4 Easy and Simple Ways To Secure Cloud Infra

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Apple i-Cloud, Google Services, those are just four of the largest cloud-platforms competing for customer’s mind-share. All four of them alongside hundreds more minor vendors in this cloud computing market are trying to out-do each other, not just in pricing but also with how much they increase the user-friendliness of their UX (User Experience). Alongside promoting user-friendliness comes the very enemy of security, the “sense of convenience”. The more convenient the service is the more “leniency” is required for its implementation. The reverse is also true if more parts of the system require specific knowledge in order to proceed, it is much more secure indirectly speaking since the system tends to only have a few people knowing its under-the-hood operations.

For the system administrator trying to secure a cloud computing subscription, what can they do in order to mitigate the potential security gaps overlooked by the vendors? Here in Hackercombat.com, we provide you a few simple tips on how to increase cloud-platform security without changing your cloud vendor of choice:

• Built an IT team with a qualified level of expertise in cloud computing technologies. If there are certain financial constraints that stop the firm from doing so, researching for an MSP (Managed Service Provider) with an industry-recognized track record of managing the cloud-platform on the firm’s behalf is the next best thing.

• Maintain a reliable User Account Management, once the employee with an access privilege to the cloud infrastructure left the company, his/her account needs to be immediately disabled. Since cloud infrastructure are exposed on the Internet, the recently separated employee may still use the account and may cause problems in the long run if the user account is not disabled fast enough. Many cybersecurity issues are not really caused by malware or external hacker, but former employees that harbor ill feelings against their former employers. It is important for all organizations to have a fully proactive User Account Management methodology, as every former employee’s system access is an attack surface.

• How fast the IT team responds to the problem is another good metric to improve. Most especially true for MSPs, as they are hired externally by the company to perform specific IT support services instead of hiring internal IT professionals, the tasks of system administrators are delegated to MSPs within a specific SLA (Service Level Agreement). One of the responses of a reliable MSP or internal IT team is the patching policy for computers. For Windows for example, Microsoft releases updates that fix bugs and security vulnerabilities every second Tuesday of the month. A dependable IT support team need not delay Windows Update, especially if it is not using legacy applications and legacy hardware.

• A reliable cloud-infrastructure vendor will always have a clear policy when it comes to user file backups. Vendors will always promote their “amazing redundancy” as a feature for their services. An IT team worth its salt will perform further research about various vendors offering the same services. A well-researched decision is cheaper, safer and more secure for any company who wants to have a cloud infrastructure in place.

Also Read:

D-Link IP Camera’s Unencrypted Cloud Infra, Vulnerable to MiTM Attacks

Google’s Vulnerability Scanning for Their Cloud Infrastructure in Beta