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Cloud Sentinel

The Crucial Role of Identities

By Tenable / 2023-11-30 / Topics : CloudSecurity , Cybersecurity , ZeroTrust , DevSecOps

Elevating Cloud Security: Unraveling the Power of Identity Protection

In the expansive realm of the cloud, the thin line between security and vulnerability often hinges on a single misconfiguration or excess privilege. Navigating the complex landscape of cloud security demands a robust posture and meticulous management of entitlements, where identities emerge as the connective tissue holding everything together.

The Overwhelming Cloud Security Challenge

Implementing and configuring a comprehensive cloud security solution can be a daunting task, especially given the multitude of elements to monitor. From web applications on Kubernetes infrastructure to IaaS and container resources, and the diverse range of human and machine-related identities, the list is seemingly endless. Cloud security teams find themselves grappling with the management of each resource's service identity, vulnerability scanning, and misconfiguration checks. In an attempt to tackle these threats, organizations often resort to various tools, creating a cacophony of security acronyms that not only complicate the environment but also incur significant costs.

The Struggle of Security Teams

Despite the availability of advanced tools, security teams often find themselves trapped in the quagmire of disparate findings and varying criticality metrics. This forces them back into the cumbersome realm of spreadsheets to reconcile and prioritize the myriad security issues identified by each tool.

Unraveling the Significance of Identity Security

To devise a more effective security strategy, it's imperative to identify the primary objectives of threat actors breaching cloud infrastructure. Recent trends underscore that nearly all cloud breaches leverage misconfigured identities and entitlements. The Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) survey reveals that 84% of companies experienced an identity-related breach in a 12-month period. This underscores the intricate role identities play in cloud environments, making identity and entitlement security the cornerstone of a holistic cloud security program.

Identity: The Cloud Perimeter

Whether exploiting vulnerabilities in a public Amazon EC2 instance or manipulating misconfigured infrastructure, attackers invariably target identities when cloud exposures are exploited. The test of entitlements becomes a gateway for lateral movement and privilege escalation, aiming to access sensitive data and other resources. In the cloud, identity forms the perimeter, emphasizing the pivotal role of identity and entitlement security as the foundation for a comprehensive security program.

Service vs. Human Identities

Distinguishing between service and human identities is crucial in achieving the principle of least privilege. Service identities, designed for consistent and predictable operation, can have their permissions right-sized based on activity. Human identities, on the other hand, pose challenges due to their unpredictability. Implementing an integrated just-in-time (JIT) access program becomes essential to address the dynamic nature of human identities and execute the principles of zero trust.

Integrated Solutions for Effective Security

To streamline security workflows and bridge the gap between DevOps and IT teams, integrated Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) and Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) tools prove invaluable. These solutions provide visibility and control over cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, containers, infrastructure as code (IaC), identities, workloads, and more.

Key Features to Look for:

1. Entitlement Insight and Visualization: Gain accurate multi-cloud visibility into resources, permissions, and their activities.
2. Ongoing Risk Assessment: Continuously monitor the cloud environment to detect network exposure, misconfigurations, risky permissions, exposed secrets, and identity-related threats.
3. Enforcing the Principle of Least Privilege: Automate permissions guardrails through least-privilege policies.
4. Streamlined Remediation: Easily remediate identified risks with automation aligned with your security strategy.
5. Developer-Centric Access Control: Empower DevOps teams to integrate security seamlessly into their workflows.

Combatting Alert Fatigue with Context

Integrating security tools like CNAPP and CIEM into a unified platform offers a solution to alert fatigue. By providing rich context across the attack surface, security teams can standardize on critical issues and better understand potential attack pathways. This approach also facilitates easier updates in response to emerging threats and zero-day vulnerabilities, ensuring a more resilient cloud environment.

Releted Industry

Financial Manufacturing Software & IT Corporate

Releted Categories

Software & Licenses

Releted Brand

Tenable

Releted Solution

Vulnerability & Cyber Security Cloud Security

TAGS

#CloudSecurity #Cybersecurity #ZeroTrust #DevSecOps

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