Cloud security risks on the rise:
First time users most vulnerable
by Rajesh Mourya
What do Apple, Amazon and Microsoft have in common?
The answer: All three technology giants, considered the gold standard
among cloud computing providers, have suffered the ignominy of being
breached by hackers.
Apple's 'celebgate' incident exposed personal photos of its celebrity
iCloud users and made unwelcome news headlines last year. UK technology
provider Code Spaces was forced out of business last year after hackers
tried to blackmail it and subsequently deleted crucial data from its
Amazon Web Services-hosted cloud storage.
In 2013, an expired SSL certificate in Microsoft's Azure cloud
service gave hackers the chance to bring down the Xbox Live and a raft
of other cloud-hosted services.
Cloud security risks are rising, with attacks growing at 45%
year-on-year globally, according to cloud security firm Alert Logic. In
the next five years, US$2 billion will be spent by enterprises to shore
up their cloud defences, according to Forrester Research.
First time cloud users can be most at risk, simply because of
unfamiliarity with the new environment and the added burden of having to
grapple with a new way of managing users, data and security.
Here are five security must-do's before taking the plunge.
1. Know the cloudy areas
There are three main segments in any cloud deployment - the cloud
vendor, network service provider and enterprise. Given that the cloud
should be treated like an extension of the enterprise data centre, the
question to ask is therefore: can a common set of security services and
policies be applied across the three segments? What are the security
gaps?
During vendor selection, ask the cloud vendor what security services
it provides and which security vendors it works with. The cloud is a
dynamic environment and needs regular updates to the security
architecture to stay up with the latest threats. How does the cloud
vendor guard against new security exploits and zero-day vulnerabilities?
Find out where the boundaries are in the shared security models that
come with the cloud service. Understand the extent of your cloud
provider's responsibilities - and your own. In some cloud services, such
as IaaS, it is the responsibility of the enterprise to secure its
applications and data in the cloud. It is, therefore, important to know
what security appliances and vendors the cloud provider offers/allows
the enterprise to deploy in the cloud to do just that.
2. New apps, new fortifications
Ready to move an application into the cloud? Before you do, consider
adding new fortifications to the existing security measures you have
built around your application's authentication and log-in processes.
To fortify the access to your cloud application, you should have a
granular data access scheme. You can do so by tying access privileges to
roles, company positions and projects. This will add an additional layer
of protection when attackers steal your staff's login credentials.
Account hijacking may sound basic but this age old breach has been
flagged by Cloud Security Alliance as a continuing top threat for cloud
users. To fortify your login process, consider implementing two-factor
authentication, posture checking and the use of one-time passwords. A
good tip is to change user IDs at initial logins.
3. Embrace encryption
Data encryption is one of your biggest security allies in the cloud,
and it should be non-negotiable when it comes to file transfers and
emails. While it may not prevent hacking attempts or data theft, it can
protect your business and save an organisation from incurring hefty
regulatory fines when the dreaded event happens.
Ask your cloud vendor about their data encryption schemes. Find out
how it encrypts data that is at rest, in use, and on the move. To
understand what data should be encrypted, it helps to get a handle of
where they reside - whether in your cloud vendor's servers, the servers
of third-party companies, employee laptops, office PCs or USB drives.
4. Wrestling with the virtual
Moving into the cloud lets businesses reap the benefits of
virtualization, but a virtualised environment can present challenges to
data protection. The main issue has to do with managing the security and
traffic in the realm of multi-tenancy and virtual machines.
Physical security appliances are typically not designed to handle the
data that is in the cloud. This is where virtual security appliances
come in - to secure traffic as it flows from virtual machine to virtual
machine. Such appliances are built to handle the complexities of running
multiple instances of applications, or multi-tenancy.
They, therefore, let businesses exert fine security control over
their data in the cloud. Ask your cloud provider how it safeguards its
virtual environment and find out what virtual security appliances it is
using. If you are building your own private or hybrid cloud, consider
getting virtual security products that focus on granular control.
5. Don't be in the dark about shadow IT
There is no shortage of anecdotes and reports that point to how the
unauthorised use of applications and cloud services, or shadow IT, is on
the rise among businesses. The uncontrolled nature of this unauthorised
use poses a security threat and governance challenge.
Your new cloud application will be at risk because of this. Consider
the simple scenario in which your employees use their smartphones to
open a file on their device. It is likely that the phone will make a
copy of the file, which could then be sent to an unapproved online
storage destination when the phone does its routine automatic backup.
Your secure corporate data has just been moved to an insecure location.
Preventing access to shadow IT is unlikely to stop its growth in any
given organisation. It is more effective to educate your users and use
technology to manage the issue. Encryption, network monitoring and
security management tools can help defend your first cloud app against
the risks of shadow IT.
(The writer is the Country Manager, India and SAARC, Fortinet.)
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