Understanding cloud security tools and their built-in protections can help ensure the cloud journey is secure and efficient. To successfully protect an organization’s data in the cloud, it’s important to first secure user identities. The cloud should help block brute force attacks by using sophisticated in-product risk models to assess whether a login event is legitimate or not. If the risk engine determines that an attempt is suspicious, it should prompt the user for additional evidence to ensure the correct user is logging in.
Replay will be done by offering a set of login challenges to the user and asking them to confirm their identity from a trusted phone or by answering a security question.
Cybercriminals launched a wave of cyberattacks that were not only well-coordinated, but also much more advanced than before. Simple endpoint attacks have evolved into multi-step operations. Ransomware attacks have affected both small and large businesses. Cryptomining attacks have given cyber attackers easy access to corporate networks. There have been a lot of big data leaks, expensive ransomware payments; a vast new and confusing threat landscape. To ensure a more secure connection to the cloud, two-factor authentication (2FA) or two-step verification (2SV) have been further promoted.
Here are some of the cloud application security best practices that every user and organization should follow for a more secure connection to the cloud:
Build application security skills within your development teams: Security teams will be better equipped to ensure application security through high-quality training and skills. Users can detect whether information is being processed incorrectly by internal users by monitoring user behavior.
Choose the right cloud security provider: A cloud security solution provider must be aware of current and emerging security threats. To ensure maximum coverage, they must be able to provide the appropriate security tools and policies.
Don’t stop at due diligence: Don’t take cloud security for granted and connect tools and applications without thinking about the security implications.
Audit and optimize: Regular security audits allow you to detect new vulnerabilities and continuously improve the infrastructure and user security posture. Audits will reveal where vulnerabilities have appeared, allowing rules and policies to be changed.
Follow password best practices: Cloud application security starts at the perimeter, and strong passwords are the first line of defense. To ensure that employees use strong passwords, users should establish well-defined policies and standards such as password length, special characters, and password expiration. Also use multi-factor authentication, which requires employees to enter another passcode after entering their password.
Eliminate development-stage vulnerabilities: Integrating security into practices, processes, and tools during the development phase is one way to protect a cloud application. Cloud application developers can view security test results in real time as they write their code using tools such as Integrated Development Environment (IDE) plugins.
Focus on architecture, design, and open-source and third-party elements: it’s not enough to limit security scans to bugs in code or system penetration testing. Expand the scope of security testing to include all potential flaws in the application.
Many organizations use third-party cloud-based or legacy on-premises SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) identity providers for primary user authentication. Security teams will be better able to maintain application security if they receive high-quality training and skills. Shivaami, an award-winning company in partnership with Google, also offers risk-based login challenges and the 2SV stack with your own IdP (identity provider). If an organization uses a third-party identity provider, users can enable this new feature to benefit from Google’s robust risk-based ratings and also help reduce operational costs. This increases overall account security, leveraging risk-based challenges for users authenticating against the third-party identity provider. Cloud application security tools and practices will continue to evolve, as will the type and number of security threats. With cloud services changing so rapidly, it’s important to frequently review and improve application security best practices.
