A distributed work environment is the norm for most of today’s organizations, making the traditional security perimeter, one in which there is a trusted network end, nearly obsolete. Workers can access applications and data systems from anywhere, while data moves across multiple cloud platforms. This means that your organization’s attack surface, where bad actors can access your IT infrastructure, extends well beyond the four walls of an office.

The protection of your organization’s most sensitive cloud assets, such as intellectual property, customer data, and operational-critical applications, requires the implementation of Zero Trust, a fundamentally different security framework. Its widespread adoption, with 63% of organizations worldwide implementing the framework, shows that more organization leaders are realizing the value of assuming no implicit trust and mandating the validation of every single transaction when it comes to securing cloud infrastructures.

However, Zero Trust isn’t meant to be used as the single solution to your organization’s cloud infrastructure security vulnerabilities. You should use it as the launching point for the comprehensive cybersecurity best practices needed for every organization’s cloud environment, especially with the increasing use of complex cloud infrastructure with hybrid environments and multiple service models.

The best practices your organization should be using span all disciplines of cybersecurity, including Zero Trust, and help you place your organization in the best possible position to develop a secure cloud infrastructure.

Why Zero Trust Is the Foundation to Cloud Security

Zero Trust adheres to a simple premise: never trust, always verify. This is a pivot from conventional security models that enable broad access once a user has passed initial authentication measures. Instead, Zero Trust requires the repeated validation of every user, device, and application trying to access resources. The location of the parties attempting access and whether they were previously authenticated have no bearing on current requests for access.

The principle of continuous verification is essential in cloud environments. Traditional network boundaries don’t apply when you’re using an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model that spans multiple regions. When your employees are accessing Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solutions on their personal devices or your organization uses hybrid cloud solutions, perimeter-focused security doesn’t work.

Zero Trust is the better alternative because of the unique security challenges the cloud presents:

• The integration of new resources (and their access points) and their removal because of dynamic scaling
• Confusion about where organizational responsibility begins and where cloud provider security ends
• Expanded attack surfaces caused by multiple access points and integration complexity

These challenges and many others cannot be adequately protected by traditional cybersecurity frameworks that assume your organization’s network has a finite perimeter and everything inside of it is fully protected.

Best Practices for Using the Zero Trust Framework in Cloud Environments

Identity and Access Management as the Foundation

You need robust identity and access management (IAM) for any worthwhile Zero Trust implementation. For cloud infrastructures, this requires single sign-on solutions that can work seamlessly across all of the cloud platforms and services your organization uses. The identity verification processes you use should be clear and able to easily accommodate the dynamic nature of cloud resources.

IAM goes even further than user authorization. It employs comprehensive device management, application-level access control, and the continuous monitoring of user behavior. For example, when workers access organizational resources through Azure Virtual Desktop support or other cloud-based services, every single session has to be authenticated and authorized based on the current context. Even more importantly, to help reduce the attack surface, access is restricted to the assets that users need for their role. They are unable to rely on their past credentials for access.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is also required for Zero Trust environments. When using it in cloud environments, it is ideal to balance security with user experience. Users can be resistant to using MFA if the protocols used are inconvenient, poorly explained, or overly complex. You can use adaptive authentication, which takes into account locations, behavior patterns, and other factors to inform verification and helps to eliminate the drag that may compel workers to use insecure alternatives.

Network Segmentation and Micro-Perimeters

With Zero Trust, micro-segmentation is used instead of the trusted internal network concept. With micro-segmentation, you’re creating small, isolated zones in the internal network that restrict lateral movement within the network if a breach occurs. For the cloud, these zones are created using software-defined perimeters, which are positioned around critical data and applications.

Segmentation in the cloud is applied using security groups, virtual networks, and application-level controls to create specific access permissions. These controls should be consistent across hybrid cloud solutions so that the security policies remain in place whether the resources are in the cloud or on-premises.

One main challenge with segmentation is maintaining visibility across the individual segments. Using sophisticated monitoring tools helps with this. They can detect anomalies, track network traffic, and provide real-time insights into the potential security threats across all network segments.

