Tips for Securing Cloud and Mobile Environments

How to strengthen your cyber defenses with Segregation of Duties ⬇ ➡ Mitigate insider threats Detecting insider attacks has become more complex as businesses move to the cloud. With the adoption of the cloud and the abundance of applications being supported, IT ecosystems are becoming increasingly complex and disconnected. Security professionals are being asked to do more with less. These factors provide inroads for individuals to compromise systems wittingly or unwittingly. Insider threats can arise from carelessness or from malicious insiders who aim to cause damage intentionally. IT and cyber departments are especially at risk of insider attacks because they are more likely to know the vulnerabilities of the organization's systems and security. Implementing effective SoD policies can limit insider threats, leading to data breaches and cyberattacks. Separating processes into tasks reduces the risk of unintentional errors and protects against insiders whose aim is to cause damage. ➡ Control privileged access Privileged accounts are cybercriminals' favored means of stealing sensitive data, planting malware, deploying ransomware, or executing other acts against the organization. Bad actors exploit the heightened permissions of these accounts to gain access to the network and infiltrate systems and data. SoD policies for privileged accounts and access management enforce the security of privileged accounts, authorizations, data encryptions, and direct integrations to the security platform. Privileged Account Management needs to be built into identity access management processes such as provisioning, de-provisioning, access risk mitigation, and segregation of duties. Implementing an automated lifecycle process for privileged account access is critical to avoid entitlement creep and privileged access sprawl. ➡ Misconfiguration security  Security misconfigurations occur when security settings are not adequately defined or maintained or are implemented with errors. The ability to avoid misconfigurations and detect and remediate them quickly if they occur is essential to an organization's security. Segregation of duties can help in this case: The same person assigned to DevOps should not build, configure, and maintain an environment. ➡ Automated policy management Automation can accelerate the analysis and response to security and cyber incidents. By automating policy management you can reduce the chances of a successful attack and enable faster prevention of insider and external threats. ➡ Security Data Lake By collecting insider threat and security data in a data lake, organizations can effectively take action against threats in real time and make better, informed decisions. By centralizing identity access data across on-premise, and cloud, environments and organizations can perform advanced analytics to detect and respond to sophisticated attackers.

As environments expand and become more complex, manually maintaining security becomes impossible. With Infrastructure as Code (#IaC) you can bake best practices directly into your deployments: 🔐 Place Templates under Version Git tracks changes to CloudFormation/Terraform/Pulumi/Ansible... templates. On-demand audits allow swift restoration to previous configurations, ensuring a secure and reliable infrastructure. 🕵️♂️ Scan Before Every Push Integrate static analyzers to detect vulnerabilities in templates pre-deployment. Proactively patch potential flaws to fortify your defense against security breaches. 🔒Tighten Access Controls Adopt the least privilege principle with IAM roles granting temporary credentials. Regularly rotating access keys and secrets prevents left open doors. ⏳Keep Everything Updated Guard against infrastructure drift by implementing code quality gates that auto-trigger on patch releases. Adopt immutable workflows to deploy fixes promptly, minimizing exposure to potential threats. Stay secure, stay agile.

🚨CISA & NSA release Crucial Guide on Network Segmentation and Encryption in Cloud Environments🚨 In response to the evolving requirements of cloud security, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) recently released a comprehensive Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI): "Implement Network Segmentation and Encryption in Cloud Environments." This document provides detailed recommendations to enhance the security posture of organizations operating within cloud infrastructures (that probably means you). Key Takeaways Include: 🔐 Network Encryption: The document underscores the importance of encrypting data in transit as a defense mechanism against unauthorized data access. 🌐 Secure Client Connections: Establishing secure connections to cloud services is fundamental. 🔎 Caution on Traffic Mirroring: While recognizing the benefits of traffic mirroring for network analysis and threat detection, the guidance cautions against potential misuse that could lead to data exfiltration and advises careful monitoring of this feature. 🛡️ Network Segmentation: Stressed as a foundational security principle, network segmentation is recommended to isolate and contain malicious activities, thereby reducing the impact of any breach. This collaboration between NSA and CISA provides actionable recommendations for organizations to strengthen their cloud security practices. The emphasis is on strategically implementing network segmentation and end-to-end encryption to secure cloud environments effectively. Information security leaders are encouraged to review this guidance to understand better the measures necessary to protect cloud-based assets. Implementing these recommendations will contribute to a more secure, resilient, and compliant cloud infrastructure. Access the complete guidance provided by the NSA and CISA to fully understand these recommendations and their application to your organization’s cloud security strategy. 📚 Read CISA & NSA's complete guidance here: https://lnkd.in/eeVXqMSv #cloudcomputing #technology #informationsecurity #innovation #cybersecurity

