Software outsourcing agencies are now also go-to hubs for a variety of other allied services, with one such service being cloud security. But what constitutes cloud security, and how can you, as a business, get started?
In this article, we outline some of the most common threats that cloud-based resources are vulnerable to, as well as some key tools that can be implemented for delivering protection – in collaboration with a software outsourcing agency.
Looking to implement cloud security services for your business? As a leading software outsourcing company in Sri Lanka, EFutures has now extended its range of capabilities to also offer comprehensive cloud security services, thanks to an exclusive partnership with AWS.
As we build bespoke software for your business, our teams will integrate cloud security capabilities to protect your applications and other hosted resources, from as early as the information gathering phase. Talk to us today, to know how.
For most users that depend on the digital landscape, phishing, malware and ransomware continue to be the biggest perpetrators, enabling everything from identity theft to data loss. If your software or mobile application needs to cater to direct consumers, this will be a major concern to address and subsequently tackle.
While ensuring customers that their confidential personal and financial data is protected at all times, having the right protocols in place shall also be a must to meet compliance demands, which depend on the industry and region your business operates in.
Espionage is a tactic by threat actors to gain access to confidential data, in order to stealthily observe strategies, workflows and connections that an organisation has. This data is then leaked, and/or used for nefarious purposes, in order to gain unfair advantages. While governments are highly common targets for cyber espionage as state agencies hold access to high-profile intelligence, corporations are still just as vulnerable, especially where R&D information, marketing strategies and other trade secrets are involved.
With remote work environments now common, shadow IT has become more prevalent. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies further contribute to shadow IT, as employees use personal devices that are not governed by enterprise security policies for work purposes. This increases an organisation’s attack surface, as more unprotected endpoints connect to corporate networks.
Additionally, lacklustre user lifecycle management protocols can also contribute to security risks, as granular access permissions aren’t updated when employees’ roles change within the company, or profiles of past employees remain undeleted.
IT sprawl is the excessive adoption of and subsequent underutilisation of IT resources. As companies grow, resources may be scaled at short notice, in order to meet sudden peaks in demand. While this contributes to excessive costs and suboptimal performance over time, IT sprawl can also present security risks since attack surfaces are once again extended.
Cloud management platforms can help reduce IT sprawl through data visualisations of existing resource usage and subsequent recommendations on curbing the same, but it’s an area that organisations need to constantly keep an eye out on, as IT sprawl can repeat, and at speed, that too.
The following are a set of the most common tools that are used to establish a cloud security strategy across any organisation. Whether it’s via your software outsourcing partner or directly through a cloud service provider, such as AWS cloud security services, the following tools shall create the foundation necessary to build robust protection across your cloud infrastructure.
IAM solutions feature all the capabilities required to delegate and manage access policies across the organisation. Whether it’s authenticating users for accessing a network, or executing granular access permissions to files in the cloud, IAM will lay the foundation for any enterprise cloud security strategy.
Some of the key capabilities that IAM solutions provide include:
CASBs are virtual ‘brokers’ that enforce security policies between users’ access points, and the cloud-based resources they are trying to access. CASBs mediate between the organisation’s on-premise infrastructure, and the cloud provider’s hosted infrastructure, monitoring traffic and access requests at a topical level, in order to ensure only authorised users gain access.
As policy enforcers, CASBs don’t consist of one monolithic solution, and instead employ a variety of security capabilities such as malware detection, device profiling, firewalls and multi-factor authentication in order to ensure authorised user access.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is a set of tools that help security teams triage security incidents, to combat alert fatigue and prioritise on events that need to be addressed without any delay. Security Orchestration and Automation Response (SOAR), on the other hand, helps automate workflows pertaining to security incidents, so threats can be contained with zero error, and once again, without any delay.
Both SIEM and SOAR can work in harmony to provide security experts the leverage they need to catch every single threat before it can do any damage. Whether this is directly through your cyber security vendor or from your software outsourcing company, SIEM and SOAR constitute larger and more complex (but highly effective) cyber security strategies.
DLP is a subset of overarching data security, and comprises tools that can help detect the risk of data exfiltration, while preventing the same from happening by blocking any such attempts. Disaster recovery solutions, on the other hand, are also another subset of data security.
However, disaster recovery solutions are better focused towards maintaining business continuity, through geo redundant backups and inbuilt failovers so in the event of any data loss (be it through physical damage, a natural disaster or a cyber attack), organisations can get back on their feet without any significant damage.
Knowing which cloud security tools are best suited to your application’s SDLC and hosted infrastructure is dependent on niche, individual needs. However, following the below steps shall help business teams and software companies alike decide which cloud security strategy is most suitable:
Cloud security consists of a variety of security tools (from access policy management to data security) in order to offer the right calibre of protection for each organisation’s unique risk profile and security posture.
Software outsourcing companies, in addition to offering core software and application development services, can now help their clients implement cloud security strategies, to help protect workloads, data and endpoints that all depend on hosted infrastructure.
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