. It provides the necessary foundation for developing a comprehensive security architecture and strategy.

Domain 6: Management Plane and Business Continuity: This domain addresses the management aspects of cloud computing, including business continuity planning. It emphasizes the need for security architecture and strategy to ensure the resilience and availability of cloud-based services.

Relevant CCM Controls

AIS-04: Data Security / Integrity: This control highlights the importance of securing data and ensuring its integrity. It is particularly relevant to the lack of cloud security architecture and strategy as data exposure and compromise can result from inadequate security measures.

GRM-01: Baseline Requirements: This control emphasizes the establishment of baseline security requirements for cloud environments. It ensures that organizations have a foundation of security measures in place, helping to address the lack of security architecture and strategy.

IVS-06: Network Security: This control focuses on securing the network infrastructure in a cloud environment. It is relevant to the lack of security architecture and strategy as network security plays a crucial role in protecting cloud resources and data from unauthorized access and attacks.

Security Issue 4: Insufficient Identity, Credential, Access, and Key Management

Inadequate management of identities, credentials, access, and keys can lead to security incidents and data breaches. Cloud computing introduces challenges to traditional identity and access management practices, requiring organizations to manage IAM without compromising security. Issues related to insufficient identity, credential, access, and key management include inadequate protection of credentials, lack of regular key rotation, absence of scalable IAM systems, failure to use multifactor authentication and strong passwords, and embedding credentials in source code.

Insufficient identity, credential, access, and key management can enable unauthorized access to data and result in catastrophic damage to organizations or end-users. Attackers can read, modify, and delete data, issue control plane commands, snoop on data in transit, and release malicious software, posing significant risks.

Mitigation measures

To address the issue of insufficient identity, credential, access, and key management, organizations should consider the following measures:

Secure accounts with two-factor authentication: Implement two-factor authentication to enhance the security of user accounts, including privileged accounts. Limit the use of root accounts to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

Strict identity and access controls: Implement stringent controls for cloud users and identities, including robust authentication mechanisms, access policies, and segregation of accounts, virtual private clouds (VPCs), and identity groups based on the principle of least privilege.

Key rotation and central key management: Establish a key rotation policy to regularly change cryptographic keys, passwords, and certificates. Remove unused credentials or access privileges. Utilize a centralized and programmatic key management system to ensure secure key lifecycle management.

Employ multi factor authentication and strong passwords: Enforce the use of multifactor authentication systems, such as smartcards, one-time passwords (OTP), and phone authentication, especially for privileged users and operators. Implement policies to enforce strong password requirements and define rotation periods.

Relevant CSA Domains

Domain 11: Encryption and Key Management: This domain focuses on best practices for encryption and key management, ensuring the secure storage, distribution, rotation, and protection of cryptographic keys.

Domain 12: Identity, Entitlement, and Access Management: This domain addresses the principles and practices of identity and access management in cloud environments, including authentication, authorization, and identity federation.

Relevant CCM Controls

EKM-01: Entitlement: This control emphasizes the need for well-defined entitlements and access privileges to resources. It ensures that only authorized individuals have the necessary permissions.

IAM-02: Credential Lifecycle / Provision Management: This control focuses on managing the lifecycle of user credentials, including provisioning and deprovisioning access rights. It highlights the importance of timely and accurate identity management processes.

IAM-09: User Access Authorization: This control addresses the authorization of user access to resources. It ensures that access rights are granted based on the principle of least privilege and are regularly reviewed to maintain the appropriate level of access.

IAM-10: User Access Reviews: This control emphasizes the need for regular reviews of user access rights to ensure ongoing compliance and identify and address any unauthorized or outdated access privileges.

Security Issue 5: Account Hijacking

Account hijacking is a significant security threat where attackers gain unauthorized access to highly privileged or sensitive accounts, particularly in cloud environments. This can be achieved through various means, such as phishing attacks, exploiting vulnerabilities in cloud-based systems, or using stolen credentials. Account hijacking poses severe risks to cloud environments, including data and asset loss, compromised operations, and disruptions to business continuity. Account hijacking can lead to full compromise of the account, its services, and the associated data. The consequences of such compromises can be severe, including operational disruptions, loss of organization assets, data breaches, reputational damage, legal liabilities, and exposure of sensitive personal and business information.

