What You Should Look for in Cloud Security

The trend to use cloud-based applications and services saw its growth accelerated by the pandemic, and now with a great shift to remote work. Remote work has only increased the importance of network cybersecurity. More remote work and storing information and data on cloud-based applications brings additional cybersecurity risks.

Typically, company data and information are stored on an organization’s servers at headquarters with its security tools on-site.

Remote access onto the servers that store this information creates potential gaps in security for any network if firewalls and controls are not properly set, or the right level of security isn’t being used by the organization.

The adoption of cloud security has also grown along with this, which has its own set of benefits and risks. That is true with every type of security environment – cloud-based, on-premise, and hybrid networks.

See SecuLore’s virtualized cybersecurity monitoring technology designed for cloud and hybrid networks SecuLore™ OverWatch Cloud

The cloud is made up of servers and computers that software and databases run on that are that are not traditionally stored and managed “on-premise.” Essentially, “the cloud” is a network of computers and servers that an organization using them doesn’t own or manage physically, but exists physically and is managed elsewhere, often outsourced.

Cloud security protects your cloud-based infrastructure such as your applications, data, and access to your overall network. This ensures device authentication on the network, access to data, and control. Cloud security is deployed on cloud environments to protect networks against DDoS attacks, malware, and other types of cyber-attacks including unauthorized access to networks.

Just as there are different cloud security configurations, there are also three types of cloud-based security environments:

1. Public Cloud
2. Private Cloud
3. Hybrid Cloud

Learn more about cybersecurity in the cloud and potential cyber threats by downloading our webinar to watch on-demand for free: Cloudy Day: Cybersecurity Cloud Storms are Brewing

The question most commonly asked is if the cloud is safer than on-premise. That question applies to both cloud-based services apps and ones hosted on a network, as well as cloud-based and on-premise network security.

While there is some debate about it, SecuLore’s stance is that cloud-based security isn’t any more or less safe or secure than on-premise network security. The reason for that is that the professionals responsible for running these networks and servers in either location have the potential to make mistakes no matter the deployment that could compromise the security of the data and systems.

There are benefits and risks to each approach. It’s important to choose the option that is best for your organization and follow best practices for the chosen approach.

While cloud service models explain how the services are offered and accessed by organizations from the cloud, the cloud deployment model explains where the servers are located and who manages the servers. There are different types of cloud deployment types that organizations can choose from and just as with any service, each model has benefits and drawbacks. If you outsource cloud services, particularly cloud security, each provider may offer multiple options of these models to organizations, depending on that provider.

While that is true, consider the average costs of cloud breaches by deployment model in 2021:

While the cost associated with a private cloud deployment model may be higher than a public cloud deployment model, there was a higher cost for public cloud data breaches in 2021 over private.

With all these cloud options and services available, it’s clear that using this method is very popular, as evidenced by its growth in spending.

Cloud-based services are more reliable with more options for backups. It also improves the productivity of IT teams, providing automatic updates.

There are many other benefits to cloud computing and reasons why there has been a dramatic increase in adoption, and thus the spending on cloud security options:

• Scalability
• Accessibility in multiple locations
• Flexible storage
• Supports hybrid workforce
• Costs less than traditional hardware solutions
• Sustainability

The U.S. government allocated an estimated $18.78 billion for cybersecurity spending in 2021. (Atlas VPN)

Proper network configuration is critical to cloud security protection as there are several attack vectors that attackers can exploit to gain access to your data. Being aware of the most common cloud attacks can help you be prepared and have your controls properly set to try to avoid these types of cloud attacks.

Cloud malware injection attacks: This allows attackers to take control of services in the cloud. This is normally done by exploiting running services to execute malicious code. Once a foothold is established, data can be exfiltrated.

Man in the Cloud: If an attacker finds a vulnerability to exploit in the controls of your cloud, it can make changes to the synchronization/update system of the service and then replace it with a version that creates access for attackers to further compromise the account.

Side Channel attacks: These attacks are a way to extract sensitive information from a system by other means than a normal input or output channel. This is more prominent in the cloud due to cloud computing revolving around side channels that exist in shared hardware. Meltdown and Spectre were two examples of side channel vulnerabilities that emerged from processes causing a CPU to speculatively access data that the process should not have access to. A process can recover the accessed data via a side channel, where it would have exposure in an attack.

Insider attacks: Ransomware groups commonly recruit employees and users with inside access to networks at companies they are targeting. This gives attackers access through credentials and privileges that make getting into a network easy. The potential for insider attacks is a good example of the importance of proper security architecture with different levels of access.

APTs: More a type of threat attribution than a type of attack, advanced persistent threats are good at adapting security measures to find new areas to access. APT groups can conduct reconnaissance and attack networks continuously without being detected for long periods of time.

DDoS attacks: Denial of service attacks can be particularly damaging in the cloud, especially with public cloud setups. An attack on a shared public cloud can lead to an overload and DOS to other users and services sharing the network under attack.

While cloud security continues to evolve as cyber threats also evolve and escalate, there are several best practices that can be followed to enhance your cloud security and protect your network:

• Utilize monitoring tools to know what is on your network
• Have offline backups in addition to any cloud-based backup methodology
• Segment access and permissions
• Secure your endpoints (inventory, patch management, monitoring)
• Encrypt all data in transit and at rest
• Train your staff
• Work with cybersecurity vendors that combine behavior-based and AI driven alerts and human to human cyber expertise through monitoring

You have seen all the benefits and risks of cloud applications and cloud security. SecuLore™ OverWatch Cloud provides a physical network presence that monitors all IP-based traffic entering and leaving your network and gives you the ability to visualize this information for cyber awareness.

Traffic and security monitoring can be done through both on-premise security, using physical hardware tools, as well as software for hybrid models that are considered effective.

Cloud-based network security monitoring centralizes security to protect information and assets through a cloud-based server. It brings everything together for easier traffic monitoring to detect anomalous behavior and identify potential vulnerabilities. Our virtualized cloud security monitoring solution offers benefits such as scalable virtualized software with seamless deployment which is one of the major benefits of enhanced, and necessary cybersecurity products.

Customization for the proper controls and architecture are important to ensure each network has the proper settings. The SecuLore™ OverWatch Cloud provides a cloud security monitoring solution that is customizable to each customer’s cloud environment, as well as a hybrid network security monitoring solution that combines cloud and on-premises security infrastructure. The technology looks for cyber threats and pinpoints areas to improve your network and fortify your security cloud architecture.

Contact SecuLore today to learn more about the SecuLore™ OverWatch Cloud and virtualized cybersecurity options to provide independent, third-party monitoring that is critical for your network.