Data Protection and Encryption Strategies

Encryption remains a necessary element for data protection in Zero Trust environments. Data has to be encrypted at multiple levels within the cloud environment — when in transit, at rest, and even when it’s being actively used. Using a comprehensive encryption strategy helps ensure that data remains secure even if unauthorized access occurs.

Data protection is more complicated in a cloud environment because the data moves between various platforms and services. Your organization has to have consistent encryption policies that can be applied across all cloud services, including third-party and managed cloud services.

If you operate an organization in a regulated industry, such as healthcare, data protection also includes data residency controls, compliance reporting, and comprehensive audit trails. For example, HIPAA-compliant cloud hosting requires specific data handling procedures that have to be integrated into the overall Zero Trust architecture. Partnering with managed services that provide healthcare cloud solutions can help you navigate the complicated cybersecurity requirements.

Best Practices for Advanced Security Measures Beyond Zero Trust

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Cloud Security

Modern cloud security also requires artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These technologies are needed to analyze patterns across large amounts of data to detect abnormalities that might indicate security breaches.

ML algorithms detect subtle changes in user behavior, application performance, or network traffic that may suggest a security incident. This is especially useful for cloud security because the scale and complexity of data in the cloud make manual monitoring impossible.

AI-enabled automation can be critical to how your organization responds to security incidents. You need to be able to quickly isolate compromised resources or block suspicious activities in cloud environments where threats can spread rapidly across interconnected systems.

Behavioral Analytics and User Monitoring

Behavioral analytics tools monitor and assess how your workers typically interact with applications. They can determine which resources they access and when they’re most active. When baseline behavior patterns are established, the tools can determine when the user’s actions deviate from usual patterns, triggering security alerts or initiating additional verification steps. Your organization needs this capability to help secure cloud environments where users are accessing resources from different devices and locations.

You should also use behavioral analytics to help optimize and refine your security policies. This allows your security teams to provide necessary functionality while maintaining a strong security posture.

Threat Intelligence Integration

To stay ahead of impending threats, you should integrate threat intelligence across all your cloud services and platforms. Threat intelligence integration provides real-time information about not only new attack vectors but also threat actor profiles, vulnerability trends, compromised credentials, malicious IP addresses, and much more. Armed with this information, the security systems can proactively block threats before they compromise your organization. The comprehensive integration of threat intelligence in your cloud systems ensures that any threat indicators found in one area of infrastructure are also quickly applied to protect other systems.

Comprehensive Security Monitoring

Monitoring that provides visibility into all areas of cloud infrastructure is needed for effective cloud security. Your monitoring systems should have the capabilities for user behavior analysis, network traffic monitoring, application performance monitoring, and tracking configuration changes.

The monitoring systems also need to be advanced enough to decipher the relationships between events across different cloud services and platforms. With this correlation capability, you will have a complete picture of your organization’s cloud security posture and will be able to detect attacks aimed at compromising multiple systems.

Incident Response in Cloud Environments

Cloud-based incident response must account for the dynamic nature of cloud resources, the shared responsibility model, and the need for rapid containment across distributed systems. You should create cloud-specific incident response playbooks that provide guidance for navigating common cloud security scenarios. These playbooks should include detailed information about procedures for isolating compromised resources, maintaining evidence in cloud environments, and coordinating with cloud service providers when necessary.

Making VMware to Cloud Migration Secure

If your organization is migrating from VMware environments to the cloud, you may find it challenging without very careful planning or assistance from an MSP who provides cloud migration services. You want to make sure that the existing security policies and controls you have in place translate effectively to the cloud environment.

The very process of migration presents security risks. Because data is in transit during the migration, you have to make sure that the data is protected and that security controls are active during the migration process. This typically requires executing security systems during the transition period.

Of course, security validation is needed after the migration. Make sure to double-check that all security controls function correctly in the new environment. Also, ensure that sensitive data or applications haven’t been accidentally exposed during the migration process.

Phased Migration Security Strategies

When conducting large-scale cloud migrations, it’s usually best to execute them in phases and allow security considerations to inform the migration sequence. Sensitive data and critical applications should be prioritized so that you can validate the security controls before migrating less critical systems.

Comprehensive security testing should be an element of every migration phase. The testing includes penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, and compliance validation. User acceptance testing is also needed to make sure that business operations aren’t disrupted by security controls.