Mitigation measures

To mitigate the risk of account hijacking, organizations should consider the following key measures:

Defense-in-depth approach: Implement a layered defense strategy, known as defense-in-depth, which includes multiple security controls at various levels to protect against account hijacking. This can involve a combination of technical controls, such as strong authentication mechanisms and intrusion detection systems, along with security awareness training and incident response plans.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) controls: Implement robust IAM controls to manage user identities, credentials, and access rights. This includes practices such as credential lifecycle management, segregation of duties, user access reviews, and timely revocation of access when it is no longer needed.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Enforce the use of MFA, which adds an extra layer of security beyond passwords. MFA requires users to provide additional authentication factors, such as a one-time password or biometric verification, along with their credentials, making it harder for attackers to gain unauthorized access.

Regular monitoring and auditing: Continuously monitor and audit account activities to detect any suspicious behavior or unauthorized access attempts. Implement robust logging and intrusion detection systems to identify potential signs of account hijacking and respond promptly.

Relevant CSA Domains

Domain 2: Governance and Enterprise Risk Management: This domain focuses on establishing effective governance practices and risk management frameworks to address account hijacking and other security threats.

Domain 6: Management Plane and Business Continuity: This domain addresses the security of management systems and the need for robust business continuity plans to ensure the resilience of cloud environments against account hijacking incidents.

Relevant CCM Controls:

IAM-02: Credential Lifecycle / Provision Management: This control emphasizes the need for managing the lifecycle of user credentials, including secure provisioning and deprovisioning processes.

IAM-05: Segregation of Duties: This control highlights the importance of separating duties and responsibilities to prevent unauthorized access and reduce the risk of account hijacking.

IAM-10: User Access Reviews: This control emphasizes the regular review of user access rights to ensure ongoing compliance and detect any unauthorized access privileges that could lead to account hijacking.

Security Issue 6: Insider Threat

The insider threat refers to the potential for individuals with authorized access to an organization's assets to use that access maliciously or unintentionally, posing a significant security concern. If left unchecked, insider threats can lead to the loss of proprietary information, intellectual property, and customer trust. The potential damage includes financial losses, system downtime impacting productivity, compromised data integrity, and reputational harm for the organization.

Mitigation Measures

The mitigation measures mentioned in the key takeaways can help close the gap on insider threat incidents. Security employee training and education can enhance the skills of security teams, enabling them to properly install, configure, and monitor systems, networks, and devices, reducing the likelihood of insider incidents. Regular employee training and awareness programs can educate employees about security risks, such as phishing, and promote responsible data handling practices. Fixing misconfigured cloud servers through routine audits helps identify vulnerabilities that insiders could exploit. Restricting access to critical systems ensures that only authorized personnel with appropriate training have privileged access, minimizing the risk of insider misuse.

Relevant CSA Domains

Domain 2: Governance and Enterprise Risk Management is relevant to the focus area as it deals with establishing and enforcing policies, procedures, and controls to manage risks. Insider threats necessitate robust governance and risk management frameworks to identify, assess, and address potential vulnerabilities associated with authorized individuals. By implementing effective governance practices, organizations can establish oversight, monitoring, and accountability mechanisms to detect and prevent insider incidents.

Domain 12: Identity, Entitlement, and Access Management is also relevant as it focuses on managing user identities, access rights, and permissions. Insider threats highlight the importance of robust identity and access management practices to ensure that users have appropriate access privileges based on their roles and responsibilities. By implementing proper user access authorization, reviews, and revocation processes, organizations can mitigate the risk of unauthorized activities by insiders.

