Best Practices for Your Cloud Infrastructure Security

While cloud infrastructure offers significant benefits, it still requires ongoing security practices to protect against evolving threats. This guide explores how organizations can secure their cloud infrastructure and maintain robust protection. 

Key takeaways

• Only 4% of organizations are confident in the effectiveness of their cybersecurity initiatives.
• Account compromise, shadow IT, and social engineering are some of the biggest cybersecurity threats facing cloud infrastructures.
• You can safeguard your cloud infrastructure by encrypting your data, staying compliant, and implementing cloud security posture management (CSPM) tools.

How secure is your cloud infrastructure?

Sure, it costs less than traditional infrastructure and offers greater flexibility and scalability, but it comes with some risks. From data breaches to downtime caused by cyber-attacks, the financial repercussions of weak cloud security far outweigh the savings. That is why investing in robust cloud protection is essential to avoid costly risks.

According to an Astra security audit, only 4% of organizations worldwide are confident in their cybersecurity. As the intensity and severity of cyber-attacks continue to grow, organizations must  proactively implement comprehensive measures to safeguard their cloud infrastructure. 

Continue reading to learn about actionable tips on safeguarding cloud-based environments and ensuring data protection and compliance with industry regulations.

What are the major security threats in a cloud infrastructure?

Like traditional, on-premise data centers, cloud computing infrastructures face numerous threats that could result in data loss and financial and reputational damage. Some of the most common threats include:

Account compromise

Cybercriminals often access sensitive data by compromising the account of an employee, privileged user, or third party with access to the organization's cloud environment. They can achieve this by brute force attacks, password spraying, credential stuffing, or the account holder's poor password practices. With this access, the intruder can use the compromised account to access company files, trick other users into revealing sensitive information, or perform malicious actions.  

Shadow IT

Shadow IT is any cloud service, software, or hardware used by an organization without the explicit permission of the IT team. These unauthorized systems pose serious risks and challenges, including the possibility of unpatched vulnerabilities, lack of IT control, and compliance irregularities. 

There’s also the possibility of a compromised cloud service having unmitigated access to your cloud infrastructure. In this case, attackers may use this access to manipulate or exfiltrate sensitive data.

Social engineering

Phasing is one of the most used social engineering tactics by attackers. It involves luring a victim to disclose sensitive information through an email.

Essentially, perpetrators may present themselves as representatives of a trustworthy source and ask victims to provide sensitive data or take specific actions. Once the account is compromised, the perpetrator can access your cloud environment. 

Malicious insider activity

When implementing cybersecurity measures, many companies overlook the possibility of an attack from within the organization. This could be an outside agent performing corporate espionage, a malicious user accessing sensitive data, or even a disgruntled employee seeking revenge on the company. 

Malicious insider activity can pose significant threats, including data loss, system disruption, malware, and intellectual property theft.

The worst part about this is that it can be challenging to distinguish malicious activity from everyday activity, making it difficult to detect and predict insider-related incidents. 

Essential cybersecurity best practices for securing your cloud infrastructure

Here are some practical best practices to ensure your cloud infrastructure is secure.

1. Encrypt your data

Data encryption ensures your private data flows seamlessly and securely in your cloud environment and is inaccessible to unauthorized users.

This involves implementing robust encryption protocols on both stored and in-transit data. It is also an ongoing process, necessitating the need to choose a reliable cloud provider with advanced encryption standards (AES) and regular updates in their encryption protocols. 

2. Understand your shared responsibility model

The duty to protect your data doesn’t solely lie in the hands of your cloud computing provider. While your provider has much to do from its end, it is your duty as the user to protect your data, applications, and configurations. 

Different providers offer unique shared responsibility models. Therefore, reading pertinent documentation defining roles in different deployment situations is vital. Understanding your role will help determine the measures to take and minimize miscommunication with the provider during an attack. 

3. Manage user access privileges

Organizations give certain employees extensive access to systems and data to perform their duties effectively. Once compromised, such accounts are goldmines for cybercriminals, as they can gain easier access to critical cloud infrastructures.

To avoid this, you should regularly reassess and revoke unauthorized user access as part of your user privilege management process. While you’re at it, you should consider implementing the principle of least privilege, which states that users should only have access to data necessary to perform their responsibilities.

4. Implement cloud security posture management (CSPM) tools

Cloud security posture management (CSPM) tools can help you automate continuous monitoring, visibility, threat detection, and remediation workflows to identify and fix misconfiguration issues. 

That said, CSPM tools aren’t created equal. You should only use tools that integrate seamlessly with your cloud platform and other security tools. The ideal CSPM tool monitors compliance, enforces security policies, and provides insights into your cloud infrastructure.

5. Ensure you meet IT compliance requirements

In addition to following regulation measures, cybersecurity compliance protects consumers’ data and guides organizations in better securing sensitive information. Failure to meet compliance requirements might leave your organization vulnerable to cybersecurity threats and the possibility of legal action.

Most reliable cloud computing providers comply with industry-standard requirements. However, as the consumer, you must ensure compliance with your data management practices and security measures. For instance, any organization that uses SWIFT must follow SWIFT customer security program (CSP) requirements. 

Similarly, any organization that stores data in the cloud should familiarize itself with System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2) and follow SOC 2 compliance requirements. 

Enhance your cloud infrastructure security

Adhering to cloud infrastructure security best practices is essential for protecting valuable data and maintaining a secure cloud environment. Any organization that effectively leverages cloud computing while mitigating security risks can ensure business continuity and protect sensitive data during a cyber-attack. 

That is very often too much work, which may overburden your IT team, especially if they already have a lot on their hands. That is where our expertise at Unisol International comes in handy. As your partners, we can help you evaluate and implement the right solutions, providing access to cutting-edge technologies to safeguard your cloud infrastructure. 

We also offer installation, setup, and ongoing management to maximize the effectiveness of these solutions. Contact us today for more details on how we can help enhance the security and compliance of your cloud infrastructure.