Consistent Security Policies Across Hybrid Environments

For hybrid cloud solutions, the security policies you use must work effectively across on-premises and cloud environments. Consistency is needed to ensure that security standards won’t vary based on the location of the resources.

To implement consistent policies, you need to use centralized security management tools that can be deployed across diverse environments. The solutions must provide unified visibility into the cloud environment security posture and must be capable of accommodating the unique characteristics of the different cloud platforms your organization uses.

Integration Challenges and Solutions

The integration challenges that arise within hybrid environments can create gaps in security coverage. Common causes can include different security protocols, inconsistent monitoring tools, and different authentication systems.

You need standardized interfaces and protocols for a hybrid security architecture that operates as it should. These features facilitate integrations between your on-premises and cloud systems, improving your organization’s agility, efficiency, and security, all of which impact your bottom line. Achieving this entails using cloud-native security tools whose capabilities are also applicable in on-premises environments.

Cyber Resiliency Planning

Cyber resilience expands upon traditional disaster recovery by focusing on security incidents and cyberattacks. You have to make contingency plans for scenarios in which your organization’s primary security systems have been compromised and devise alternate approaches to maintaining operations. To adhere to the Zero Trust approach, all of the scenarios have to be treated as possible security incidents.

Start with your organization’s critical business functions. Options for ensuring that they can operate without interruption during security incidents can include establishing alternate communication channels, creating backup authentication systems, or implementing manual processes that can fill gaps during system recovery. During the restoration process, there should be immediate re-authentication, certificate validation, and repeated verification and validation of all users, systems, and processes.

Testing and Validation Procedures

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solutions for cloud infrastructure management during and after security incidents should be much more than functionality tests. You should use automated testing tools that routinely check encryption, access controls, and security settings for all of your cloud platforms. The tests should be able to verify that any recovered cloud systems can keep user authentication, network separation, and data protection rules in place. Additionally, you should strictly control access to the DRaaS management system using role-based permissions and multi-factor authentication.

Your security testing also needs to include scenario-based attack simulations. These exercises should assess the security of recovered cloud environments, including API security, container protection, and cloud security tool integration. These simulations aid in identifying vulnerabilities in your cloud services and ensure that monitoring continues during recovery.

Selecting Security-Focused Managed Providers

Using a managed services provider to apply Zero Trust and other necessary security frameworks for your organization may be your best option if you lack an IT team with the relevant experience or skills. However, using a shared responsibility model requires that you fully understand which security controls your organization handles and which are managed by the provider.

Qualified managed cloud cybersecurity services providers should be able to demonstrate comprehensive security certifications. They should provide detailed procedures for robust incident response and have transparent reporting capabilities. It’s also ideal for them to have clearly documented security practices and a willingness to undergo third-party security audits.

Co-Managed IT Security Models

You can use co-managed IT services if you prefer to maintain control over the most critical security decisions while taking advantage of external expertise for monitoring and implementation.

For co-managed security to be successful, you must have clarity in communication channels and no ambiguity about roles and responsibilities. There must be regular collaboration between your organization’s and the provider’s security teams. You also have to make sure that the reliance on the co-managed arrangements doesn’t result in gaps in security coverage and accountability.

Apply the Right Best Practices to Secure Your Cloud Infrastructure

It’s important to note that cloud security is much more than simply access control. Your organization needs resilient systems that can detect, respond to, and recover from security incidents without interrupting business continuity.

The Zero Trust framework and principles provide a solid foundation for your organization’s cloud security. Using a comprehensive approach that combines Zero Trust with all of the other elements of cybersecurity best practices is the best way to create a secure cloud infrastructure that can be used as a mechanism for business agility and innovation. As your organization evolves, you will be continuously improving your cloud security while balancing it with operational efficiency and user experience. Achieving this balance will require consistent collaboration between your IT team and an experienced managed cloud security services provider.

RapidScale has consultants who can help you evaluate your current cloud systems and cloud security posture. They can then devise a tailored cloud security strategy that uses the appropriate security frameworks and best practices to build a secure cloud infrastructure for your organization. Send us a message today to get started.