CCM Controls

DCS-09: User Access: This control emphasizes the importance of managing user access to resources. By implementing strong user access controls, organizations can restrict access to sensitive systems and data, minimizing the potential for insiders to misuse their privileges. Properly managing user access authorization and regularly reviewing access privileges help prevent unauthorized activities.

DSI-04: Handling/Labeling/Security Policy: This control focuses on establishing policies and procedures for handling and labeling sensitive data. By implementing security policies, organizations can ensure that employees understand how to handle and protect sensitive information. Properly labeling data helps identify its sensitivity and assists in controlling access, reducing the risk of insider incidents.

IAM-10: User Access Reviews: This control emphasizes the importance of regularly reviewing user access privileges. Conducting periodic access reviews allows organizations to identify and revoke unnecessary or excessive access rights, reducing the potential for insiders to exploit unauthorized access. Regular reviews help ensure that access privileges align with employees' roles and responsibilities, minimizing insider threat risks.

Security Issue 7: Insecure Interfaces and APIs

Insecure interfaces and APIs in cloud computing pose a security issue as they can be exploited by malicious actors to bypass security policies and gain unauthorized access to sensitive data or disrupt cloud services. These interfaces serve as the primary entry points for users to interact with cloud services and are often exposed publicly. Poorly designed or vulnerable APIs can lead to data breaches and compromise the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and accountability of cloud resources. The business impact can include financial losses, regulatory non-compliance, damage to reputation, and potential legal consequences.

Mitigation Measures

Practicing good API hygiene involves maintaining oversight of inventory, conducting testing, auditing, and implementing abnormal activity protections. Proper protection of API keys, such as secure storage and avoidance of key reuse, is crucial to prevent unauthorized access. Considering the use of standard and open API frameworks, such as Open Cloud Computing Interface (OCCI) and Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI), can help ensure better security as these frameworks often have undergone rigorous security assessments and are designed with security in mind.

CSA Domains?

Domain 5: Information Management and Data Security is relevant as it focuses on managing and securing data in cloud environments. Insecure interfaces and APIs can compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, making it essential to implement proper information management and data security practices. This domain emphasizes the need for data encryption, access controls, and data classification to protect sensitive information accessed through interfaces and APIs.

Domain 10: Application Security is also relevant as it deals with securing cloud applications against vulnerabilities and threats. Insecure interfaces and APIs are a critical aspect of application security as they can expose entry points for attackers to exploit. Implementing secure coding practices, conducting regular application security assessments, and validating user input can help address the security risks associated with interfaces and APIs.

CCM Controls

AIS-01: Application Security: This control focuses on ensuring the security of cloud applications. In the context of insecure interfaces and APIs, implementing robust application security measures, such as secure coding practices, input validation, and secure authentication mechanisms, helps protect against vulnerabilities that could be exploited to compromise interfaces and APIs.

IAM-09: User Access Authorization: This control emphasizes the importance of proper user access authorization. In the context of interfaces and APIs, implementing strong access controls ensures that only authorized users or applications can interact with the APIs. Properly defining and enforcing access privileges reduces the risk of unauthorized access and potential misuse of APIs.

IAM-11: User Access Revocation: This control focuses on the timely revocation of user access rights. In the case of insecure interfaces and APIs, promptly revoking access privileges when they are no longer needed or when a user's status changes helps prevent unauthorized access. By promptly disabling access for terminated employees or unauthorized users, organizations can reduce the risk of insider threats or unauthorized access to interfaces and APIs.

Security Issue 8: Weak Control Plane

The weak control plane in cloud computing refers to a situation where the individual responsible for the data infrastructure lacks full control over the logic, security, and verification of the system. This lack of control and visibility can lead to data corruption, unavailability, or leakage. Moving data storage and protection to the cloud requires new processes for duplication, migration, and storage, and a strong control plane is essential to ensure the security and integrity of these operations. Without a robust control plane, controlling stakeholders may be unaware of security configurations, data flows, and potential weak points, which can have serious consequences for the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of the data.

