How to Improve Cloud Security Posture

🚨2024 Replay: Advancing Zero Trust Maturity Through Visibility & Analytics 🔍 Released by the NSA, this Cybersecurity Information Sheet emphasizes the pivotal role of visibility and analytics in the Zero Trust framework. These principles form a cornerstone of proactive cybersecurity—delivering actionable insights to strengthen detection and response capabilities. Key Takeaways: 📊 Logging: Focus on collecting pertinent activity logs across networks and user systems; indiscriminate data collection isn’t practical. 🛠️ Centralized SIEM: Leverage Security Information and Event Management tools to aggregate and analyze data for enhanced threat detection. 🔐 Risk Analytics: Use dynamic scoring systems enriched by CVEs and real-time vulnerabilities to stay ahead of threats. 🧠 UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics): Harness AI/ML to spot anomalous behaviors that may signal insider threats. 🌐 Threat Intelligence Integration: Enrich internal data with external threat feeds for comprehensive situational awareness. 🚦 Automated Policies: Implement dynamic access controls and configurations to adapt to an evolving threat landscape in real time. 📜 Quote from the CSI: "Detecting and identifying potential threats requires both human and technological elements to understand the entirety of the network, to detect anomalous changes, and to react to an incident expediently and properly." 📅 This post is part of my year-end review of 2024’s most impactful cybersecurity documents. Critical guidance—like this one from May 2024—often fades after its initial promotion. Revisiting these documents allows us to refocus on foundational recommendations for enhancing security postures. 💬 Link to the document in the comments. #cybersecurity #threathunting #analytics #data #visibility #cloudsecurity #technology #informationsecurity #artificialintelligence #zerotrust #computersecurity

👉 🔒 5 Steps To Secure Your Azure Cloud Connection 🔒 When securing your Azure cloud infrastructure, following best practices can significantly reduce your attack surface. Here are five key steps to enhance your security posture and protect your environment from unauthorized access. 🌐💡 🔑 Step ①: Avoid Public IP Exposure One of the most common security missteps is exposing Virtual Machines (VMs) directly to the internet via public IPs. Instead: ✅ Use Azure Bastion for secure, browser-based access to your VMs without exposing RDP/SSH. ✅ Deploy Azure Firewall, Private Endpoints, or VPN Gateways to control external access. ✅ Leverage DDoS protection to defend against large-scale attacks. 🔄 Step ②: Bastion NSG Rules – Lock It Down! By default, Azure Bastion allows connections to VMs using port 443 (TLS/SSL). However, configuring Network Security Groups (NSGs) correctly ensures your network remains secure: 🔹 Restrict inbound/outbound traffic to only essential services. 🔹 Ensure that Bastion subnets don’t allow inbound internet traffic except from trusted sources. 🔹 Audit NSG rules regularly for compliance and best practices. 🔐 Step ③: Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) for Permissions Proper role-based access control (RBAC) ensures users only have the permissions they truly need: 🚫 Avoid granting Contributor or Owner access to unnecessary users. 🔹 Use role assignments like Virtual Machine Reader and Network Card Reader for limited access. 🔹 Regularly review Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM) to enforce Just-In-Time (JIT) role elevation. 🚪 Step ④: Port Control – Don't Use Default Ports! Hackers scan well-known ports like 3389 (RDP) and 22 (SSH) to exploit vulnerabilities. Reduce risk by: ✅ Using Bastion tunneling instead of exposing these ports directly. ✅ Enforcing Azure Defender for Servers to detect unusual port activity. ✅ Implementing host-based firewalls to limit allowed IPs. ⏱️ Step ⑤: Just-In-Time (JIT) Access + Bastion = Secure Remote Connectivity To prevent always-open attack surfaces, Just-In-Time VM Access (JIT) helps: ⏳ Opening ports only when explicitly needed for a limited time. 🔑 Combining JIT with Bastion ensures zero-trust access principles are applied. 🛑 Reducing the window for potential brute-force attacks or unauthorized access attempts. 🚀 By implementing these best practices, your Azure environment will be more secure and resilient against threats while maintaining productivity. #CloudSecurity #Azure #Bastion #Cybersecurity #ITManagement #AzureNetworking #AzureSecurity #DataProtection #MicrosoftAzure #CloudComputing #TechTips #AzureTips #AzureTipOfTheDay #MicrosoftCloud

