Your Cloud Application Security Checklist
Organizations continue to embrace native cloud application development to enhance scalability and accessibility in their operations. In fact, Gartner predicts cloud-native platforms will serve as the foundation for more than 95% of digital initiatives by 2028, up from less than 50% in 2023.
Yet, while cloud applications offer greater convenience, they also present new challenges for protecting sensitive data against growing cyberthreats.
Without a defined security plan, organizations can leave themselves vulnerable to costly data breaches or unauthorized access attempts.
To effectively mitigate potential risks, it is essential to prioritize security when developing and deploying cloud applications. A strong understanding of strategies and best practices can help your organization implement robust security measures across the entire cloud application lifecycle.
What is Cloud Application Security?
Cloud application security is the process of protecting cloud-based applications from cyberthreats. Since cloud applications run on cloud servers, rather than on-premise servers or local devices, security risks associated with remote hosting, such as misconfigurations or insecure APIs, must be addressed.
Most cloud service providers offer baseline security features to manage the security of the cloud and its underlying infrastructure. However, since cloud providers typically operate in a shared responsibility model, businesses must maintain security in the cloud, including setting access control and security configurations.
For instance, if an organization develops a cloud application for budgeting and forecasting, it is the organization’s responsibility to secure sensitive financial data to protect confidentiality and maintain regulatory compliance.
Businesses must take a proactive approach to security when capitalizing on the agility of cloud applications. Measures like data encryption, access controls, and continuous monitoring can help you leverage the power of cloud applications while defending against evolving cyber threats.
5 Cloud Application Security Best Practices
A strategic approach to cloud application security considers the entire application lifestyle, from development to deployment and ongoing maintenance. These best practices can provide a starting point to help you mitigate vulnerabilities:
1. Check for misconfigurations
Be sure to check for misconfigurations in cloud settings, such as incorrect permissions or unprotected endpoints, that can leave your system vulnerable. For example, exposed Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) can provide a critical entry point for attackers to bypass security controls and access sensitive data. Even after deployment, regularly audit your cloud applications for misconfigurations to minimize potential risks.
2. Encrypt sensitive data
Cloud applications upload, host, store, and process massive amounts of data that must be protected in motion and at rest. Strong encryption practices make sensitive data unreadable, even if accessed by an unauthorized user or compromised during a breach. Encryption also helps you maintain compliance with industry regulations like HIPAA or PCI DSS. In addition to leveraging cloud providers’ encryption services and establishing effective key management, consider implementing application-level encryption, which encrypts data within an application before it is stored or transmitted throughout the system.
3. Implement access management
Identity and access management (IAM) provides a framework to determine who can access specific resources and information across an organization. For cloud applications, this set of policies and processes is essential to prevent unauthorized access to systems or sensitive data. A well-structured IAM strategy allows organizations to segregate identities based on factors like job title or clearance level and implement verification processes like multi-factor authentication (MFA). Together, these tactics create robust governance that reduces internal risks and minimizes the potential for external breaches.
4. Monitor potential threats
Once an application is deployed, ongoing cloud threat detection can help your organization efficiently identify and address any suspicious activity. Implement tools that provide continuous monitoring and automated alerts for suspicious activity like unauthorized attempts to access sensitive data. This enables you to detect threats and incidents as they occur and respond efficiently.
5. Conduct vulnerability testing
Proactively identify and address gaps in your cloud application security to stay a step ahead of evolving cyberthreats. Penetration tests and automated vulnerability scans can simulate real-world attack scenarios to help you identify weak points and gaps in your security infrastructure. By incorporating penetration testing in the continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline, you can patch your underlying infrastructure to avoid service disruptions resulting from an attack.
Ensure Cloud Application Security with help from Ensono
To fully leverage the power of cloud applications, organizations must effectively safeguard and protect their sensitive data from security threats. Without proper support, implementing best practices for security configurations, cloud threat detection, and continuous monitoring can pose significant challenges.
Ensono’s cloud experts can help by designing, implementing, and maintaining security solutions tailored to your unique needs, allowing you to reap the benefits of cloud applications development while remaining in control of your security posture.
Get in touch to discover how Ensono can be your partner in cloud application security.