The business impact of a weak control plane can be significant. Data loss due to theft or corruption can result in financial losses and damage to the organization's reputation, particularly if private user data is compromised. Regulatory penalties for data loss, such as under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), can be severe, reaching up to €20 million or four percent of global revenue. Additionally, a weak control plane may prevent users from adequately protecting their cloud-based business data and applications, leading to frustration, loss of confidence in the service, and ultimately, a decrease in revenue.

CSA Domains

Domain 8: Virtualization and Containers: This domain explores the security considerations specific to virtualization and container technologies in cloud environments. It covers topics such as hypervisor security, container security, and isolation mechanisms that are essential for a robust control plane.

Domain 12: Identity, Entitlement, and Access Management: This domain focuses on identity and access management (IAM) in cloud environments. It includes aspects such as authentication, authorization, and access control, which play a significant role in establishing and maintaining a strong control plane.

CCM Controls

AIS-03: Data Integrity: This control focuses on ensuring the integrity of data. A weak control plane can lead to data corruption, compromising its integrity. Implementing measures to ensure data integrity, such as checksums, data validation, and error detection mechanisms, helps mitigate the risk of data corruption and maintains the reliability and accuracy of the data.

AIS-04: Data Security / Integrity: This control emphasizes the need for data security and integrity throughout its lifecycle. A strong control plane is essential for enforcing data security policies, access controls, encryption, and authentication mechanisms to protect against unauthorized access, data breaches, and tampering.

AAC-03: Information System Regulatory Mapping: This control highlights the importance of mapping regulatory requirements to the cloud environment. A weak control plane may result in non-compliance with data protection regulations, such as GDPR, leading to potential penalties. Conducting regulatory mapping ensures that the control plane aligns with the relevant regulatory requirements and helps avoid legal and financial consequences.

Security Issue 9: Metastructure and Applistructure Failures

The breach or security concern related to metastructure and applistructure failures in cloud services is primarily about the disclosure of critical operational and security information through API calls. Poor API implementation by cloud service providers (CSPs) can provide attackers with opportunities to disrupt cloud customers' confidentiality, integrity, or availability of service. Inadequate security measures at the metastructure layer can result in unauthorized access, data breaches, or service disruptions.

The potential damage to organizations can be significant. Unauthorized access to sensitive data can lead to data theft, intellectual property loss, financial fraud, or reputational damage. Service disruptions can impact business operations, productivity, and customer trust. Moreover, if customers solely rely on weak authentication methods such as usernames and passwords, it increases the risk of account compromise and unauthorized access.

Mitigation Measures

CSP Visibility and Mitigations: Cloud service providers should offer visibility into their operational and security measures to counteract the lack of transparency for tenants. By providing clear documentation, best practices, and security controls, CSPs enable customers to make informed decisions and implement appropriate security measures.

Cloud-Native Designs: Cloud tenants should implement cloud-native designs when developing applications to fully leverage the cloud platform's resources and capabilities. This involves understanding and utilizing cloud-specific security features, such as encryption, identity and access management (IAM) controls, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). By following cloud-native design principles, organizations can enhance the security and resilience of their applications.

Penetration Testing: CSPs should conduct regular penetration testing and provide the findings to customers. Penetration testing helps identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the cloud infrastructure and applications. By sharing the test results, CSPs enable customers to take necessary remedial actions and improve the security posture of their cloud deployments.

CSA Domains

Domain 7: Infrastructure Security: This domain focuses on securing the underlying cloud infrastructure, including network security, secure configuration management, vulnerability management, and secure virtualization. It is directly relevant to addressing metastructure and applistructure failures by implementing robust security controls at the infrastructure level.

Domain 12: Identity Entitlement and Access Management: This domain deals with managing user identities, access controls, authentication mechanisms, and identity federation in the cloud environment. It is crucial for addressing the security concerns related to identity and access management mentioned in the examples. Implementing proper identity and access management practices, including multi-factor authentication, segregation of duties, and user access reviews, helps prevent unauthorized access and strengthen overall security.

