Cloud Security: Tips and Best Practices

Business demand for cloud services continues to grow. Gartner predicts that in 2023, companies’ spending on public clouds will increase by 20.7% compared to 2022 and reach nearly $600 billion. And it’s a good investment given the benefits it brings.

Analysts at McKinsey & Company have calculated that by 2030, the total revenue of Fortune 500 companies could increase by $1 trillion just by leveraging the power of the cloud.

But in addition to the benefits, working in the clouds is associated with new challenges for IT security. These risks are particularly important to consider given the rapid pace at which companies are moving to the cloud today.

In this article, we will explain what to look for and what practices to follow when migrating to the cloud, and why Microsoft Azure is the safest choice for migration.

What is special about cloud security?

Cloud infrastructure is more complex and dynamic than traditional on-premise infrastructure. Business has long gone beyond offices. Employees of companies get remote access to corporate information, working from different locations and countries through public Wi-Fi networks and personal devices, performing tasks using cloud applications and programs.

Due to the lack of a clear perimeter, such a blurry work environment needs special protection methods. Cloud security covers the whole complex of such methods. These are policies, procedures, and technologies designed to protect all of an organization’s cloud assets, including identities, corporate and personal devices, confidential information, applications, infrastructure, and network.

Providing reliable protection in the cloud is further complicated by the fact that companies today typically use multiple clouds from different providers at the same time (multi-cloud environment), as well as a combination of cloud and traditional on-premise systems (hybrid cloud environment). Cloud security must include the entire ecosystem of an organization and protect its resources, no matter where they are located.

What are the risks associated with migrating to the cloud?

Threats to IT security stem from the very distributed and fluid nature of cloud computing. Clouds expand the operational capabilities of a business, taking them beyond the local corporate networks, but thereby increasing the plane of vulnerabilities and possible attacks.

It is noteworthy that 45% of incidents occurred in the cloud environment. Including due to the fact that traditional cyber defense approaches are ineffective there. So what are the security challenges you face while migrating to the cloud?
Configuration errors

The vast majority of security incidents in the clouds are due to misconfigurations. Especially in complex environments where multiple clouds from different vendors are combined with different security controls.

Access control

In the clouds, access to the corporate network, office programs, work email is provided dynamically. Different users get them from different locations, often through their own devices. Therefore, it is much more difficult to manage the process of granting access and track who gets access to what resources.

Data visibility

The ramifications of cloud environments and the dynamic granting of access to corporate resources can make it difficult for companies’ technical teams to keep track of how data moves in the cloud, to make sure it isn’t used by unauthorized parties or moved to less secure locations.

Compliance

The preservation of confidential information is governed by international standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, GDPR, etc. Violation of these standards can lead not only to data leakage, but also to legal problems. But compliance can get messy when you use hybrid or multi-cloud environments.

Microsoft Azure provides all the necessary capabilities to minimize these and other risks. However, it should be remembered that security in the cloud is the shared responsibility of the provider and the user.

Therefore, it is important for companies, on the one hand, to choose a reliable cloud provider, and on the other hand, to implement the best security practices. First, let’s look at the security options that cloud solutions provide to businesses. Then we will focus on the security practices that organizations should apply.

How secure are clouds?

When sensitive company data leaves the perimeter of the corporate network to enter the public cloud, it raises legitimate concerns about its security.

However, cloud solution providers typically have far more expertise and data protection resources than the vast majority of companies. They invest a lot in cybersecurity, use state of the art technology, and employ large teams of engineers.

Therefore, such clouds are quite reliably protected. Let’s describe some of the built-in security features provided in Microsoft Azure.

Threat analytics

AI-driven analytics enables early detection of vulnerabilities in cloud environments of any complexity. Machine learning and behavioral analysis in solutions like Azure Sentinel help you uncover hidden threat patterns in the clouds and take into account changing risk factors. If a danger is detected, the system provides step-by-step recommendations for its prompt elimination.

Data encryption

Azure provides a variety of mechanisms to automatically encrypt an organization’s data, both at rest and in transit from one location to another. Thus, the data cannot be used, even if it falls into the wrong hands.