6 Steps to Reducing Your Cloud Cybersecurity Debt 1) Integrate security into the SDLC as early as possible. 2) Monitor your CSP security posture as well as the posture of your deployed assets. Recommend using a CSPM tool here like Wiz, Orca Security, or Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks 3) Restrict access as you move from left to right towards products. Access tends to necessarily be permissive on the left end of development but should become more restrictive as you got to test/qa and then most restrictive as you get to production. 4) Reduce your attack surface. Mitigate commonly exploited misconfigurations and exploitation techniques while monitoring cloud infrastructure for vulns and anomalies. 5) Perform a cyber-threat profile assessment. Understand threats specific to your cloud architecture and the top security risks you face. 6) Pentesting (or better yet, continuous testing) This can help identify complex "toxic combinations" before attackers exploit them, and provide quantitative data to help measure the risk associated with your cloud assets. #cloud #cyber #security (h/t Dark Reading "Reducing Security Debt in the Cloud")

2024 State of Cloud Security Study Key Insights A great morning read from Datadog ‘analyzed security posture data from a sample of thousands of organizations that use AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.’ ↗️ Long-lived credentials -> remain a security risk, with 60% of AWS IAM users having access keys older than one year. Unused credentials are widespread, increasing attack surfaces across all cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP). Recommendation -> Shift to temporary, time-bound credentials & centralized identity management solutions. ↗️ Public access blocks on cloud storage increasing AWS S3 & Azure Blob Storage are increasingly using public access blocks, with S3 seeing 79% of buckets proactively secured. Recommendation -> Enable account-level public access blocks to minimize risks of accidental data exposure. ↗️ IMDSv2 adoption growing AWS EC2 instances enforcing IMDSv2 have grown from 25% to 47%, yet many instances remain vulnerable. Recommendation -> Enforce IMDSv2 across all EC2 instances & use regional settings for secure defaults. ↗️ Managed Kubernetes clusters Many clusters (almost 50% on AWS) expose APIs publicly, with insecure default configurations risking attacks. Recommendation -> Use private networks, enforce audit logs, & limit permissions on Kubernetes worker nodes. ↗️ 3rd-Party integrations pose supply chain risk 10% of third-party IAM roles are overprivileged, creating risks of AWS account takeover. Recommendation ->Limit permissions, enforce External IDs, & remove unused third-party roles. ↗️ Most cloud incidents caused by compromised cloud credentials Cloud incidents are often triggered by compromised credentials, particularly in AWS, Azure, & Entra ID environments. Patterns of Attack + Compromised identities + Escalation via GetFederationToken + Service enumeration + Reselling access + Persistence techniques Microsoft 365 -> Credential stuffing, bypassing MFA, & malicious OAuth apps for email exfiltration. Google Cloud -> Attackers leverage VPNs & proxies for crypto mining and follow common attack patterns. Recommendations -> Implement strong identity controls & monitor API changes that attackers may exploit. ↗️ Many cloud workloads are excessively privileged or run in risky configurations Overprivileged cloud workloads expose organizations to significant risks, including full account compromise & data breaches. Recommendation ->Enforce least privilege principles on all workloads. Use non-default service accounts with tailored permissions in Google Cloud. Avoid running production workloads in AWS Organization management accounts. The study shows improved adoption of secure cloud configurations -> better awareness + enforcement of secure defaults. However, risky credentials & common misconfigurations in cloud infrastructure remain significant entry points for attackers. P.s. use the info to strengthen your org cloud security posture. Full study report in the comment ⬇️ #cloudsecurity #cloudsec #cybersecurity

☁️ 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲... Cloud security professionals face many hurdles like: • Hundreds of resource types can be created in the cloud with more introduced all the time  • Dozens of teams building resources  • Potentially hundreds or thousands of cloud accounts to manage  • An evolving threat landscape  🤔 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻? Here’s how I think about the problem but remember this is just the start 👀 𝗚𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆  • Use Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tools like Wiz, CrowdStrike, or Prowler to inventory and scan your environments regularly ✅ 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀 • Start with out-of-box rules from your tools • Tailor rules to your environment: modify severities, remove noise, and introduce custom rules as needed ⚠️ 𝗘𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗚𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 • Tools will generate a backlog of findings and remediation efforts will likely face some form of pushback or delay • By putting security guardrails in place like AWS Service Control Policies, Kyverno for Kubernetes, or code scanning, we can prevent net-new findings (e.g., misconfigurations, vulnerabilities) from being introduced in the environment 📋 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲 • Analyze findings to identify those with significant risks to your organization • Build automated remediation workflows with Cloud Custodian or similar to address existing issues at scale 🔍 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 • Regularly validate that your preventative and detective controls are working as expected 🥷 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻  • Assess your environment against common and emerging threats • Understand and simulate adversarial attacks like Privilege Escalation, Lateral Movement, and Defense Evasion • Did you detect these or is there more work to be done? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like I said, it's just the tip of the iceberg... We didn’t even cover cloud-specific security configurations, secure development and deployment processes, application security, IAM, Networking, containers, etc…. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆? #cloudsecurity #cloudengineering #cloud #aws #azure #gcp