CCM Controls

AIS-01: Application Security: This control focuses on ensuring the security of cloud applications. It involves implementing secure coding practices, conducting application security testing, and applying appropriate security controls to protect against vulnerabilities and unauthorized access. By addressing application security, organizations can mitigate risks associated with poor API implementation and protect against attacks targeting metastructure and applistructure.

AIS-04: Data Security/Integrity: This control emphasizes the protection of data integrity and security in the cloud. It includes measures such as data encryption, access controls, and integrity checks to prevent unauthorized modifications or disclosures. By implementing robust data security measures, organizations can safeguard sensitive information and mitigate the potential damage caused by data breaches resulting from metastructure and applistructure failures.

IAM-05: Segregation of Duties: This control focuses on ensuring proper segregation of duties to prevent conflicts of interest and enforce security. It is relevant to the examples mentioned, where identity and access management issues led to security breaches. Implementing segregation of duties ensures that no single user has excessive access.

Security Issue 10: Cloud Usage Visibility

The security issue of limited cloud usage visibility refers to the lack of visibility and analysis of cloud service usage within an organization. It involves two challenges: un-sanctioned app use and sanctioned app misuse. Un-sanctioned app use, also known as Shadow IT, occurs when employees use cloud applications and resources without the explicit permission and support of corporate IT and security. This can pose risks, especially when sensitive corporate data is involved. Sanctioned app misuse, on the other hand, refers to the misuse of approved applications by insiders or external threat actors using unauthorized methods such as credential theft or DNS attacks.

The business impact of limited cloud usage visibility includes lack of governance, lack of awareness and control over intellectual property, and compromised security. Sensitive corporate data may be placed in insecure locations, employees may have control over company data without proper oversight, and incorrect cloud service setups can become exploitable, leading to data breaches and financial risks.

Mitigation Measures

Develop a comprehensive cloud visibility effort: Assign a cloud security architect or a dedicated team responsible for creating a comprehensive solution that incorporates people, processes, and technology. This effort should focus on improving visibility into cloud usage and addressing associated risks.

Mandate training on cloud usage policies: Conduct companywide training sessions to educate employees on accepted cloud usage policies and enforce their adherence. This helps ensure that employees are aware of the guidelines and follow best practices when using cloud services.

Review and approve non-approved cloud services: Establish a review process for non-approved cloud services. The cloud security architect or third-party risk management should evaluate these services and determine if they meet security requirements and corporate guidelines before granting approval.

Implement cloud access security brokers (CASB) or software-defined gateways (SDG): These solutions can analyze outbound activities, discover cloud usage patterns, identify at-risk users, and detect anomalous behavior among credentialed employees. CASBs and SDGs help enhance visibility and enable proactive risk mitigation.

Deploy a web application firewall (WAF): WAFs can analyze inbound connections to cloud services and identify suspicious trends, malware, DDoS attacks, and botnet risks. By implementing a WAF, organizations can enhance security by monitoring and protecting their cloud services from external threats.

Select solutions to monitor and control key enterprise cloud applications: Choose solutions specifically designed to monitor and control critical enterprise cloud applications such as ERP, HCM, commerce experience, and supply chain management systems. These solutions should be capable of identifying and mitigating suspicious behaviors effectively.

Implement a zero-trust model: Embrace the zero-trust security model across the organization. This approach involves verifying and validating every user, device, and transaction, regardless of location or network boundaries. By adopting a zero-trust model, organizations can mitigate the risks associated with unauthorized and insecure cloud usage.

Two relevant CSA domains to address the issue of limited cloud usage visibility are:

Domain 5: Information Governance: This domain focuses on the governance of information assets, including data classification, data inventory, security policies, and ownership/stewardship. It provides guidance on establishing controls and processes to ensure proper information governance and address visibility challenges associated with cloud usage.

Domain 11: Data Security and Encryption: This domain covers data security and encryption practices in the cloud environment. It includes topics such as data protection, encryption, access controls, and secure handling of sensitive data. Addressing data security and encryption is crucial to mitigate the risks associated with limited cloud usage visibility.