Backup and restore

Thanks to Azure Site Recovery, cloud backups can happen automatically and at different levels – for example, at the level of applications or operating systems – which allows them to be quickly restored in case of failures or a ransomware attack.

Access control

The clouds also provide tools for identifying users and providing them with access to company resources. In Azure, this is Azure AD that supports security measures such as multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, role-based access, and Conditional Access.

Thus, Azure is a reliable working environment that meets the most stringent security requirements and has all the necessary protection features. However, it would be a mistake to assume that a secure cloud solution automatically removes all threats. Security in the cloud, as already noted, is achieved by joint efforts. Companies must take their share of the responsibility.

Cloud Security Best Practices

No matter how reliable the cloud solution is, in order to work safely in the cloud, it is important for companies to consistently implement appropriate policies and take all possible measures to protect their data, programs, accesses, and accounts. Azure already provides all the necessary features and tools for this. But in order for the implementation of security measures to be systemic and comprehensive, we recommend using the Zero Trust model.

Zero Trust Model to Protect Your Infrastructure

Businesses today need a new IT security model better suited to today’s complex work environments. Such model is the Zero Trust model. It allows companies to build comprehensive protection, covering all platforms, networks and clouds of the organization and protect it from cyber threats at all levels.

The model is based on the principle of total distrust. Every request to access any company resources is treated as a security breach. Regardless of where and from whom it came. Accordingly, it is subject to mandatory and complete verification.

For complete protection, the Zero Trust model must be applied consistently across all of the components below.

Identities

Identification of users and granting them access to company data and programs is an important component of security in the cloud. To manage these processes, Azure AD has features such as setting up multi-factor authentication and conditional access, among others. The first involves several stages of verification using passwords or biometric data. The second performs an analysis of all security signals in relation to the user and generates an appropriate decision: grant access, restrict it, block it, or conduct an additional check. Only this helps to protect against 99.9% of cyber attacks.

Endpoint control

Another important vector of cloud IT security is the management, protection and monitoring of endpoints, because in the current business realities, an organization may have an incredible number and variety of such points.

This includes control of both personal devices and company devices accessing the corporate infrastructure. Before granting access, all endpoints must be checked for compliance with all necessary requirements.

Data

With the migration to the cloud, protecting the corporate perimeter is no longer relevant. It should be replaced by data-level protection. The principle of ‘zero trust’ is implemented here through introducing the policy of least privilege access, end-to-end encryption, as well as in analytics and data classification in order to determine what information needs to be protected.

Applications

Applications can also become a weak link in protection. Especially if it is shadow IT. The use of unauthorized programs is often the cause of data leakage, not to mention the fact that they complicate an organization’s already complex cloud infrastructure. You can take control of the situation with the help of Microsoft Endpoint Management.

Infrastructure

At the infrastructure level, protection is provided by telemetry provided in Microsoft Defender for Cloud. The solution performs real-time monitoring, detects, marks and automatically blocks suspicious activities, monitors any anomalies in the system. It also finds and fixes configuration errors, which are the most common vulnerability for complex cloud environments.

Network

Zero trust should extend to devices and users even if they are on the corporate network. Therefore, all internal data exchange channels should be encrypted, and the network itself should be divided into micro-segments, access to each of which should be limited. These tasks are included in the functionality of Microsoft Network Security.

Conclusion

Global business continues to actively migrate to the cloud, because it is cost-effective and provides enhanced opportunities, allowing companies to accelerate innovation and streamline workflows. You can only reap these benefits by choosing a reliable cloud solution and minimizing security risks.

In this sense, the Azure cloud is a good choice, because it has the best protection features in the industry, an excellent market reputation and Microsoft expertise.

Microsoft, together with SMART business, continue to support the development of Ukrainian business and offer their customers preferential terms: an 80% discount on the cost of Microsoft Azure solutions. Provided that the tenant of the customer is registered in Ukraine. The offer is valid until November 30, 2023*

*subject to Microsoft’s approval of the discount for a specific case.

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