What’s Cloud Security? Cloud-Based Security Explained

Several organizations are shifting to the cloud to modernize their enterprise networking environments. This includes leveraging the cloud’s flexibility and scalability to deploy server virtualization and other virtualization types, in addition to to fulfill the demands of growing distant workforces. 

As IT teams make the transition to the cloud, nevertheless, it’s vital to acknowledge that traditional hardware-based security solutions can’t provide the protection this highly complex infrastructure needs. Adopting a cloud-first networking framework requires deploying a complete latest security solution: cloud security. 

Keep reading to learn the way cloud security can keep your organization’s networking environments secure when migrating to the cloud. 

Cloud security (or cloud computing security) is the gathering of policies, controls, services, and technologies that protect cloud-based networking infrastructures. Together with virtualization security, a sturdy and effective cloud security solution keeps proprietary or confidential data secure, ensures regulatory compliance, and protects your organization against malicious attackers. 

Overall, there’s a general sense that the cloud isn’t as secure as on-premises network architecture. But cloud computing can offer each a highly secure and dynamic framework when cloud security best practices are in place. 

Similar to other networking architectures, there are some security vulnerabilities and areas of concern related to unoptimized cloud solutions, including:

• Larger Attack Surface: Migrating to a public cloud networking environment means coping with a bigger attack surface that cybercriminals can exploit. This is particularly true as distant workforces grow and distant staff use unsanctioned personal devices and networks to access corporate apps and resources within the cloud. Attacks similar to malware, Zero-Day, account takeovers, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) have gotten more common in the general public cloud each day.
• Low Visibility: IT departments and network administrators relinquish some control and visibility to the service provider when adopting cloud-based solutions. For instance, several cloud service providers maintain control over the infrastructure layer and don’t share it with their customers. This implies IT or security teams would have a difficult time envisioning their entire cloud environment and assets.
• Dynamic Workloads: Assets within the cloud are spun up or decommissioned rapidly, meaning cloud environments are continuously changing. This calls for agility that traditional hardware-based security solutions are incapable of providing.
• Mismanaged Permissions: Security within the cloud enables granular controls over permissions. Unfortunately, these controls could be overwhelming and mismanaged by those that are unfamiliar with cloud-based infrastructures. A standard pitfall of inexperienced IT or security teams is giving users more access to corporate resources within the cloud than they need to finish their jobs.
• Securing Hybrid or Multi Cloud Environments: Most enterprises don’t adopt a 100% cloud infrastructure. As an alternative, they deploy hybrid systems combining each on-premises hardware with cloud-based software. A security system that may effectively protect the hybrid system is required in these complex environments.
• Compliance: While several cloud providers are aligned with well-known compliance programs (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI 3.2, NIST 800-53, etc.), organizations are liable for ensuring their data management processes and workloads are compliant. As cloud environments are ever-changing and sophisticated, running compliance audits generally is a difficult process without the proper tools in place. 

The safety of the cloud can be impacted by the environment it’s deployed in.

While there are some real security concerns in relation to the cloud, deploying a powerful cloud security solution in tandem together with your service provider can address these vulnerabilities head-on. Cloud security can protect a cloud-based infrastructure and its assets by:

• Shrinking the Attack Surface: The cloud’s large attack surface is an enormous security concern—but through strategies similar to workload micro-segmentation, the service provider’s cloud network could be split up into isolated chunks that don’t communicate or interact with each other and have their very own granular security policies. This separation reduces the general attack surface and keeps apps and data isolated from each other should one develop into compromised.
• Establishing the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP): A staple of Zero Trust security—which is a key element of sturdy cloud security—is the power to determine the PoLP for users and devices connecting to the network. With Zero Trust and PoLP deployed within the cloud, users are only granted the minimum access required to finish their tasks. 
• Increasing Visibility: IT teams are sometimes concerned with a scarcity of visibility within the cloud. Fortunately, there’s a better level of visibility in cloud computing security than traditional on-premises security solutions can provide. Within the cloud, IT can easily monitor the networking environment to be sure that users, devices, and applications or application programming interfaces (APIs) aren’t accessing resources or information they shouldn’t. The cloud can even provide more granular insights into potential points of vulnerability throughout the network.
• Providing Agility: Cloud security is designed to fulfill the dynamic needs of a cloud-based infrastructure, in addition to the complexity of hybrid cloud or multi cloud IT environments. This is particularly vital as organizations undergo digital transformation, which requires a scalable security architecture that may adapt to complex threats within the cloud.

