In an era dominated by the use of the cloud, cloud computing security has become a crucial aspect. Despite its advantages in efficiency and flexibility, the cloud still carries security risks that cannot be ignored.
Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud Report shows that the main challenges of using the cloud are security, expenses, and expertise. Security is often a primary concern due to threats such as data breaches, misconfigurations, and cyberattacks. As a result, businesses can suffer significant financial and reputational losses.
Therefore, companies need to implement active monitoring and security measures to prevent these issues. Learn the basics and powerful strategies for enhancing cloud security in the following article.
What is Cloud Computing Security?
Cloud computing security is a series of efforts to protect data or other important information stored on cloud servers. However, cloud computing security is not just your company’s responsibility, but also that of the cloud service provider.
Every cloud provider, whether in the form of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Software as a Service (SaaS), has a cloud security system that works in the following ways:
- Limited Access: Grant access only to those who have the right to the data and information
- Data Protection: Protect the data and the infrastructure where the data is stored appropriately
- Backup and Recovery: Create backup and recovery plans to anticipate threats
- Security Integration: Integrate various security systems at the beginning of the lifecycle to ensure security from the start
- DevOps Security Posture Visibility: Monitor the cloud comprehensively with DevOps integration
Why is Cloud Computing Security Important for Businesses?
To understand the importance of cloud security, consider some key factors that affect the integrity, compliance, and sustainability of your business. Here are five reasons why cloud security should be a top priority.
1. Protect Company Information Assets
Cloud computing stores all of a company’s information assets, from customer data to the company’s own data. Adequate cloud security can prevent the loss of these important assets.
2. Business Operational Efficiency
Complex cloud usage often requires many workloads at once. The emergence of attacks can add to this complexity, so a cloud security service is needed to simplify operations even when threats arise.
3. Minimize Financial Loss Risk
One of the most severe risks a company can face when a threat emerges is financial burden, such as the cost of recovering lost data, loss of customers, and fines for violating applicable regulations.
4. Maintain Company Reputation
Trust from customers and investors is crucial. If a data breach occurs at your company, they may turn to another company that is more reliable and secure in managing their data.
5. Comply with Regulatory Standards
To avoid severe penalties for regulatory violations, every regulation needs to comply with applicable data privacy and security rules.
4 Types of Cloud Security Tools
You already understand why cloud security is so important. Additionally, you need to know various security tools. Here are four cloud security tools to strengthen its defense.
1. Data Encryption
The process of protecting data by converting it into a format that is difficult to read without a special algorithm, such as an encryption key.
2. Firewall
A security system for monitoring and controlling data traffic between internal and external networks, with rules to allow or block data packets.
3. Identity and Access Management (IAM)
A system for managing user identities and controlling access to cloud resources, including authentication, authorization, identity management, and access rights.
4. Unified DevOps Security Management
Integrating security into the development and operational stages (DevOps) of cloud applications with a unified approach and comprehensive security tools.
5 Common Cloud Computing Security Challenges
While security tools can help protect systems, it is important to understand the types of threats you may face. By knowing this, you can better prepare to address and mitigate threat risks. Here are six cloud security risks you need to know.
1. Malware Attacks
Attacks in the form of viruses, Trojans, and ransomware can damage, access, steal data in the cloud, and disrupt business operations.
2. Identity Theft
Attackers can access and steal confidential data illegally through impersonation methods.
3. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks
DDoS can disrupt services with very high traffic, making the system difficult to access, and disrupting or halting operations.
4. Phishing
A fraud technique that poses as an official party to reveal your confidential information, allowing them to access company data or cloud accounts.
5. Internal Company Breaches
Employees or other parties involved in your business can have access and perform harmful actions, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Recognizing these threats can help you understand the need for appropriate data protection tools and strategies, such as choosing security solutions that fit your business needs. You can choose cloud computing protection solutions from Akamai, AWS, Zscaler, and F5.
Cloud Computing Security Solutions from Akamai, AWS, Zscaler, and F5
Akamai, Amazon Web Service (AWS), Zscaler, and F5 provide high-level cloud security services. Here are the details.
1. Akamai Web Application and API Protection (WAAP)
Akamai‘s WAAP is a security solution to protect web applications and APIs from cyber threats, such as DDoS and botnet attacks. Akamai also excels with its extensive EDGE PoP network, reaching over 800TBps bandwidth to deliver performance and manage high traffic without disruption. Here are the main features of Akamai’s WAAP:
- DDoS Protection
- Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- API Security
- Bot Management
With Akamai, you can protect your applications and web from new types of threats, automate updates, and enhance collaboration between developers and security teams for comprehensive cloud protection.
2. AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Protection for web applications from common attacks such as SQL injection or Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and the ability to control bot traffic. Its key features include:
- Web Traffic Filtering: Filtering web traffic based on IP addresses, HTTP headers and bodies, or custom URLs
- AWS WAF Bot Control: Block or limit bot functions like scrapers and crawlers, also allow bots like search engines for visibility and performance monitoring.
- Fraud Prevention with Account Takeover and Creation: Detect accounts accessed illegally through credential theft and monitor application registration pages to detect fake account creation
Additionally, using AWS WAF can save you time with easily managed rules, monitoring, blocking, and increased web traffic visibility.
3. Zscaler Internet Acess (ZIA) and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA)
Zscaler can protect the cloud environment with a cloud-based zero-trust architecture, through ZIA solutions for external protection and ZPA to provide the fastest and safest access to private applications. Here are the main features of each solution:
- ZIA: Web filtering, Threat Intelligence, SSL inspection, and Data Loss Prevention
- ZPA: Direct user access to applications, minimum access rights, prevention of lateral movement, and access provision based on identity
Zscaler’s advanced features and zero-trust approach can robustly protect your cloud infrastructure and data from threats like ransomware, provide security for hybrid workforces, and optimize costs and workloads.
4. Web App and API Protection (WAAP)
F5 solutions provide application and API endpoint protection anywhere, including the cloud, with universal visibility and simplified operations through AIOps. Its main features include:
- Application Vulnerability Mitigation
- Bot and Abuse Mitigation
- API and Third-Party Integration Protection
Implementing F5 helps you achieve consistent and continuous protection and API security.
Get Cloud Computing Security from Akamai, AWS, Zscaler, and F5 Only at CDT
Enhance your cloud computing protection with solutions from Akamai, AWS, Zscaler, and F5 only at Central Data Technology (CDT).
CDT‘s experienced and certified IT team is ready to help you avoid trial and error from consultation to after-sales support in implementing cloud security solutions. Consult your needs now through this link.
Author: Anggita Olivia Herman – Content Writer CTI Group
