Cloud storage and computing give businesses access to a range of advantages, but many mistakenly believe that simply by moving to cloud storage, their data becomes secure. Secure data, even in the cloud, requires management and time investment on the part of businesses, not trusting a cloud provider to take care of everything.
Cloud computing offers almost unparalleled levels of flexibility, remote collaboration, cost savings and scalability. For the last two decades, cloud computing and storage have become one of the most important things that businesses can do to improve their workflow and take care of their data storage needs. But data can become lost, misconfigured, or compliance needs can shift. Data that is not properly looked after can be accessed by unauthorised parties, face regulatory penalties or become vulnerable to breaches.
For a business truly seeking to protect its data, the implementation of security practices is essential. These can include techniques like Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), which, when combined with other facets of an intelligent cloud security plan, can ensure data remains protected. Let’s take a closer look at how CSPM can help to manage, identify, and remove risks for data stored in cloud facilities.
What is cloud security posture management?
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is a technique or concept that is rising in popularity and uses a variety of security tools to monitor, improve, and ensure the security of data stored in the cloud. Tools perform functions like scanning how data is configured in the cloud, detecting any misconfigurations, providing insights into how cloud resources could be better allocated and pointing out any gaps in compliance relating to data storage.
As a term and idea, CSPM has existed since 2014 and has helped many businesses to deal with security threats in their cloud infrastructures. Most commonly, it allows businesses to remove threats and risks that are associated with poor configurations, access controls that are not secured, assets that are not being watched, and settings that have not been properly allocated.
Misconfigurations are a key concern
Among the issues that CSPM solves, by far the most common cause of breaches is cloud misconfigurations. There are a variety of reasons that misconfigurations occur, including:
- Users with more privileges than necessary.
- Cloud resources that have become forgotten.
- Default settings that have not been properly activated.
- Assets that are not as visible as they should be.
- Lack of accurate logs and monitoring.
Businesses that rely on the tools that cloud providers offer as default will struggle to ensure that no such issues arise.
How does CSPM help to secure data?
CSPM tools and techniques help businesses to monitor their cloud assets constantly, uncovering any misconfigurations, risks or violations quickly. Put simply, these tools can quickly and constantly generate inventories of cloud resources and how they are configured. This removes one of the root causes of cloud mismanagement, which is a lack of visibility into cloud resources. When security teams have access to CSPM tools, they are much more likely to spot issues and weaknesses before they become a problem.
CSPM tools also run compliance checks against various industry standards, ensuring that should there be a lapse in compliance, the business will be alerted immediately and can redress a lapse before penalties are applied.
CSPM tools provide smart automation
Without CSPM tools, security teams have to manually audit every part of a cloud environment individually. The possibility of human error in such situations is high, and represents a time investment. CSPM tools automate this process and perform scans of the cloud environment constantly. This means that as soon as an issue is detected, it is flagged for a security team to investigate.
CSPM tools are excellent in spotting:
- Access that is overly permissive.
- If critical services are exposed to the open internet.
- Sensitive data that is not adequately encrypted.
- If data in cloud storage can be publicly accessed.
CSPM tools are by no means infallible, but they allow security teams to focus on points of interest and issues that need to be fixed, and remove the need to constantly scan and perform the busywork of looking for issues.
CSPM and cloud security best practices
While every business is different and every cloud environment unique, there are a few CSPM and cloud security best practices that businesses can benefit from, such as:
- Establishing an inventory of cloud assets. Knowing what exactly is stored in the cloud, and where it should be, is important.
- Have clear security policies, and enforce them. Consistent enforcement of security policies will mean fewer accidental breaches.
- Monitor everything. Having CSPM tools constantly monitoring will provide much better value than occasional checks performed manually by staff.
- Automate aspects of solving issues. If a portion of the remediation process is automated, response times should be accelerated.
- Incorporate CSPM tools into other security measures. The buck doesn’t stop with CSPM; adding these tools to other security measures like identity management or data protection will ensure a range of threat protections.
- Review regularly. Don’t trust CSPM tools to do their job without checking, set up a system of reports and reviews and ensure that everything is working as intended.
Final thoughts
For businesses that want to ensure that their cloud environments are secure, CSPM tools can be important. They allow for constant monitoring, give high levels of visibility for cloud assets, and automated detection of risks. Such tools, when paired with other security measures, can allow a business to remain free of cloud security issues.
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