While robust cloud service providers typically offer built-in safety features, partnering with a third-party cloud security vendor that delivers a comprehensive security stack is the simplest strategy to achieve advanced levels of protection. These vendors also give IT teams the power to view their entire cloud infrastructure from a single pane of glass, in addition to implement stringent levels of control based on corporate policies and compliance standards. 

Nevertheless, it’s vital to notice that each cloud service providers and organizations are liable for the deployment of a sturdy cloud-based security perimeter. 

Typically, the cloud service provider oversees the cloud infrastructure (delivered via Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, or Software-as-a-Service) and its configuration is protected. 

Then again, a company is liable for:

• Its identity access management (IAM) policies and authentication. 
• Data protection.
• Regulatory compliance. 

Robust cloud security requires a completely integrated stack that features several key features:

As essential features of a cloud security solution, robust IAM and authentication controls are required to determine Zero Trust and PoLP to your users and their devices. These allow a company to create granular access privileges to corporate resources based on what’s required for every user to finish their jobs. 

In addition they ensure higher levels of authentication for users who’re given extensive network privileges. It’s also critical for organizations to implement their very own IAM policies concurrently, similar to promoting strong password security for all employees.

Cloud security tools must allow for asset isolation within the cloud that supports a Zero Trust framework. For instance, IT teams must have the power to partition their cloud network into isolated sections that feature their very own resources and apps. As well as, the power to make use of subnetworks and micro-segmentation to further isolate workloads (with each featuring its own Zero Trust security policies) is one other vital aspect of sturdy cloud security.

These cloud-based web application firewalls (WAFs) protect applications by closely inspecting and managing HTTP traffic before it gets to web application servers. With WAF security, organizations can stay protected against attacks similar to cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, web scraping, and advanced application layer DDoS. 

Unlike traditional appliance-based WAFs, these cloud-native WAFs provide proactive (fairly than reactive) threat detection, real-time app security insights, and help to make sure regulatory compliance is met.

Advanced cloud security solutions should provide automated cloud data protection, similar to data encryption. This ensures data-in-motion or at rest is consistently encoded to stop malicious attackers from capturing sensitive data because it routes to and from the cloud, or when data is accessed from cloud storage. A cloud security vendor must also provide cloud monitoring controls that allow them to simply discover, categorize, and monitor all data and apps of their cloud environment.

Cloud security solutions that feature AI/ML may also help to mechanically detect and forestall intrusions or policy violations, in addition to perform device posture assessments in real time to discover any malicious behavior or anomalies. 

Any enterprise transitioning to the cloud will need to have a solid plan of motion in place for cloud security, as traditional hardware-based security solutions can’t sustain with these complex environments. Considering the safety risks related to the cloud, it’s critical for IT teams or security personnel to partner with a sturdy third-party cloud security provider, in addition to have a comprehensive set of policies in place to maintain employees secure and meet compliance regulations. 

As your private cloud provider, Liquid Web takes measures to maintain your infrastructure secure—similar to managing security patches and updates and seamlessly integrating together with your enterprise’s current cloud computing security architecture. 

With Liquid Web, following and incorporating the important thing elements of security in cloud computing can ensure your entire network stays protected. Learn more about Liquid Web’s Managed Private Cloud hosting and the way the agility, efficiency, and security of our private cloud infrastructure can profit your organization today.