Which cloud security platforms provide comprehensive encryption and data protection features?
In the era of cloud computing, securing your data is paramount. With cyber threats evolving, it's crucial to choose a cloud security platform that offers robust encryption and data protection. Encryption is the process of converting data into a code to prevent unauthorized access, while data protection encompasses measures to ensure data privacy and integrity. Understanding the nuances of these features will help you safeguard your sensitive information in the cloud.
Encryption relies heavily on keys, which are complex algorithms that lock and unlock your data. A comprehensive cloud security platform should allow you to manage these keys with flexibility. This includes the ability to create, rotate, and retire keys as needed. Some platforms offer automated key management, reducing the risk of human error. Look for a platform that supports various encryption standards and provides secure key storage options.
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Ewere Diagboya
DevOps Engineer | AWS Cloud Engineer | Author | First AWS Community Hero in Africa | Speaker
AWS offers KMS, which can be used to both generate and store encryption keys. KMS is a Managed service meaning that you do not have to set up the server for storing and managing keys yourself. AWS takes care of all the hassle while you focus on ensuring the keys have the proper access
Protecting data at rest means securing your data when it's stored on a server or database. A good cloud security platform will provide encryption for data at rest that meets industry standards. This encryption should be transparent to users but impenetrable to unauthorized entities. The platform should also ensure that the encryption does not degrade the performance of your storage or retrieval operations.
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Ewere Diagboya
DevOps Engineer | AWS Cloud Engineer | Author | First AWS Community Hero in Africa | Speaker
Data at rest means that in a storage and it is not moving from one system to another system. It is in a static state. Encryption for data at rest are of various types, AES encryption standard is one of the most popular and it is good enough to ensure the data is protected. It is also good that the encryption done on the data uses an encryption key, which is the only key authorised to decrypt the data whenever it is needed. This encryption should only be accessible by authorized users
Data in transit is vulnerable as it moves across networks. To protect it, encryption should be applied to all data as it travels from one point to another. This includes both internal and external transmissions. The security platform you choose should offer robust protocols and algorithms, such as TLS (Transport Layer Security), to secure your data during transit.
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Ewere Diagboya
DevOps Engineer | AWS Cloud Engineer | Author | First AWS Community Hero in Africa | Speaker
TLS is the industry standard for encrypting data in transit. It is facilitated by a certificate and a key. Certbot is a free certificate generation services that can be used for securing websites. There are other certificate authorities that can be used such as Thawte, Comodo, Verisign and more. There is also mTLS which is a step further in validating and securing data from within the application. That is sending/receiving data
Access control is a critical aspect of data protection. A comprehensive cloud security platform will provide granular access controls, allowing you to define who can access what data and under what conditions. This includes the use of identity and access management (IAM) policies, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and the principle of least privilege, ensuring users have access only to the data necessary for their role.
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Ewere Diagboya
DevOps Engineer | AWS Cloud Engineer | Author | First AWS Community Hero in Africa | Speaker
The importance of MFA cannot be over-emphasized. Whether it is an SMS confirmation, Email confirmation or Authy which can serve as another layer of validating access, is very crucial. One of the preferred ways to do MFA is to use a hardware token like a Ubikey, which is separate from a mobile device or a laptop. Least privilege means you assign the minimum privilege a user requires and in one case it should be time-boxed so that the access is deleted after it has been used.
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Jo Marwood
AWS Partner Recruit Manager at Ingram Micro Cloud
The need for MFA is more important than ever, as cyberattacks are becoming more frequent, sophisticated, and damaging. According to a recent report by Microsoft, 99.9% of compromised accounts did not use MFA. The report also found that MFA can block more than 99.2% of account compromise attacks, making it one of the most effective security measures available. The rise of the hybrid workforce and accelerated digital transformation of businesses by the COVID-19 pandemic expanded risk scenarios for employees and companies. MFA can help mitigate these risks by simply adding an extra verification step and preventing access from unknown or suspicious sources.
Adhering to compliance standards is essential for many organizations. Your chosen cloud security platform should help you meet regulatory requirements such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), or PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). It should provide tools and documentation to support audits and demonstrate compliance with these regulations.
In the event of a security breach, a rapid response can mitigate damage. A comprehensive cloud security platform will include features for incident detection and response. This includes real-time monitoring, alerts, and automated responses to potential threats. The platform should also provide detailed logging and reporting capabilities to aid in post-incident analysis and recovery efforts.
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Ewere Diagboya
DevOps Engineer | AWS Cloud Engineer | Author | First AWS Community Hero in Africa | Speaker
Incident response is both a process and tooling solution. First there needs to be an incident management policy that explains how incidents are managed in a company. Tools like Grafana Incident, Oncall and AWS SSM Incident Manager are tools that can be used to manage incidents and escalations during an incident. Monitoring systems can be integrated with Incident management services to capture real time history of an incident, activities during an incident which can serve as the incident report, or can be used to create a detailed incident report