Most organizations today are embracing cloud infrastructure as it is scalable, accelerates innovation, and reduces operating costs. However, data privacy and protection can be compromised if a company invests in an ineffective multi-cloud strategy.
Flawed key management, misconfiguration, inadequate credential management, and poor encryption, to mention a few, could result in hackers breaching your company’s data in a multi-cloud environment. This necessitates investing in a solid security framework to leverage the full value of a multi-cloud infrastructure and protect your business. Read on for eight multi-cloud security best practices to help you handle the complexities of cloud infrastructure.
1. Pick the right cloud vendor
You must partner with the right vendors to guarantee your business’s data privacy. Below are factors to consider when choosing a cloud vendor:
- Choose a vendor with a 99% uptime guarantee and high reliability. Consider checking reviews and testimonials from previous clients to zone in on a reliable and trustworthy cloud security provider.
- Data centers. Be sure to familiarize yourself with your state’s privacy and security regulations. Next, pick a vendor whose data centers comply with these regulations. An ideal vendor’s data center location should also be close to you and your target market to maintain low latency.
- Cloud security infrastructure. Partner with vendors with protocols like intrusion detection systems, firewalls, access controls, and encryption to protect your data against potential threats.
- Cost-effectiveness. Choose a vendor within your budget to save your company from financial strain.
2. Implement continuous monitoring and visibility
An effective way to detect and respond to security threats and breaches in real time is by implementing continuous monitoring and visibility. Through continuous monitoring, your organization can identify a security threat before it escalates into a significant problem. Implementing continuous visibility and monitoring can also help your organization maintain compliance with regulatory mandates and requirements. Consider investing in cloud security posture management solutions to ensure continuous monitoring and governance.
3. Implement a zero-trust architecture
Minimize the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access by implementing a zero-trust architecture. This strategy enables you to give specific authorized users access to particular applications and data sets. The zero-trust architecture also allows you to microsegment permission to access specific information. For instance, a user may be subjected to multiple verifications such as biometrics, name validations, passcode, software, and device type before being given access to crucial company data sets.
4. Familiarize yourself with how shared models work
Partnering with the right vendors is not enough. Most platforms work under a shared responsibility model, meaning data privacy and security are shared between you, the cloud user, and the vendors.
You are responsible for securing your cloud workloads through implementing identity and access management policies, security groups, and network firewalls. On the other hand, the cloud vendors are responsible for securing the cloud infrastructure your company uses to store data. For this reason, you must familiarize yourself with how the shared model works to avoid compromising your responsibility, which could result in data breaches.
5. Leverage automation
One of the most significant risks in multi-cloud infrastructure is human error. For this reason, consider investing in an automated security workflow to reduce the chances of workers making mistakes, boost consistency, add agility to your team, and speed up processes. Through automation, your company can quickly detect and respond to security threats and data breaches, ensure compliance, and implement security policies.
6. Conduct security and vulnerability testing
You must test the existing security posture regularly to detect risks and vulnerabilities on time so that you can mitigate them before they become significant issues. The following are three primary types of security testing:
a) Stress testing
This type of security testing allows organizations to examine the website application’s stability and performance under a heavy workload. Stress testing is often more helpful during a traffic increase or when preparing for marketing campaigns. Be sure to invest in software such as Loader when your company is experiencing high traffic to detect vulnerabilities and areas you could improve.
b) Penetration scanning
Penetration scanning stimulates a real-world attack to detect vulnerabilities and risks in your cloud security system. It helps organizations identify security issues like cross-site scripting, insecure server configurations, and SQL injections, to mention a few.
c) Vulnerability scanning
Vulnerability scanning involves leveraging automated software to scan your cloud infrastructure to detect a vulnerability a hacker could exploit. Be sure to complement vulnerability scanning with your cloud provider’s monitoring systems to fortify applications and your website. Consider using tools like Intruder and Qualy to conduct vulnerability scanning.
7. Encrypt your data
One of the most effective ways to prevent data loss is through encryption. Encrypting data involves converting the information into a coded format. To access this data, a user must have a decryption key, preventing unauthorized personnel from reading sensitive information. Encryption does not only prevent data loss. It also enables your company to meet cloud security compliance, mitigate financial loss, and boost customer trust as you showcase your commitment to their security and privacy. Check vendors’ encryption techniques before partnering to protect sensitive data.
8. Invest in a disaster recovery plan
Thanks to technological advancements, cybercriminals often find new ways to access private data, no matter the measures you invest in to secure it. For this reason, you should consider investing in a disaster recovery strategy. A recovery plan can help your organization minimize downtime and recover from a security breach.
Your company’s disaster recovery strategy could include procedures to recover systems and applications. You could also invest in procedures for data restoration and continuous backup. Below are some practices to follow when backing up data:
- Invest in software that can scan your data backups continuously
- Backup private data several times in two to three days
- Store data in an immutable form. This ensures that even if hackers breach your cloud, they cannot delete or decrypt sensitive information.
Endnote
Protecting your company’s cloud infrastructure is a challenging responsibility that requires strategic execution and planning. Be sure to partner with a reliable data security vendor and follow the above best practices to ensure compliance with your regulatory requirements while keeping your multi-cloud environment secure.
