The Three Pillars of Cloud Security
Cloud Security is the combination of technologies and practices that protect data, applications and infrastructure in a cloud environment. It includes controls like data encryption, a strong password policy and continuous monitoring of a cloud environment. It also entails ensuring that any end-user devices that access cloud systems are secure and adhere to safe use policies.
Securing cloud environments requires balancing speed of deployment with a robust cybersecurity framework. This is especially true when it comes to scaling organizational IT systems. Cloud-centric technology is often modular and quick to deploy, but this can create vulnerabilities if these systems aren’t carefully adjusted for the added size. Cloud security tools like unified security management (USM) and CASBs can help to ensure that systems are properly configured and managed.
A strong cloud security strategy should consider three core pillars: security, integrity and availability. Security focuses on safeguarding cloud infrastructure and applications against cyber threats, including data breaches, unauthorized access, insider attacks and DDoS attacks. This includes implementing access control, identity and access management (IAM) and threat intelligence. It should also include a zero trust approach that doesn’t automatically trust any users or devices, and uses continuous verification to verify any access attempts.
Integrity focuses on securing data at rest and in transit. This includes encrypting data and implementing application patching, version control, backups and secure DevOps practices. Lastly, it entails ensuring that cloud applications and services are available when they’re needed, through redundancy mechanisms and deploying DDoS protection.