Every business knows that cybersecurity threats are a significant problem. As businesses transition to the cloud, they also know that cloud threats are a problem. But for many SMBs that can’t afford the in-house cybersecurity departments of large Fortune 500 companies, the knowledge stops there.
It’s not enough to know that there are cloud threats—it’s important to know what they are. For example, malware isn’t the top threat (with surveyed professionals ranking it as the eighth biggest risk); instead, threats like misconfiguration during setup, insecure APIs, and unauthorized access are far more concerning.
When you don’t know what cloud threats you face, you can’t efficiently fight them. You might not be able to fight them at all. That’s why every cloud security management strategy should start with threat assessment and continue with ongoing assessments and monitoring. When you make cloud threat assessment a priority in your efforts, you can stay on top of the shifting nature of cloud environments and be ready to proactively guard against new threats.
Why Cloud Threat Assessment Should Be the Top Priority in Your Cybersecurity Strategy
Businesses rely on the cloud, but an unmanaged cloud can represent a real security threat. Nearly 45% of surveyed businesses have had a data breach or failed a cloud security audit. This high failure rate doesn’t mean the cloud is a bad business strategy—it means you need to constantly be testing your cloud security and scrutinizing potential threats. Here’s why:
- Your business’s operations may be dependent on the cloud. If something goes wrong, your digital presence can go offline, and staff may not be able to get anything done.
- More and more of your business’s operations are in this new environment, and knowledge about firewalls, viruses, and conventional computer security is completely unaligned with the security needs of the cloud.
- Each cloud you use will have different security norms and protections. That means more holes in your security systems, and if you’re using third-party or public clouds, you don’t get to control those holes directly.
- And a final point many businesses don’t realize: All the third-party business tools in your tech stack also operate on the cloud and have the exact same security challenges—and those roll over to you and your data.
Because cloud security is so integral to your business operations, your business needs to constantly be monitoring your cloud infrastructures and data systems so you can spot holes, unusual behavior, and any signs that a threat is headed in your direction.
Related: Elevate Your Business with Managed Cloud Services
The Dynamic Nature of Cloud Environments
Conventionally, businesses may have had an annual review or the occasional penetration test to make sure their organization’s cybersecurity processes were up to snuff. But that’s not enough in a world powered by the cloud.
Cloud ecosystems are continually making changes. Not only are major providers like AWS always making slight modifications and releasing new updates and versions, but all of the apps and APIs you use are doing the same thing in response to those changes and the changes in their own tech stacks.
Cloud environments change from update to update, and by implementing good processes from the outset, your organization can control for potential vulnerabilities, new threats, and disruptions in day-to-day processes. Your organization must be aware of evolving security gaps, new solutions to new problems, and when it’s likely an actual threat has infiltrated your business.
The majority of IT professionals worry that their business’s cloud setups are flawed and misconfigured from the beginning. But even the ones that got off to a perfect start will experience drift and fall out of alignment.
So instead of focusing on general ‘cloud security,’ focus on ‘dynamic cloud security.’ This involves approaches like:
- Integrated DevSecOps efforts that keep developers and security experts in lockstep when evolving new tools and services
- Cloud-native security tools that are built specifically for the cloud
- Zero-trust architecture that minimizes unauthorized access, especially as data streams flow in more and more complex streams that are outside of your control
- A better approach to serverless security—while many businesses have started to turn to serverless cloud computing, this increases dependence on invisible third parties unless it’s done properly
On top of all these processes, it’s even more important to maintain constant monitoring and assessment processes. Like with all aspects of security, it’s better to be proactive than reactive.
How to Keep Your Cloud Secure: The Right Combination of Assessments and Monitoring
A multi-pronged assessment protocol is the only way to stay on top of all the different potential avenues for threats in the cloud. As you build your comprehensive strategy, make sure you incorporate the right assessments to cover every aspect of how your business and your customers use the cloud.
Review Your Cloud Setup
The first assessment is reviewing your existing cloud infrastructure. The biggest mistakes come from misconfiguration during initial setup, and those open doors can be a continual source of threats if they aren’t closed. A professional cloud security team can review and improve security protocols, tighten role permissions and block unauthorized access, review your network security, and create a strong foundation for cloud-based operations.
24/7 Critical Incident Monitoring and Response
Proactively knowing what kinds of threats you’ll face is important, but it’s also important to have a plan for when those problems knock on your door. 24/7 responsiveness means you can immediately start resolving threats as soon as they appear, not when they start to cause business-critical problems.
Related: Managed Observability
The faster you can respond, the better, so invest in assessment solutions that continually watch all parts of your network to find threats, holes, and unusual behaviors that may indicate a problem.
Assessments and Reports for Iterative Changes
Testing, modifying, and retesting your cloud is an excellent strategy for reducing the vulnerabilities your business faces, especially while you’re not yet in crisis mode. Proactively identifying potential problems, making revisions and changes that directly target that problem, and then retesting for solvency and any new, tangential problems lets you shore up your defenses before there’s a specific attack.
Create a multi-pronged assessment approach. Testing your cloud at regular intervals, staying on top of new updates and releases, and having 24/7 monitoring and response programs will help your organization stay on top of potential threats—with minimal disruption and risk.
Navigating Cloud Threats Is All About Seeing Them
For too long, cybersecurity has been about fighting threats and reacting to them as quickly as possible. This approach is still important in today’s technological settings, as some challenges may worm through your defenses no matter how strong they are. But a much bigger component is surveilling your systems from the start so you can stop problems before they develop. This includes:
- Continually monitoring for oncoming threats
- Continually monitoring for how your cloud ecosystem is drifting away from the original design and intentions
- Continually monitoring for how changes in how you and connected parties use the cloud reveals new vulnerabilities
At Defiance Digital, we’ve designed our services to provide 24/7/365 proactive monitoring and assessments for the cloud. Reach out today to make sure your cloud security strategy is ready for anything.