Improve Your Cloud Security Posture
Cloud security posture management provides several important benefits for businesses, including increased visibility into the cloud environment, improved security practices, and better risk management.
When done well, it enables businesses to identify vulnerabilities and threats, respond to incidents more effectively, and comply with relevant regulations and standards.
Effective cloud security posture management also helps businesses to optimize their cloud infrastructure and reduce the risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks, which can result in financial losses and damage to their reputation.
Best-in-class CSPM is essential for businesses that want to ensure the security and integrity of their cloud environment and protect their sensitive data and assets.
In this guide, we'll explore the following topics that are designed to help you on the road to effective CSPM:
What is Cloud Security Posture Management?
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM for short) is a term most likely coined, by research firm Gartner, in a 2019 innovation paper.
In that paper, Gartner noted that “nearly all successful attacks on cloud services are the result of customer misconfiguration, mismanagement and mistakes.”
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is a set of tools/systems and processes/policies that are designed to reduce the risk of a public cloud data or compliance breach.
In their paper, Gartner specifically referred to CSPM as a new market sector for vendors. The tools that followed were initially designed to explore and monitor PaaS & IaaS environments. The best tools now automatically fix problems, saving Ops teams valuable time as well as risk.
What Prevents Effective CSPM?
There are a few key factors that stand in the way of effective cloud security posture management.
- One of the main challenges is the lack of visibility into the cloud environment. Cloud environments can be complex, with multiple services, applications, and users accessing resources from various locations. Without a centralized view of the cloud environment, it can be difficult to identify security vulnerabilities or threat
- A common challenge is the lack of resources and expertise. Many businesses lack the resources to monitor their cloud security posture effectively. They may not have the staff, tools, or knowledge needed to implement security best practices, detect threats, or respond to incidents effectively.
- Increasingly, the ever-changing face of cloud computing can also prevent effective cloud security posture management. With cloud services evolving rapidly, it can be challenging to keep up with the latest security threats and vulnerabilities. Security protocols and practices that were effective yesterday may be outdated today, leaving businesses exposed to new risks.
- And last but definitely not least, compliance requirements can also make it challenging to manage cloud security posture effectively. Different industries have different regulations and standards that they must comply with, and failure to comply with these requirements can result in severe consequences, including financial penalties and damage to the business's reputation.
Who is Responsible For CSPM?
In a 2020 CISO MAG survey, 76% of respondents believed that their Cloud Service Provider (CSP) was entirely responsible for cloud security.
AWS and Azure, however, have other ideas.
AWS’ shared responsibility model is clear that the responsibility is split between them and the consumer of their service. They (AWS) are responsible for the security of the cloud, but we (AWS' consumers) are responsible for the security in the cloud.
"AWS is responsible for protecting the infrastructure that runs all of the services offered in the AWS Cloud. This infrastructure is composed of the hardware, software, networking, and facilities that run AWS Cloud services."
Source: AWS' Shared Responsibility Model
When it comes to Azure, Microsoft holds the same view as Amazon.
"In an on-premises data center, you own the whole stack. As you move to the cloud some responsibilities transfer to Microsoft."
The Azure shared responsibility model states that the customer is always responsible for “data, endpoints, accounts, & access management”. The further away you move from on-prem (IaaS, PaaS, then SaaS), the more responsibilities transfer to Microsoft.
Benefits of CSPM: Why is it Important?
As cloud and micro-service usage grows, so do the number of unmanaged risks and, sadly, headline-making data breaches. Combine bad headlines with more regulatory standards and policies, and you have a recipe for cloud security that is more complex and higher risk than ever before.
Gartner’s view is that by 2025 “90% of the organizations that fail to control their public cloud use will inappropriately share sensitive data”.
Security
Breaches seem to grow in profile year on year. Regulators are becoming less generous in the amount they fine companies that break the rules, whether they intended to break the rules or not. Class actions are more frequent, larger, and becoming commonplace in new parts of the globe.
Cost
The cost of fines and legal cases can still be dwarfed by the overnight reputational damage a breach can cause.
Now more than ever is the time to take control of your cloud security. Compliance isn't a fire drill, it's a 24/7 requirement.
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How To Choose a CSPM Tool
Since Gartner initially coined the term, CSPM tools have come a long way.
High-profile data breaches regularly reinforce the need for effective CSPM, growing the market size to $9 billion by 2026.
Initially, CSPM tools helped you discover and visualize your IaaS and PaaS asset inventory. The best CSPM tools now help you save time and minimize risk across your entire stack.
Key Capabilities of a CSPM Tool:
With the help of tools like Hyperglance, you can overcome these challenges, and start your journey towards highly effective cloud security posture management that'll be the envy of your industry.
When you're looking for a CSPM tool, make sure it has these features:
- Out-of-the-box compliance with security frameworks such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, etc.
- Built-in monitoring using a library of best practices
- Multi-cloud asset discovery, classification, and risk assessment
- Real-time, continuous visualization of your infrastructure
- Protection against common misconfiguration (e.g. expired keys, disabled logging, incorrect permissions, lack of encryption, updates not being run)
- Codeless customizable automation to remediate common issues in real-time
- Continuous delivery whilst enforcing DevOps and DevSecOps policies
Choosing a Cloud Security Posture Management Vendor
If you're looking to improve your cloud security posture, Hyperglance is the perfect place to start. It ships with a wealth of features that contribute to successful CSPM:
Customizable Options
Hyperglance includes hundreds of out-of-the-box fully customizable checks, all designed to help you enforce policy and reduce your cloud bill.
Continuous Updates
The checks run continuously, can trigger notifications, and are based on best practices and industry frameworks (CIS, NIST, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, AWS Well-Architected, HIPAA, PCI DSS, & FedRAMP).
Automations
Hyperglance also ships with an ever-growing library of cloud automations designed to help you keep your cloud in check, and remediate in real-time.
Flexibility
Hyperglance is self-hosted, deployed through the AWS & Azure Marketplaces (including GovCloud and Azure Government), in Kubernetes, or installed on your own instance/VM.