What is Cloud Security?
Cloud Security is the set of practices and technologies that ensure data stored in the cloud remains protected. It includes Identity and Access Management (IAM), protection of sensitive systems and applications, and ensuring compliance with regulatory mandates.
As more business data is moved to the cloud, so are the potential threats that can impact the Cyber Safety of those digital assets. These include the risk of third-party storage and the need for redundancy of cloud services. For example, a power outage at a data center can have long-term impact on users and may affect their ability to retrieve critical information. It is also important to make sure any backups of data are located on premise, in case of the need for disaster recovery.
Many business applications that run in the cloud can be compromised by malware, Zero-Day attacks and account takeovers. Businesses can mitigate these risks by implementing strong IAM policies that limit access privileges, requiring password complexity and multifactor authentication and encrypting data at rest, in use and in motion. They can also use unified solutions to manage the cloud environment to provide visibility and control.
It’s critical for business to have a clear understanding of where responsibilities lie when it comes to security in the cloud. This is especially true when adopting automated CI/CD methods, distributed serverless architectures and ephemeral assets like Function as a Service. Ultimately, this requires a Zero Trust approach that can verify and protect all traffic in and out of the cloud.