Cloud Migration Security Explained

What is cloud migration security? 

Cloud migration security is a facet of cybersecurity that protects organizations from security risks during a transition to cloud environments from legacy infrastructure, like on-premises data centers. Cloud migration security is vital because the overwhelming majority of companies have either begun or will soon begin a large-scale shift to the cloud, and security risks during migration can lead to system disruptions, compliance issues, and data breaches. 

Key Drivers of Cloud Migration

Though migrating to the cloud can provide benefits like cost savings, efficiency, scalability, speed, and heightened security and compliance, it also introduces new risks. To tackle these risks effectively, security shouldn't be added at the end of a cloud migration process as an afterthought. Instead, it should be deeply embedded within every step of the migration. 

Suboptimal cloud migration security can lead to the loss of millions of dollars. It can also undo years of foundational work achieved on legacy infrastructure. On the other hand, an effective cloud migration can be a launchpad into the future and the upper echelons of ultra-competitive industries. Let’s take a closer look at what’s at stake.

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Types of Cloud Migration: Security Considerations

The security implications of your cloud migration strategy can vary depending on the approach you choose. Here's a breakdown of the common cloud migration strategies and their security considerations:

• Rehosting (Lift-and-Shift): This involves simply moving existing IT assets to the cloud with minimal changes. While fast and cost-effective, it might not leverage the full security benefits of cloud providers. Ensure the cloud provider offers robust security features and prioritize data encryption throughout the process.

• Replatforming: Here, you migrate applications to the cloud while making some modifications to leverage cloud-native features. This offers an opportunity to improve security by implementing features like access controls and automated patching offered by the cloud platform.

• Refactoring: This involves a more substantial overhaul of the application code to fully exploit cloud capabilities. This presents an excellent chance to bake security best practices into the application's core design. Leverage secure coding principles and integrate security features offered by the cloud platform.

• Repurchasing: This involves replacing existing applications with cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. SaaS providers typically handle core security aspects, but ensure the chosen SaaS solution aligns with your overall security posture.

• Retiring: Applications deemed obsolete or no longer essential can be retired during migration. This reduces your attack surface and simplifies security management.

• Retaining: Certain applications might not be suitable for cloud migration due to security concerns or technical limitations. Carefully evaluate the risks and benefits of retaining these applications on-premises versus implementing additional security measures to enable cloud migration.

Choosing the Right Approach:

The optimal migration strategy depends on your specific needs and security requirements. Consider factors like application complexity, data sensitivity, and desired level of cloud integration when making your decision. From a security standpoint, refactoring and repurchasing often offer the most significant potential for improvement, while rehosting requires extra vigilance to maintain a secure environment.

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Cloud Migration Security Best Practices by Phase

Pre-Migration Security Considerations

Laying a solid foundation of security measures before you embark on your cloud migration journey is paramount. Here's a breakdown of key considerations to ensure a smooth and secure transition:

1. Risk Assessment and Data Classification:

• Identify Security Risks: Conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to identify potential security vulnerabilities associated with your cloud migration. This includes evaluating threats like unauthorized access, data breaches, and denial-of-service attacks.

• Prioritize with Data Classification: Classify your data based on its sensitivity (confidential, internal, public). This helps prioritize security measures. Highly sensitive data requires stricter controls like encryption at rest and in transit.

2 Inventory and Dependency Mapping:

• Create a Detailed Inventory: Meticulously catalog all IT assets slated for migration, including applications, databases, servers, and network devices.

• Map Dependencies: Identify and document all dependencies between applications and infrastructure components. Understanding these dependencies is crucial for maintaining functionality and security during the migration process.

• Identify Security Gaps: The inventory and dependency mapping process can reveal potential security gaps in your on-premises environment. Address these gaps before migration to minimize security risks in the cloud.

3. Choosing a Secure Migration Strategy:

• Cloud Migration Strategies: There are various cloud migration strategies, each with its own security implications. Consider popular options like lift-and-shift (rehosting), refactoring, and repurchasing.

