The Necessity of Cloud Security Assessments Explained By IT Support Providers in Manchester

Manchester, United States - May 11, 2023 / New England Network Solutions - Manchester Managed IT Services Company /

Manchester IT Support Provider Explained Cloud Security Assessment Necessity

With the growth of SaaS applications and cloud infrastructure in the past few years, many companies have a more complex and broader attack surface. Even small companies have migrated traditional on-premises servers for email, file sharing, and collaboration to cloud-based services.

COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of remote work, encouraging companies to embrace a cloud-first approach to infrastructure and SaaS applications. With employees working across dispersed geographies or from home offices, todays typical company has more complexity than ever in its software stack and infrastructure.

Cloud assessments are an opportunity to stop and take stock of any cloud-based security risks that have developed in the past few years; an assessment can help you discover urgent or high-risk cloud computing security gaps while also providing insights on security improvements required in the medium term.

This article will discuss cloud security assessments, why they are necessary, and how they contribute to proper risk management.

What are Cloud Security Assessments?

A Cloud security assessment is a focused process specifically designed to evaluate the cloud infrastructure, SaaS applications, and cloud services in use by a company. They should be an integral part of your businesss cloud strategy.

Manchester IT support services provider suggests that the cloud security risk assessment process should identify potential risks, gaps, or control issues that could result in security breaches, data theft, operational disruptions, or downtime.

A proper cloud security risk assessment should include key findings and recommendations while considering the more critical risk management conversation. Glaring security holes or issues should be corrected quickly.

Most cloud assessments uncover a long list of medium-sized risks, which may require labor-intensive work or additional investments. These improvements must then be prioritized and built into your overall technology roadmap. There are usually some minor issues, especially regarding access control, which can be rectified with minimum effort.

IT Support Provider in Manchester Explains Why A Cloud Security Risk Assessment Is Necessary For Businesses

A cloud risk assessment goes hand-in-hand with cloud readiness assessments. Before assessing your cloud security risk, you must determine if your business is ready to introduce a cloud environment.

1. Cyber Security Risks are Just as Great in the Cloud vs. On-Premises

Sometimes, the ease of use and deployment of cloud-based services and SaaS applications cause companies to skip essential security procedures or best practices.

Moreover, the easy part of cloud applications makes them more vulnerable to attack by outside threat actors.

In addition, cloud and SaaS apps contain intellectual property, confidential documents, customer or patient information, and other private data that need protection, just like traditional on-premises servers and storage.

2. Remote Work and Rapid Cloud Adoption Have Resulted in a Larger Attack on Surface

Traditional approaches to cybersecurity are no longer relevant. With the growth in remote work, the corporate perimeter has dissolved. What matters most now is appropriately managing the identity of authorized users and their permissions within your cloud environment.

Thats why a significant part of your cloud risk assessment checklist is an audit and inventory of each user's apps, services, data, and permissions using various cloud assessment tools.

3. Misconfigurations are the Biggest Threat

While cloud-based applications are easy to deploy and scale, inexperienced IT staff or users often misconfigure them. Too often, permissions are lax, or essential security features are misconfigured or unused.

A good cloud security risk assessment will discover glaring security holes or misconfigurations and then take the appropriate steps to bring your cloud infrastructure up to industry standards.

4. Excessive Permissions are Another Big Cloud Security Risk

Too often, users are given elevated permissions or access to systems, data, or controls that are unnecessary for the employee to do their job. This is especially common in SaaS or cloud applications.

Organizations should implement a least privilege policy for their cloud services, where users have access only to the bare minimum set of resources and data to do their jobs effectively.

A proper cloud risk assessment should inspect the breadth of user permissions to dial back access to unnecessary resources and data housed within the cloud environment.

8 Steps for Performing a Cloud Security Risk Assessment

1. Consult With Internal and External Experts

While internal IT personnel can conduct cloud security assessments, it is advisable to engage the help of an IT support provider in Manchester for a more thorough evaluation.

Having an external expert conduct a cloud risk assessment and audit is crucial as they bring an unbiased perspective and fresh eyes. They can comprehensively evaluate your cloud security posture and recommend effective strategies to mitigate risks.

2. Perform Document Review and Interviews

One of the first steps is to review internal tech documentation and conduct interviews with key stakeholders to gain a broad overview of the technology stack and ecosystem of the company, including all the SaaS applications, cloud services, and current cloud infrastructure.

3. Inventory the Assets and Services and Classify the Data

The next step in the process is to inventory everything, including cloud infrastructure, cloud services, SaaS apps, and the various forms of data in your companys cloud applications.

Data should be classified in terms of its sensitivity or proprietary nature, along with a clear understanding of what data is subject to different laws, regulatory protection, and industry standards, such as customer or patient data.

4. Benchmark Against a Cyber Risk Framework

Whether assessing on-premises technology or cloud security, it is helpful to leverage industry-standard cybersecurity frameworks, such as theNational Institutes of Science and Technology Cyber Security Framework(NIST CSF).

This framework provides a complete cloud security assessment checklist covering all the policies required for mature cybersecurity best practices.

5. Run Automated Cloud Assessment Tools, Manually Test, and Hire External Pen Testers

There are a lot of different ways to assess a cloud environment. Fortunately, a whole category of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) software tools exists.

These assessment tools help with the automated analysis of your cloud infrastructure and applications. A lot of things need to be manually checked by experts as well.

Finally, external penetration tests can simulate attacks against cloud applications, employees, and infrastructure to discover additional vulnerabilities.

6. Identify Threats in Specific Areas

Cloud assessments should focus on identifying security risks and potential threats in various areas, including:

• Identity and access management procedures, roles, access controls, password and authentication processes, including the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Network security, network segmentation, and firewall configurations for the cloud environment
• Incident response policies, procedures, and capabilities, including the use of logging tools, SOC services, and rapid response processes
• Storage Security
• Platform security configurations specific to each cloud services provider
• Workload security
• Evaluating internal threats, including employee and vendor risks
• Determining risks of theft, exfiltration, or ransomware (extortion) risks to various forms of data
• Reviewing relevant regulatory compliance issues

7. Document Recommendations and Review With Stakeholders

One of the last items on your cloud security assessment checklist should be to evaluate the risks and make recommendations. Risks should be measured on the impact of a breach and the probability of a security incident.

Together, these two factors should result in a risk score that can be ranked, ordered, and prioritized. Regardless of the size of your business or its budget, resources matter in remediation projects, and priorities must be set.

8. Implement High-Impact Improvements and Manage a Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM)

Nearly all cloud security assessments will yield some high-risk items or security gaps that should be urgently addressed. These should be corrected immediately after conducting an evaluation.

Stepwise improvements in controls, cybersecurity technologies, investments, or other upgrade projects should be mapped to a POAM or cybersecurity roadmap.

A PAOM underscores the fact that cloud security improvements are never finished. Cybersecurity maturity and security posture improvement are ongoing processes where the bar should be consistently raised over time.

Get a Comprehensive Cloud Risk Assessment From an Industry Leader

Now that you know that cloud security assessments are the first step in your journey to a higher level of cyber maturity, its time to take the next step and conduct a cloud assessment for your cloud environment.

At NENS, we provide our clients with annual risk assessments that include their cloud environment. If you want to improve your cloud security posture, our IT support services in Manchester can help you to perform a complete security assessment for your business.

Contact Information:

New England Network Solutions - Manchester Managed IT Services Company

1087 Elm Street, Suite 236
Manchester, NH 03101
United States

Jane Doe
(855) 918-2126
https://www.nens.com/