Defining a Cloud Security Strategy

Organizations are increasingly adopting cloud environments to host their data and applications. As cloud adoption grows, a cloud security strategy becomes an important component of a corporate cybersecurity program.

A cloud security strategy defines an organization’s plan for managing potential cybersecurity risks to its cloud environment. This strategy should identify the risks that the organization faces in the cloud and implement policies, tools, and strategies for addressing them in alignment with the organization’s security goals.

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The Importance of a Cloud Security Strategy

Cloud adoption has grown dramatically in recent years. The expansion of remote work and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications means that almost all companies have some data in the cloud. Additionally, many companies have moved data storage and application hosting to the cloud under Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) models.

Even if an organization takes a “lift and shift” approach to cloud adoption — minimizing changes between on-prem and cloud-based applications — cloud environments introduce new security risks and challenges. In cloud environments, companies have limited control over their infrastructure and are responsible for properly configuring a range of vendor-provided settings and security controls. Hybrid and multi-cloud deployments — which are adopted by most organizations — exacerbate these issues due to the wide range of platform-specific settings.

 

A cloud security strategy is important because it defines a framework for organizations to address the security challenges introduced by cloud infrastructure. By identifying potential cloud security risks and developing strategies for addressing them, an organization can ensure that its cloud environment meets its corporate cybersecurity goals.

Elements of an Effective Cloud Security Strategy

An effective cloud security strategy is one that addresses all of an organization’s cloud security risks and requirements. The following are some of the key elements that should be included in any cloud security strategy.

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

IAM is key to the security of cloud data and applications and a common cloud security failure. Often, users are granted excessive access and administrative-level permissions within cloud environments. If these accounts are compromised by an attacker or misused by their owners, then they have the potential to cause significant damage to the company.

A cloud IAM strategy should define user accounts with least privilege access, limiting permissions to the minimum required for a role. These accounts should also be secured using multi-factor authentication (MFA) to decrease the probability that an attacker will be able to access them.

Infrastructure Protection

Some cloud deployment models — such as IaaS — allow organizations to deploy their own virtual machines (VMs) within a cloud environment. These virtual machines and the applications that they host could contain exploitable vulnerabilities.

Infrastructure protection refers to the security of VMs, networks, and storage. Security controls that should be included in this aspect of a cloud security strategy include firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS).

Data Protection

Cloud environments offer low-cost, scalable data storage, making them an attractive option for many organizations. However, poor cloud data security has also resulted in many damaging and expensive cloud data breaches over the years.

A cloud data protection strategy should include controls to protect cloud data from unauthorized access and potential loss. Encryption, access controls, and data loss prevention (DLP) can help to protect against data breaches, while backups offer the ability to recover in the event of data loss.

Automation

As cloud environments grow larger and more distributed, securing them is a difficult challenge. Security teams are tasked with a range of repetitive tasks that consume time and resources but are essential to the security of their cloud environments.

Building automation into a cloud security strategy is essential to ensure that it is scalable and sustainable. Automation scripts; security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) systems; and the use of artificial intelligence can all help to reduce the load on security teams and enhance the security of cloud environments.

Threat Detection and Response

Cloud environments are a common target of cyberattacks. These platforms lie outside the traditional network perimeter and its defenses, making them easier for cyber threat actors to target and exploit.

Threat detection and response are a critical component of a cloud security strategy. Cloud environments differ significantly from on-prem environments, and organizations need to have tools and processes in place to ensure that they can identify and promptly remediate attempted cyberattacks.

Key Challenges in Building a Cloud Security Strategy

 

Companies commonly face various challenges when designing and implementing a cloud security strategy. Some of the most common stumbling blocks include the following:

  • Shared Responsibility: Cloud environments are subject to the shared responsibility model, where the responsibility for security is divided between the cloud provider and the customer. A lack of understanding of this model and an organization’s security responsibilities can leave its cloud infrastructure vulnerable to attack.
  • Complex Environments: Most cloud users have multi-cloud deployments that span multiple providers’ ecosystems. This increases the complexity of implementing consistent cloud security since each platform has its own vendor-specific configurations and security controls.
  • Limited Visibility: Cloud environments offer less visibility than on-prem infrastructure, especially if corporate data is moved to unapproved cloud environments. As a result, security teams may lack the visibility required to effectively monitor and secure their cloud infrastructure.
  • Security Misconfigurations: Cloud environments commonly come with an array of vendor-specific configurations that must be properly set for the environment to be secure. Configuration errors can leave these cloud deployments vulnerable to exploitation and are a common cause of cloud data breaches.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Many organizations are subject to data protection laws that limit how customers’ personal data can be collected, processed, and stored. Cloud environments may cross jurisdictional boundaries and offer limited visibility and control, potentially complicating cloud compliance efforts.
  • Rapid Cloud Evolution: Cloud environments encourage rapid development under a DevOps program. However, this can create security challenges as existing security controls can quickly become outdated and fail to properly protect cloud assets.

How to Create a Cloud Security Strategy

A cloud security strategy should be designed to overcome common cloud security challenges and enhance the security of the corporate cloud environment. Some key steps toward creating a cloud security strategy include:

  • Gain Cloud Visibility: Limited cloud visibility is a common challenge and enabler of hacks in the cloud. A cloud security strategy should start with designing and implementing approaches and solutions to give the company visibility into the assets that it needs to defend.
  • Identify and Remediate Critical Risks: Cloud environments may have a variety of security risks, and some will be more dangerous than others. After gaining the required cloud visibility, the next step is to identify and triage potential risks, enabling the organization to focus its efforts and resources on addressing the most critical ones first.
  • Embrace Continuous Improvement: Cloud environments are constantly changing, so a corporate cloud security plan needs to be able to adapt to keep up. Implementing cloud security best practices and embracing a culture of continuous improvement helps to ensure that cloud security can keep up with cloud development.
  • Shift Security Left: Many cloud security risks are created when new applications or configurations are introduced into cloud environments. Implementing a Shift Left and DevSecOps mindset can help detect and remediate potential security issues before they can reach a production cloud environment.

Cloud Security with CloudGuard

A cloud security strategy outlines a plan for an organization to achieve its cloud security goals and overcome common cloud risks. However, implementing this plan requires security solutions designed to provide key capabilities in cloud environments.

Check Point CloudGuard provides organizations with all of the capabilities that they need to secure their cloud environments. For example, check out the 2023 Gartner® Market Guide for CNAPP to learn more about the benefits of cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP) and how to evaluate them. Then, sign up for a free demo to learn more about the full range of capabilities that CloudGuard offers.

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Related Topics

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)

Cloud Detection and Response (CDR)

What is Cloud Security?

Cloud Security Architecture

Cloud Data Protection

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