• Security Considerations for Each Strategy: Evaluate the security posture of each migration strategy. Rehosting, for example, might require additional security controls due to minimal changes to the application. Refactoring presents an opportunity to integrate security best practices into the application code.

• Secure Migration Methods: Always prioritize secure data transfer methods like encryption at rest and in transit during migration. Utilize cloud provider tools or manage your own encryption keys for enhanced control.

Security Best Practices During Migration

Migrating your data and applications to the cloud requires a vigilant approach to security. Here are some essential best practices to ensure a secure transition:

1. Identity and Access Management (IAM):

• Strong IAM Policies: Implement robust IAM policies with the principle of least privilege in mind. This means granting users only the minimum access permissions required to perform their jobs.

• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all user accounts. MFA adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second verification factor beyond just a username and password.

• Monitor and Audit User Access: Continuously monitor and audit user access to detect any suspicious activity or unauthorized access attempts. Investigate anomalies promptly and take corrective actions.

2. Data Security:

• Encryption is Key: Encrypt your data at rest (stored in the cloud) and in transit (during migration) using industry-standard algorithms like AES-256. Encryption renders your data unreadable even if intercepted by unauthorized actors.

• Encryption Options: Many cloud providers offer encryption options for data at rest. However, consider managing your own encryption keys for enhanced control over your data security.

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Implement data loss prevention (DLP) solutions to safeguard sensitive data. DLP tools can monitor and prevent unauthorized data exfiltration attempts, such as uploading confidential data to unauthorized cloud storage services.

3. Network Security:

• Leverage Cloud Security Features: Utilize the security features offered by your cloud provider, such as security groups and firewalls. These tools allow you to restrict access to your cloud resources and define network traffic control policies.

• Segment Your Cloud Environment: Implement network segmentation to isolate critical resources within your cloud environment. This minimizes the potential impact of a security breach by limiting lateral movement within the network.

• Monitor Network Traffic: Continuously monitor network traffic for suspicious activity that might indicate a security threat. Look for anomalies like unusual access patterns or attempts to access unauthorized resources.

Post-Migration Security Management

Securing your cloud environment doesn't stop after a successful migration. Here are key practices for ongoing security management:

1. Continuous Security Monitoring:

• SIEM for Centralized Logging: Implement a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool to collect and analyze security logs from various sources within your cloud environment. SIEM provides centralized visibility into security events, allowing you to identify and respond to threats promptly.

• Vulnerability Scanning: Integrate vulnerability scanning tools to identify potential security weaknesses in your cloud resources. Regularly schedule scans and prioritize patching vulnerabilities to minimize your attack surface.

• Proactive Threat Detection and Response: Develop a proactive threat detection and response (TD&R) strategy. This includes defining incident response procedures, conducting regular security drills, and having a team prepared to address security incidents effectively.

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2. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM):

• Continuous Assessment: Utilize Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tools to continuously assess your cloud security posture. These tools identify misconfigurations in your cloud environment and ensure compliance with industry security standards and best practices.

• Automating Security Tasks: Leverage CSPM tools to automate security tasks like configuration management and vulnerability scanning. This frees up your security team to focus on more strategic initiatives.

3. Maintaining Patch Management:

• Patching is Crucial: Regularly patch operating systems, applications, and firmware within your cloud environment. Keeping software up-to-date with the latest security patches is essential for mitigating known vulnerabilities.

• Automated Patch Deployment: Consider automating patch deployment processes to ensure timely patching and minimize the window of vulnerability. This reduces the risk of attackers exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities.

What are the security risks during cloud migration?

1. Data compromise

The first and most obvious challenge that companies have to reckon with is the threat of data compromise, either in the form of exfiltration or accidental exposure. According to IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023, the financial fallout of data breaches has been rising steadily over the past few years, including a 15% increase in the last three. During cloud migration, data compromise can be a result of many factors, including misconfigurations in cloud resources. 

2. Identity access management (IAM) lapses

Digital identities can be either humans or machines. Mistakes or oversight in the access privileges of these digital identities can broaden an organization's attack surface and increase the probability of data breaches. Poorly configured IAM controls mean that attackers can use one attack vector for initial access and then move laterally to expand the scale of damage.

