The cloud is meant to be a safer way to store data compared to on-premise solutions like hard drives. However, that doesn’t mean it’s 100% secure. Cloud service providers are often the victims of cyber attacks. In fact, this technology is the second-most popular target for hackers.
Cloud misconfigurations, flimsy access controls, and poor incident response plans are among the most common vulnerabilities for cloud attacks. Here are some ways to keep your setup as secure as possible:
Understand You’re Jointly Responsible for Protecting Your Data
Many businesses think that cloud providers are totally responsible for security. However, this isn’t always true. Under the shared responsibility model, commonly used by providers, users also have obligations when it comes to security. This includes protecting hardware, networks, and other cloud resources.
The goal of shared responsibility is establishing a “collaborative and comprehensive approach to cloud security” that “leverages the expertise and resources of both the [cloud service provider] and the customer,” says leading cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks.
In other words, you also have a duty to manage and secure different aspects of your cloud computing environment, whether it’s a public, private, or hybrid cloud. These components include compute, networking, storage, and everything that makes your environment run properly.
Shared responsibility isn’t some niche thing. Many of the world’s largest providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), adopt this model.
Common Cloud Vulnerabilities and Misconfigurations
Cloud attacks can happen for all kinds of reasons, and common vulnerabilities are often to blame. For example, a lack of visibility over your cloud environment can encourage hackers to exploit weak spots, resulting in potential data loss.
Other vulnerabilities include:
- Unsecured application programming interfaces (APIs)
- Insider threats, such as disgruntled employees who want to steal your data
- Poor access management controls
- A lack of encryption, increasing the chances of hackers stealing sensitive data
Improper cloud misconfigurations can also wreak havoc on your environment. For example, setting up an AWS S3 bucket might lead to data loss, which happened to major publishing company McGraw Hill. This simple misconfiguration meant that hackers could have accessed 117 million files.
How to Secure Your Environment
There are various ways to keep your cloud environment safe and secure. Some best practices include:
- Setting up secure passwords that are difficult for hackers to guess
- Implementing multifactor authentication (MFA) across your environment, making it harder for hackers to access sensitive info
- Encrypting all your most important data
- Preventing and monitoring suspicious activity with the right cloud management tools, such as CloudZero and Apache CloudStack
- Creating least-privilege roles and disabling inactive or at-risk user accounts
Most providers take care of some of these tasks for you. For example, vendors might have in-house cloud management tools that track suspicious activity. However, you should still be accountable for cloud security, particularly if you agree to the shared responsibility model. Securing your environment isn’t a choice but a necessity, even if you’re a small business.
Create a Proper Incident Response Plan
The cloud is still safer than on-premise. However, cyber attacks can happen and are actually on the rise. In worst-case scenarios, you need an incident response plan to fall back on. The right plan will detail what you should do post-attack, reducing disruption to your business.
Your response plan might include:
- Roles and responsibilities for different team members after an attack
- Identifying cloud cyber attacks, such as data breaches, API hacks, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and more.
- Standardizing procedures for responding to, containing, and remediating the fallout of an attack
Your response plan shouldn’t be a one-time thing. For best results, create one you can adapt and update over time. Continuously improving your plan can reduce the impact of a cyber attack on your cloud environment.
Future of Cloud Security
The cloud is still a relatively new technology, and security will evolve and improve over time. In the future, expect technologies like cybersecurity mesh to increase in popularity. This innovation involves creating a distributed network and infrastructure that constructs a security perimeter around the people and devices connected to a network. Other trends, such as zero-trust architecture, will grow, eventually becoming a standard in the cloud computing industry.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning could also improve cloud security. These technologies let cloud systems learn from data algorithms, making detecting threats and suspicious activity with little or no human intervention easier.
Keep Your Cloud Secure
Whether the cloud is home to some or all of your data, you’ll want to take the right precautions to prevent a cyberattack or other security incident. This might involve understanding shared responsibility, securing your cloud environment, and creating a good incident response plan. No matter what you do, keeping your cloud secure requires a lot of vigilance and compliance with industry best practices.
If you lack cloud security skills in your workplace, MRINetwork can help. We’ll connect you with cloud professionals in your industry to keep your network and infrastructure secure. Find an MRINetwork office near you now.