As organizations across the world continue their digitization efforts, it has become clear to them that security must be ceaseless rather than security-as-a-stage implemented at the end of operations and development lifecycles. The security technology, particularly the security principles and functions, are advancing in parallel. Organizations are aware that securing their data and then safeguarding it is an important responsibility.
Navigating the spectrum of cloud security in an ever-changing landscape of regulations while following the security principles is a challenging task. The more complex the infrastructure of an organization is, the more difficult it is to maintain compliance as regulations evolve. It is imperative that organizations balance their need for securing data with the cloud’s flexibility.
Cloud Security Principles that Organizations Must Focus On
Being transparent about security practices helps organizations strategize a successful approach to cloud security. Following are some important security principles that must be considered while designing and implementing the cloud security roadmap.
- Protecting the Data in Transit
- Protecting the Data at Rest
- Asset Protection
- Securing the Data Center
- Sanitizing the Data
- Disposing Equipment
- Resilience and Availability
- User Separation
- Securing the Operations
- Governance Framework
Protecting the Data in Transit
The networks that transition the user data must have a robust protection against eavesdropping and tampering. A combination of encryption and network protection helps organizations achieve this. It helps them arrest the attacker’s ability to compromise data and read data.
Protecting the Data at Rest
Ensuring unavailability of the data to unauthorized users with access to the infrastructure is a must. The user data must be protected irrespective of its storage media. Inadvertent disclosure or loss of data could be the risk if proper measures aren’t put in place.
Asset Protection
The assets that store or process the user data need protection against any seizure, damage, or tampering. Key aspects to consider include equipment disposal, data center security, protecting the data at rest and in transit, availability, resilience, and data sanitization.
Securing the Data Center
Cloud services require physical protection against reconfigurations, tampering, unauthorized access, and attacks. Physical security is completely offered by leading cloud providers, which encompasses a broad range of attestations and certifications. Improper protection measures eventually result in data alliteration, loss, or disclosure.
Sanitizing the Data
The process of migrating and provisioning resources must not lead to any unauthorized access to the user data. Improper data sanitization results in data retention, inaccessibility, or data loss.
Disposing Equipment
Equipment used for delivering services, once they are at the end of their lifecycle, must be trashed in a way that doesn’t compromise the user data and the security framework. Therefore, CSPs make it a point that the equipment disposal is ensured as a top responsibility.
Resilience and Availability
The level of resilience in security varies, which impacts their operations in the case of an attack, incident, or failure. Lack of availability can undermine the whole security strategy, which potentially prolongs regardless of business impacts.
User Separation
The security strategy must not allow any compromised or malicious user to affect the sensitive data of another. There are some factors that affect user separation. These include the location of separation controls implemented, data sharing, and the degree of assurance in implementing separation controls.
Securing the Operations
The operations and their management must be highly secure to identify, mitigate, or prevent attacks. A good operational security doesn’t mean that a complex, time-intensive process must be followed. Key elements to consider here are change management, configuration, proactive monitoring, incident management, and vulnerability management.
Governance Framework
The security governance framework must coordinate and direct the management of the framework within it. It must do so in order to undermine any deployment of technical controls from outside the framework. An effective governance framework ensures continued technical and physical controls throughout the lifetime of the security roadmap.
To Sum Up
There are many challenges and areas for advancement in cloud security, and security principles can help the organizations fill these gaps. All users and organizations themselves must be well aware of threats that lurk in the cloud security landscape. Organizations must plan well for balancing their cloud security budget and activities with user convenience and time-to-market.
Recommended reading:
- 7 Best Practices for Cloud Security Monitoring
- An Ultimate Guide on Cloud-based Application Security Assessment
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