3. Proliferating environments

Businesses that move from on-premises data centers to cloud-based infrastructures might find the affordability and simple scalability of SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS services lures them to inefficient adoption. While scalability can be a powerful attribute for enterprises, it can also result in cloud sprawl, which is the uncontrolled mushrooming of cloud environments. Cloud sprawl has significant security implications, including a lack of visibility, blind spots, and threat-detection challenges.

4. Understanding shared responsibility

Entry into the world of cloud computing means that businesses will likely be procuring SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services from multiple cloud service providers (CSPs), like Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. Businesses need to understand which security responsibilities belong to them and which belong to their CSPs. Failure to delineate security roles and responsibilities can lead to confusion, data breaches, compliance failures, and slow time to remediation. 

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5. New compliance requirements

Compliance can be a challenge in any IT infrastructure because standards like GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001, CCPA, PCI DSS, and SOX can be complex to navigate and uphold. However, during cloud migrations, companies are confronting an unfamiliar set of regulatory requirements. In the world of compliance, businesses don't get a grace period to settle into their new IT ecosystem. That’s why it's vital to know the ins and outs of data privacy obligations as well as all industry and federal regulations. In 2021, the Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNDP) fined Amazon $887 million for data privacy failures. While global giants like Amazon can withstand such failures, the vast majority of others can't. 

6. API vulnerabilities

APIs are the glue that makes complex cloud environments stick together. All the seamless efficiencies of the cloud are a result of APIs. However, APIs are also potential attack vectors because they are susceptible to numerous threats and vulnerabilities. According to Google Cloud, only 4 out of every 10 companies have a robust API security plan in place. Almost half of the others have a basic API security plan in place, which is unlikely to withstand the evolving tools and tactics of threat actors. 

7. Monitoring challenges

Cloud migration shows businesses just how dynamic cloud environments can be. Visibility across these dynamic environments is a challenge. Since businesses commission and decommission cloud resources at previously unseen speeds, cloud estates constantly change shape. It’s impossible for companies to reduce the cloud attack surface, patch vulnerabilities, and identify potential data compromises without comprehensive and real-time monitoring capabilities. 

8. Insider threats

It's a common adage that humans are the weakest link in cybersecurity. Insider threats can be particularly problematic during cloud migration. Insider threats include malicious activity, such as disgruntled employees stealing data, or just basic negligence. Examples of insider-related security challenges include over-privileged access for digital users, lack of security training, and vulnerable offboarding procedures.

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9. Cloud security skills shortage

Cybersecurity is one of the most important skill sets to have in the 21st century. It's also one that's lacking. According to ISC2's Cybersecurity Workforce Study 2023, 67% of survey respondents claimed that they did not have the necessary cybersecurity personnel to handle cyber incidents. Furthermore, the report revealed that the top three skill deficiencies that existing cybersecurity teams have are cloud computing, AI, and zero-trust implementation, all of which are essential to protect cloud environments.

10. DevOps protection

The cloud enables businesses to rapidly build and deploy applications, which can lead to increased development velocity, and help organizations edge past competitors. However, DevOps environments can be rife with security challenges and need robust security mechanisms across all stages of software development life cycles (SDLCs). The biggest challenge here is to ensure continued agility without compromising security, a balance that numerous companies fail to achieve. 

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How Wiz can help secure your cloud migration journey

Today’s high-octane business landscape makes cloud migration an alluring option for many enterprises. However, migrating to the cloud from on-premises infrastructure is complex. While security is just one of many variables to keep track of during migration, it’s arguably the most important. After all, it’s the key to mitigating risk during such a profoundly transformative process.

Wiz’s agentless scanning approach enables you to get full visibility into risks and vulnerabilities across AWS, GCP, Azure, and other CSPs quickly. If there are any critical risks, Wiz will provide accurate risk prioritization with context so your teams can focus on remediating only the most important risks for your cloud environment. 

Get a demo of Wiz today to understand how you can migrate your on-premises infrastructure to the cloud while keeping security at the forefront.