As a cybersecurity community, we cannot forget about the human aspect of this profession. Even the most secure systems can be endangered by human error or simple mistakes. Organizations are particularly vulnerable to such oversights during complex technology transfers. Cloud migrations, for instance, often result in misconfigurations that create vulnerabilities in key applications, leaving your organization’s information exposed to attacks. Fortunately, cybersecurity providers like Zscaler and Check Point’s Dome9 have come to the rescue with technologies to prevent gaps in your organization's security stack.
Today we’ll be going over Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and how it can help eliminate misconfigurations in cloud infrastructures.
What is Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)?
So what is CSPM? CSPM is the process of implementing automated tools across numerous business technology models like Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) to identify and resolve any misconfigurations within your cloud infrastructure.
CSPM is not only beneficial to the integrity of your cloud infrastructure; it is often necessary for certain industries with compliance requirements such as PCI, DSS, and HIPAA, to name a few.
What Kind of Cloud Misconfigurations Would a CSPM Platform Notify Me About?
Cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have provided an ideal solution for many organizations that traditionally have an on-premise infrastructure and face occasional headaches with set infrastructures. When organizations decide to migrate to these platforms, they are able to scale more effectively and reduce capital spending for on-premise infrastructures. Unfortunately, cloud migrations also have a way of creating new security risks if they’re not handled properly. Simple “lift and shift” migrations and transfers involving legacy applications are not always reconfigured to operate within a cloud environment. This can create security gaps that leave their network vulnerable to data exposure.
Here are some of the most common cloud misconfigurations that CSPM tools are likely to identify within your environment:
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) not correctly configured for all users.
- CloudTrail accidentally disabled and prevented logging events in your cloud.
- Unprotected public-facing S3 buckets.
- Compute instances with critical vulnerabilities embedded in applications.
This list covers some of the basic and more advanced misconfigurations that can exist in your cloud environment right now, but CSPM can also provide ongoing security and performance benefits.
What Are The Benefits of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) & How Does It Automate Processes?
As the name suggests, CSPM is the management of your cloud infrastructure. The benefits trickle down to peace of mind within your cloud infrastructure security. CSPM provides continuous visibility to your cloud environments, identifies policy violations, and allows you to perform automated remediation of misconfigurations to ensure ongoing compliance. Also, CSPM includes remediation to protect cloud assets and support prebuilt compliance libraries of traditional standards.
CSPM is the future of cloud security all in one. With posture management, you’ll be able to automate the monitoring and configurations within your organization, establish integrity from recently deployed systems, and understand and recognize which technologies are used most. CSPM is also great for its ability to monitor trends, allowing your organization to analyze your staff’s training opportunities.
Automation has arrived, and with CSPM, you can orchestrate and improve your organization’s cloud security posture.
Migrating to The Cloud? Worried About Your Current Infrastructure? Contact Us Today
Compuquip’s cybersecurity team becomes an extension to your team, allowing our team of experts to help you reach your goals securely. Our dedicated cloud security team is here to help you design, architect, migrate, and much more.
In need of assistance? Reach out to our team of cloud security experts and see how we can help your organization today!