NSA Releases Top Ten Cloud Security Mitigation Strategies “Unfortunately, the aggregation of critical data makes cloud services an attractive target for adversaries.  This series provides foundational advice every cloud customer should follow to ensure they don’t become a victim.” ~ Rob Joyce, NSA’s Director of Cybersecurity The ten strategies are covered in the following reports 1. Uphold the cloud shared responsibility model 2. Use secure cloud identity and access management practices 3. Use secure cloud key management practices 4. Implement network segmentation and encryption in cloud environments 5. Secure data in the cloud 6. Defending continuous integration/continuous delivery environments 7. Enforce secure automated deployment practices through infrastructure as code 8. Account for complexities introduced by hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments 9. Mitigate risks from managed service providers in cloud environments 10. Manage cloud logs for effective threat hunting Full article with each strategy report in the comment 👇🏾 #cybersecurity #cloudsecurity #cloudsec

Misconfigured object storage can expose the organization's data to unauthorized users, allowing them to view, change, or destroy it. In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile data breaches caused by misconfigured and publicly available object storage buckets. Pfizer, for example, had a data breach in 2020 when a misconfigured cloud storage bucket exposed the medical data of millions of patients. In 2021, the personal information of millions of Verizon customers was exposed via an open Amazon S3 bucket. Here are some examples of how attackers can exploit publicly available object storage: ⭕ Data Theft: Your client records, financial information or even intellectual property may be taken. ⭕ Data Tampering: Hackers can edit or remove critical data, putting your business in danger. ⭕ Ransom Attacks: Your data could be kept hostage with encryption by attackers who demand a ransom for a decryption key. ⭕ Service Interruption: When your storage buckets are overloaded, genuine users may experience service interruption. The following proactive security measures can assist in reducing or mitigating the risks associated with improperly configured object storage. 🔵 Set to Private: Always keep object storage private unless it's meant to be public. 🔵 Secure Sharing: When sharing sensitive data externally, use pre-signed URLs, AWS STS, or Azure SAS for temporary access. 🔵 Network Security: Ensure object storage networks are within private subnets, avoiding public Internet using private endpoints. 🔵 Encryption: Encrypt data both in transit and at rest using customer-managed keys. Rotate these keys annually or as per policy, and manage key access with cloud-specific IAM tools. 🔵 Strong Authentication: Opt for cloud-native IAM-based authentication or open standards like SAML or OIDC rather than basic or no authentication. ☑ Despite rigorous precautions, object storage security can remain a significant concern in today's digital landscape, amplified by the complexities and risks of agile development methods. Equipping defenders with continuous security monitoring of the external landscape with practices such as Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) can help proactively detect and mitigate risks originating from external cloud assets, including object storage misconfigurations. #cybersecurity #ciso

It is quite common for me to see Azure environments where resources have been spun up without any underlying architecture, governance or security design. Maybe they started out as a temporary solution or test and suddenly became relied upon and built on top of. This opens the organization up to a lot of vulnerabilities and risk, be it from a security perspective or cost perspective... or both! Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a fantastic tool to start bringing some order to the chaos, it also has some free capabilities to get started with, see them later in this post! Here are some of the key capabilities it has to offer: AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM): Provides granular visibility into all workloads, including AI workloads, identifying vulnerabilities across VMs, Storage Accounts, AI models, SDKs, and datasets. For example, a financial services company mitigated vulnerabilities in their AI-driven fraud detection systems using AI-SPM. Enhanced Threat Protection: Integrates with Azure OpenAI Service to protect against jailbreak attempts and data breaches. A healthcare provider used this to secure patient data in their AI diagnostic tools. Multicloud Threat Protection: Not using Azure? no problem! - This tool supports Amazon RDS and Kubernetes security, enhancing threat detection and response across AWS, Azure, and GCP. A global retailer implemented these features to secure their e-commerce platforms. Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) Insights: Enhances security with Checkov integration, streamlining DevSecOps processes for a software development firm. Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM): Optimizes permissions management, reducing attack surfaces for a tech startup. API Security Testing: Supports Bright Security and StackHawk, ensuring API security throughout the development lifecycle. A logistics company used these tools to secure sensitive shipment data. Free Capabilities Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers the foundational Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) capabilities for free, including continuous security assessments, security recommendations, and the Microsoft cloud security benchmark across Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. Check out the links in the comments to learn more! #CloudSecurity #AI #MicrosoftDefender #CyberSecurity #Multicloud #CNAPP #TechNews

Your last line of defense shouldn’t be the same as your first in security. But in the end, you’ll need to handle data to actually run a business effectively. So there is a final set of controls you can apply to ensure its security and the privacy of your customers, employees, and other stakeholders while you do so: – Encryption. Using a widely accepted encryption standard like AES-256 to protect data-at-rest is essentially table stakes in this day and age. While most hyperscale cloud providers and enterprise applications will already do this on your behalf, having redundant methods of protection is never a bad idea. Additionally, be aware that some threat actors are reportedly stealing encrypted data so that they might one day decrypt it using quantum computing. So even modern encryption algorithms are by no means a surefire way to protect information. – Role-based access control (RBAC) and masking. Even authorized users in your organizations likely have differing levels of “need-to-know” about sensitive personal data. The human resources department might need access to employees’ full social security numbers (SSN) and salary data to administer benefits and withhold taxes. A direct manager, however, might need to see only salary information while the SSN should be fully or partially obscured. Having an architecture that provides different levels of access based on role is thus a critical privacy architecture step. How else can you protect data critical to daily operations? #datasecurity #ssn #encryption #cloudsecurity