All businesses face security risks, threats, and challenges every day. Many people think that these terms all mean the same thing, but they are more precise. Understanding the subtle differences between them will help you better protect your cloud assets.
What is the difference between risks, threats and challenges?
Risk is the possibility of data loss or vulnerability. A threat is a type of attack or opponent. The challenge is the obstacles an organization faces in implementing practical cloud security.
Let's take an example: an API endpoint hosted in the cloud and exposed to the public internet is a threat, an attacker trying to access sensitive data using that API is the threat (along with any specific techniques they could try), and your organization's organization is The challenge is to effectively protect public APIs while keeping them available to legitimate users or customers who need them.
A complete cloud security strategy addresses all three aspects, so there are no cracks within the foundation. You can think of each as a different lens or angle from which you can view cloud security. A strong strategy should mitigate risks (security controls), defend against threats (encryption and secure deployment), and overcome challenges (implementing cultural and technical solutions) for your company to use the cloud to grow securely.
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4 Cloud security risks
You cannot completely eliminate risk; Only you can manage it. Knowing common risks in advance will prepare you to deal with them within your environment. What are the four cloud security risks?
Unmanaged attack surface, human error, misconfiguration data breach
1. Unmanaged attack surface
The attack surface is the total exposure of your environment. Adopting microservices can significantly increase the workload available to the public. Each workload adds to the attack surface. Without close management, you may be able to expose your infrastructure in ways you don't know until after an attack occurs.
No one wants that late night call.
The attack surface can also include a subtle information leak that triggers the attack. For example, CrowdStrike's threat hunter team discovered an attacker using samples of DNS request data collected over a public WiFi network to determine S3 bucket names. CrowStrike stopped the attack before the attackers could do any damage, but it's a great example of the omnipresent nature of risk. Even robust controls on S3 buckets were not enough to completely hide their presence. As long as you use the public internet or the cloud, you automatically expose an attack surface to the world.
Your business may need to run it, but keep an eye on it.
2. Human error
According to Gartner, by 2025, 99% of all cloud security failures will be caused by some level of human error. Human error is a constant risk when creating business applications. However, hosting resources on the public cloud increases the risks.
The ease of use of the cloud means that users can use APIs that you are not aware of without proper controls and open vulnerabilities in your perimeter. Manage human error by building strong controls to help people make the right decisions.
One final rule: Don't blame people for mistakes. Blame the process. Build processes and guardrails to help people do the right thing. Pointing fingers doesn't help your business become safer.
3. Misconfiguration
Cloud setups continue to grow as providers add more services over time. Many companies use more than one provider.
Providers have different default configurations, with each service having its own distinct applications and nuances. Until organizations become adept at securing their various cloud services, adversaries will continue to exploit misconfigurations.
4. Data breaches
A data breach occurs when sensitive information is left in your possession without your knowledge or permission. Data is more valuable to attackers than anything else, making it a target for most attacks. Misconfiguration of the cloud and lack of protection during operation can leave the field wide open for thieves to steal.
The impact of data breaches depends on the type of data stolen. Thieves sell personally identifiable information (PII) and personal health information (PHI) on the dark web to those who want to steal identities or use the information in phishing emails.
Other sensitive information, such as internal documents or emails, could be used to damage a company's reputation or sabotage its stock price. Regardless of the reason for data theft, breaches still pose a significant threat to businesses using the cloud.
How to manage cloud security risks
Follow these tips for managing risk in the cloud:
Conduct regular risk assessments to find new risks. Prioritize and implement security controls to mitigate the risks you've identified (CrowdStrike can help). Document and reconsider any risks you choose to accept.
He learns more
You can identify cloud security misconfigurations and deviations from cloud security best practices with CrowdStrike's cloud security assessment services. Cloud security assessment
4 Cloud security threats
The threat is an attack on your cloud assets and attempts to exploit the risks. What are the four common threats to cloud security?
Zero-Day exploits advanced persistent threats, insider threats, and cyberattacks
1. Zero-day exploits
The cloud is “someone else's computer.” But as long as you use computers and software, even those running in another organization's data center, you will face the threat of zero-day exploits.
Zero-day exploits targeted vulnerabilities in popular software and operating systems that have not been patched by the vendor. They are dangerous because even if your cloud configuration is top-notch, an attacker can exploit zero-day vulnerabilities to gain a foothold within the environment.
