Cloud Security
Security remains one of the topical issues when it comes to the cloud. Organizations are migrating to the cloud because of its numerous advantages of consistency, flexibility, scalability, and cost savings. You will agree with me that these advantages are what every business strives for, especially in critical and challenging times.
Although moving to the cloud is an appealing option due to its indisputable advantages, one must remember to adjust their security in the cloud. In fact, when companies migrate their operations to the cloud, sensitive data follows, making access to it a prime target for attack.
Cloud Security Issues
Cloud Security is collectively referred to as the entire of information security that is specifically created to be used in response to the special difficulties and demands of cloud architecture. This includes all software, policies, procedures, personnel, and infrastructure.
Below are some security Issues in the cloud that you should be aware of.
Misconfigured or Untrusted Security Settings
The level of your cloud security is influenced by numerous factors. These include the cloud service provider you select, whether you choose a private or public cloud, the level of password security or IAM Policies and Permissions, the degree to which your personnel has received cloud security training, and more. Together, these contributing elements may significantly affect how vulnerable your cloud security is.
Granting Unauthorized Access
In order to cover the skill gaps in their internal staff, more and more businesses are turning to outsourced staff, such as contractors and freelancers. These outsourced staff may require access to confidential company information to carry out their duties effectively, depending on their specific roles. The risk of an uninvited third-party breach can, however, be increased by this working arrangement, particularly if the external contractors or freelancers in issue are successful in stealing, leaking, or altering the data to suit their own needs. Even worse, it may be challenging to identify a third-party breach when the conduct was not carried out by an internal team member.
Data Transfer
The ability to easily transfer data over the open internet is one of cloud computing’s biggest benefits. You can grant access to an internal or external staff member, a member of the public, or both by simply sharing a URL link, allowing them to view and, in certain situations, alter the data. If the data gets into the wrong hands, this benefit might easily turn into a catastrophe depending on the sort of material being hosted.
Malicious Insiders
Even in the best-case scenario, there is always a chance that internal staff members will act maliciously and jeopardize the security of your cloud system. Additionally, it might be very challenging to stop harmful activity from within the cloud.
Lack of Trained Personnel
Personnel is frequently the weakest link when it comes to detecting the key security risks in cloud computing. A staff member could unintentionally give their login information or financial information after mistaking a phishing email scam for a legitimate source. They might unintentionally share a URL link with a team member but forget to restrict access to the URL, making it easy for anyone to access the link over the public internet.
Solutions or Services to Combat Cloud Security Issues
Amazon Web Services is the leading cloud service provider in the cloud market today. As organizations continue the battle against attack surfaces and incidences of security vulnerabilities in the cloud, AWS has put in place numerous services to enable organizations to tackle any security problem facing them.
The following are various AWS security services:
DDoS Attacks — A Distributed Denial of Service attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic. By using numerous compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic, DDoS attacks are made effective.
You can protect against DDoS attacks using a content delivery network (CDN) such as Amazon CloudFront, AWS Web Application Firewall, AWS Route 53 and AWS Shield Advanced.
Unauthorized Access to Your AWS Account — For unauthorized access to AWS Account review this short guide and the some best practices for securing my AWS account and its resources.
Protecting Your Virtual Private Network — You can launch Amazon resources into a defined virtual network using Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). See some security best practices for protecting your VPC.
