In today's ever-evolving cyber threat landscape, with the increasing popularity of multi-clouds, hackers have never had more routes into corporate networks.
As of 2022, 94% of businesses use cloud services. Confidence in the cloud has increased over the past 12 to 18 months, with 35% of organizations having more than 50% of their workloads in the cloud. While businesses are rapidly deploying cloud solutions at scale, we are not seeing the same rapid adoption of cybersecurity precautions to protect against this widespread attack. In fact, in today's ever-evolving cyber threat environment and the growing popularity of multi-cloud architectures, hackers have never had more routes into a corporate network or been in a better position to launch an effective attack.
One wrong step is all it takes to leave the door wide open. For example, this year a misconfigured Microsoft server resulted in the data of 65,000 entities worldwide being compromised. Naturally, this sparked conversations about what businesses can do to keep themselves safe. Especially around how businesses should "shift left". Traditionally, security is implemented after development is complete. This often raises concerns about vulnerabilities or misconfigurations that need to be addressed before applications can run. This conflict between speed and security can cause unnecessary friction that could be avoided if security is built in from day one.
But with 45% of businesses lacking qualified security experts, it can be difficult to know where to start. Let's take a look at the current state and how organizations can better secure their cloud environments.
Common cloud challenges
Cloud services offer many advantages. They give organizations the freedom to easily scale up or down; an advantage once reserved for the biggest companies with the deepest pockets. Now you can set up cloud apps with just a credit card. However, this ease of implementation does not simplify the configuration or security of these environments, and cloud security is often rejected if it slows down the process.
Another common problem I see when I talk to companies is that while the "Shift Left" approach is a popular talking point, it is not being implemented throughout the organization. For example, one team may have automated scanning built into their DevOps practice, while other teams manually review change requests. These process differences could present a significant level of risk.
Putting it all together
In order to create a common approach to cloud security that can be delivered through a consolidated security platform, it must be consistent across the organization.
There are many benefits to using a consolidated platform that offers a single view of multiple risk areas across their cloud assets. After all, if you can't see it, how are you going to ensure it? A cloud account can contain thousands of different assets, from general object storage to critical databases. If misconfigured or with incorrect administrator rights, a single policy can inadvertently grant access privileges to a malicious user, which can have harmful consequences.
It's important to ensure that your chosen tool has an easy-to-use interface and offers a way to easily navigate the cloud environments it connects to. Layering a complex product on top of an already complex cloud platform will only make the job harder. Look for solutions that give you the flexibility to implement both manual and automated fixes for the issues you encounter. If the tool can integrate with the existing services and platforms you use, it will save you from overwhelming workflows that you've already invested time and effort into.
It is also important to provide appropriate training to employees, contractors, or consultants on how to prevent disruptions to your cloud network. But with the right tools, you no longer have to rely heavily on your dispersed workforce to be the first line of cyber defense.
Get top-down buy-in on security
Presenting data in a way that is appropriate for the intended audience is essential. Your C-suite won't care what version of an open-source module you're using, or that your storage account on any given cloud platform has some obscure property misconfigured. They want to know what risk it poses to the business and its ability to deliver to customers. A DevOps engineer, on the other hand, won't find a graphic that says "you have 10 critical risks in your cloud" something they can address and will need more detailed information. Creating custom interfaces for your data is critical to getting buy-in from the broader business. If the tool you are interested in works on a technical level, but also has value on a management level, it will be much easier to get approval for such a tool.
Looking ahead
It is not a far stretch to suggest that we are in the midst of a cyber pandemic. By 2025, forecasters predict that cybercrime will cause $10.5 trillion in annual damage. With such large losses at stake, companies must invest in preventative measures to protect their cloud assets from cyber attacks. By making sure you have a set of well-defined guidelines for what's acceptable and what's at risk, you can deploy automated rules across wide-area networks and be confident that your assets are safe no matter where they are.
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