Relevant CCM controls to consider for addressing limited cloud usage visibility are:

DSI-01: Classification: This control focuses on classifying data based on its sensitivity and criticality.

DSI-02: Data Inventory / Flows: This control emphasizes the need to maintain an inventory of data and understand its movement within the cloud environment. It helps in identifying unauthorized or insecure data flows.

DSI-04: Handling / Labeling / Security Policy: This control involves establishing clear policies and procedures for handling and labeling data in the cloud. It ensures that data is appropriately protected and controlled throughout its lifecycle.

Security Issue 9: Abuse and Nefarious Use of Cloud Services

The security concern in this case is the abuse and nefarious use of cloud services by malicious actors. They can exploit cloud computing resources to target individuals, organizations, or other cloud providers. The potential damage is significant if left unchecked. Attackers can host malware on cloud services, making it appear more legitimate by utilizing the domain of the cloud service provider (CSP). This enables the malware to propagate itself using cloud-sharing tools. They can launch various attacks such as DDoS attacks, phishing campaigns, mining for digital currency, automated click fraud, brute-force attacks, and hosting of malicious or pirated content. If an attacker compromises the management plane of a customer's cloud infrastructure, they can exploit the cloud service for illicit purposes, causing financial damage to the customer and potentially propagating malware or phishing attacks.

Mitigation Measures

The key mitigation measures include CSP detection of payment instrument fraud and misuse of cloud offerings, incident response frameworks, and customer reporting mechanisms. These measures can help close the gap on the anecdotal examples provided. For instance, if a CSP has effective fraud detection mechanisms, it can identify and prevent attackers from misusing cloud resources for spreading malware or conducting phishing campaigns. Incident response frameworks enable timely detection and response to malicious activities, reducing the impact of attacks like the Zepto variant of Locky ransomware or the CloudSquirrel attack. Customer reporting mechanisms facilitate collaboration between customers and CSPs to address abuse originating from the provider, allowing for swift action against malicious activities.

CSA Domains

Among the CSA Domains mentioned, Domain 7: Infrastructure Security and Domain 9: Incident Response are relevant to the focus area. In the context of abuse and nefarious use of cloud services, Infrastructure Security is crucial for protecting cloud resources and ensuring their integrity, availability, and confidentiality. Incident Response plays a vital role in identifying and mitigating security incidents, allowing for timely responses to abuse cases and minimizing potential damage.

CCM Controls

AIS-02: Customer Access Requirements: This control focuses on defining access requirements for customers. By implementing strong access controls, organizations can prevent unauthorized access to cloud services and minimize the risk of abuse. Properly defining and enforcing access requirements helps ensure that only authorized individuals or entities can utilize the cloud resources, reducing the potential for misuse.

BCR-09: Impact Analysis: This control emphasizes the importance of conducting impact analyses to understand the potential consequences of security incidents or breaches. By performing impact analyses specifically related to abuse and nefarious use of cloud services, organizations can assess the potential damage and determine appropriate mitigation strategies. This helps in devising effective incident response plans and allocating resources to minimize the impact on the business.

CCC-02: Outsourced Development: This control addresses the security considerations when outsourcing development activities to third parties. It is relevant because organizations that utilize cloud services may rely on external parties for developing applications or software that run on the cloud. Ensuring the security of outsourced development helps prevent vulnerabilities or backdoors that could be exploited for abuse or malicious activities. Organizations should establish robust security measures, including secure coding practices and thorough testing, to mitigate risks associated with outsourced development.

Conclusion

When organizations assume that moving to the cloud is as simple as copying and moving their existing IT setup and security controls, they expose their data to various threats. The functionality and speed of migration often takes precedence over security. These factors lead to a lack of security architecture and strategy in the cloud, leaving organizations vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Implementing an appropriate security architecture and developing a robust security strategy will provide organizations with a strong foundation to operate and conduct business activities in the cloud.