2. Advanced persistent threats
An advanced persistent threat (APT) is a sophisticated and sustained cyberattack in which an intruder creates an undetected presence in a network to steal sensitive data over a long period.
APTs are not a quick “drive-by” attack. The attacker stays within the environment, moving from workload to workload, looking for sensitive information to steal and sell to the highest bidder. These attacks are dangerous because they may start using a zero-day vulnerability and then go undetected for months.
3. Internal threats
An insider threat is a cybersecurity threat that comes from within an organization — typically from a current or former employee or someone else with direct access to the company's network, sensitive data, and intellectual property (IP), as well as knowledge of business operations. Company policies or other information that would assist in carrying out such an attack.
4. Cyber attacks
A cyberattack is an attempt by cybercriminals, hackers, or other digital adversaries to gain access to a network or computer system, usually for the purpose of altering, stealing, destroying, or exposing information.
Common cyberattacks performed on businesses include malware, phishing, DoS, DDoS, SQL injection, and IoT-based attacks.
How to deal with cloud security threats
There are a lot of specific attacks. It's a challenge to protect against them all. But here are three guidelines to use when protecting your cloud assets from these and other threats.
Follow secure coding standards when building microservices Double and triple check your cloud configuration to plug any vulnerabilities Using a secure foundation, stay on the offensive by hunting down threats. (CrowdStrike can help)
Expert advice
Protect your cloud environment from security threats with the industry's most complete Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) with unified visibility across the cloud and your applications.CrowdStrike® Falcon Cloud Security
4 Cloud security challenges
Challenges are the gap between theory and practice. It's great to know that you need a cloud security strategy. But where do you start? How do you deal with cultural change? What are the daily practical steps to achieve this?
What are four cloud security challenges every company faces when adopting the cloud?
Lack of cloud security, identity management, skills and shadow IT cloud compliance
1. Lack of cloud security strategy and skills
Traditional data center security models are not suitable for the cloud. Administrators must learn new cloud computing strategies and skills.
The cloud may give organizations flexibility, but it can also open up vulnerabilities for organizations that lack the internal knowledge and skills to effectively understand security challenges in the cloud. Poor planning can manifest itself in a misunderstanding of the implications of the shared responsibility model, which defines the security duties of the cloud provider and user. This misunderstanding could lead to unintended vulnerabilities being exploited.
2. Identity and access management
Identity and access management (IAM) is essential. Although this may seem obvious, the challenge lies in the details.
It is a tedious task to create the necessary roles and permissions for an organization with thousands of employees. There are three steps to a comprehensive IAM strategy: role design, privileged access management, and implementation.
Start by designing a strong role based on the needs of those using the cloud. Design roles outside of any specific IAM system. These roles describe the work your employees do, which won't change between cloud providers.
Next, a privileged access management (PAM) strategy identifies roles that require more protection because of their privileges. Carefully control who has access to privileged credentials and rotate them regularly.
Finally, it's time to implement the designed roles within your cloud provider's IAM service. This step will be much easier after developing it beforehand.
3. Shadow IT
Shadow IT challenges security because it circumvents the standard IT approval and management process.
Shadow IT is the result of employees adopting cloud services to do their jobs. The ease with which cloud resources can be distributed up and down makes controlling their growth difficult. For example, developers can quickly create workloads using their accounts. Unfortunately, assets created in this way may not be sufficiently secured and can be accessed via default passwords and misconfigurations.
Adopting DevOps complicates things. Cloud and DevOps teams like to work quickly and without friction. However, getting the levels of visibility and management that security teams need is difficult without hindering DevOps activities. DevOps needs a seamless way to deploy secure applications and integrate directly with a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline. There must be a unified approach for security teams to get the information they need without slowing down DevOps. IT and security need to find solutions that fit the cloud – at DevOps speed.
4. Cloud compliance
Organizations must adhere to regulations that protect sensitive data such as PCI DSS and HIPAA. Sensitive data includes credit card information, healthcare patient records, etc. To ensure compliance standards are met, many organizations restrict access and what users can do when granted access. If access control measures are not in place, it becomes difficult to monitor network access.
Expert advice
Stay up to date with the most popular cloud security frameworks aimed at protecting your environments and all the sensitive data within them.
How to overcome cloud security challenges
Each challenge is different and therefore requires unique solutions. Take the time to plan before utilizing any cloud services. A sound strategy takes into account any common cloud challenges like the ones we've discussed here. Then you will have an action plan for each anticipated challenge.
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