The traditional IT infrastructures are increasingly unsuitable for the number of business needs nowadays. More companies turned to the cloud for answers. Cloud environments offer capable solutions and attract new sets of risks without losing focus on the core businesses; the companies must leverage cloud security services. The set of services is designed to mitigate the risk and enhance compliance with cloud environments.
The environments are complex and involve an array of processes and technologies at the same time exposed to various threats, a one-size-fits-all solution can be enough to protect data privacy. The services are cloud-security services; managed and operated by third parties. Offloading security operations has several benefits, which include:
- Threats are monitored, traced, and responded
- Managed cloud security providers are trained
- IT staff never have to handle cyber situations and focus on supporting core business operations
Types of services
Cloud environments can be difficult. It consists of a mishmash of technologies and processes. Also, exposed to multiple threats. But, you can’t find a one-size-fits-all cloud security service. Instead, these services handle specific areas.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP). With many devices and applications accessing the data, uploaded and generated by cloud services, the chance of losing data is enormous. DLP is built to detect the presence of sensitive data and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Sensitive data includes:
- credit card data
- electronic Protected Health Information
- social security numbers, etc.
- Identity and Access Management. The service ensures users stick to the principle of minor privilege. Users are forced to access cloud resources and do actions permissible to the designated function or role. As an example, an ordinary user can’t create instances or erase snapshots. With the IAM service, the administrators can generate permission policies and associate them with a group of users or a user alone.
- Email security. The users are frequently the targets of cyber attacks as the weakest link in the security chain. Since all users are using email, many attacks are carried out, such as Trojans and phishing. Some attacks may compromise the cloud environment. A spear-phishing attack is an example of acquiring cloud administrator credentials. One way to mitigate this threat is to employ a reliable email security service that detects malicious attachments and phishing emails.
- Web security. It is an added burden to the IT administrators the increased usage of cloud services. The users access cloud services in different locations, such as at home, headquarters, branch offices, or about anywhere. Web security solutions sit between the internet and the users in typical scenarios, providing administrators the security for connections and protection against cyber threats.
- Intrusion detection. A solution that monitors inbound and outbound traffic for any suspicious activity and detects potential threats. Detection is performed through pattern recognition mechanisms identifying specific behaviors and signatures.
Cloud security plays a huge role in any business.