Best Multi-Cloud Security Practices

Multi-cloud is becoming more popular with time. Most large enterprises and SMBs are moving towards the multi-cloud. The multi-cloud offers various amazing benefits to companies. However, there are also some risks that you need to deal with. If you are working with multiple cloud vendors, then your attack surface will increase. You should ensure that you are protecting your data and assets if you are using multi-cloud. In this article, we are going to share the best Multi-Cloud Security practices.

Multi-Cloud Security

A Multi-cloud Security strategy will contain a set of solutions, strategies, and policies that your company can use for protecting your multi-cloud environment. These practices will help you in enjoying the advantages of multi-cloud without worrying about the security risks.

The main challenge of a multi-cloud strategy is that you need to manage and protect cloud environments from various cloud providers. These cloud providers will have their own unique configurations. They will have different rules and features. This will complicate the entire cloud security process. You need to set up security controls for your cloud environment. Also, you need to set up access management for every cloud server. You need to identify and respond to various vulnerabilities.

Your cloud provider should be responsible for their own cloud safety. The client’s responsibility is to maintain the security inside their cloud network.

Your cloud provider should ensure that their cloud infrastructure is reliable and secure. They should make sure that their cloud infrastructure is up-to-date. Your cloud provider should protect both data centers and hosts. They should provide security features to you like MFA and access management tools.

Your in-house team should create a security architecture for your multi-cloud environment. They should make sure that they are following all the relevant regulations and rules. Your team need to define the access privileges and rules. If you are using some third-party tools, then you should update them regularly. You should also set up a DLP strategy. Your team should also create a cloud disaster recovery strategy. This will ensure that you can recover your data in case of a disaster.

Multi-Cloud Environment Security Risks

The main security risks associated with a multi-cloud environment are:

• A failed compliance check will lead to fines and penalties.
• You might lose your customers due to downtime and poor performance.
• Attackers might get access to your cloud environment which will lead to a breach.
• You might lose your reputation due to a data breach.

These are the main risks of using cloud technology. However, the risk amplifies when you are using a multi-cloud environment. You are dealing with multiple cloud vendors. Thus, your attack surface is more. You need to deal with the complexity of multiple cloud vendors.

Your in-house team needs to configure, manage, and secure multiple cloud infrastructures. Every cloud infrastructure will require regular maintenance and monitoring. Different cloud vendors will have different security controls, granularity, and policies. Attackers can target multiple cloud infrastructures. Thus, they will have more ways to hack into your infrastructure. Your monitoring team needs to make sure that they are properly monitoring every cloud infrastructure. The in-house team needs to integrate various different services. These services will come from different vendors. Thus, the integration will be complex.

How to achieve multi-cloud security?

If you are using multi-cloud infrastructure, then you should focus on creating a strict security policy. This will ensure that your multi-cloud environment won’t get breached. You can follow these practices for achieving multi-cloud security:

1. Create your Security strategy according to your compliance

You should first check the compliances that your business needs to follow. This will ensure that you can create your security strategy according to these compliances. For example, companies operating in the healthcare sector need to follow HIPAA compliance. If you are dealing with EU citizen’s data, then you need to follow the GDPR compliance.

These regulations are applicable to specific locations and industries only. You should ensure that your security strategy is following these compliances. These security compliances will help you in determining the lifecycle of your data. You can define security controls according to these compliances. Access management is another very important thing that you need to set up. You should also classify your cloud data into different categories. Make sure that you have access to enough storage.

Every cloud vendor will have different compliance certifications. You should ensure that your cloud vendor actually has your compliance certification. There are various automated tools available in the market that you can use for auditing compliance across your cloud infrastructure.

2. Use Automation

Human errors can lead to a data breach. Thus, you should focus on automating as many tasks as you can. This will help you in reducing the possibility of human error. It will also make your team more agile. Automation will help you in speeding up your cloud-related tasks. It will ensure that your cloud environments are consistent.

Automation is going to play a big role in multi-cloud security. You can’t manually check all the different cloud vendors. If you are adding a new VM or container, then you can run automatic security scans. You can also run continuous security checks for checking your security controls.

DevSecOps is one of the best ways to protect your cloud environment. It will help you in automating your cloud security.

3. Simplify your multi-cloud environment

You should look for overarching and single tools. These tools will help you in providing security across different cloud environments. If you are using multiple cloud provider native tools, then you will face a lot of problems. It will lead to poor integration which simply means that there will be security gaps in your network. Also, it will increase the probability of a human error. You might need to hire more staff for managing multiple cloud tools. Your team will also feel burdened due to maintenance.

Your tool should integrate with your entire cloud environment. It should be compatible with your multiple cloud services. You should ensure that your tool is scalable. Your tool should provide real-time updates to your IT team. Make sure that your security tool has a simple interface. Your admin will manage all the data and apps from this tool.

4. Multi-cloud monitoring

If you are using a multi-cloud environment, then you need to set up robust monitoring. Make sure that you are recording logs, events, alerts, and notifications from your different cloud platforms. Your tool should also automatically solve simple issues. If your tool finds some major issue, then it should redirect the issue to your team.

Make sure that your tool can scale up with your cloud infrastructure. It should provide real-time monitoring to your business. Also, it should provide context for all the alerts that it is generating. This will ensure that your team can easily understand the issue.

5. Encryption

Encryption is still the best way to protect your data. You should ensure that you are encrypting your data both in transit and at rest.

Encryption at rest will help you in protecting the data that is sitting in your network. If some hacker gets access to your database, then they can’t access your data as it is encrypted. Encryption in transit will help you in protecting the data which is moving in your network. If an attacker uses a MIM attack, then encryption will protect your data.

You should also ensure that all the communication is encrypted. Encryption will ensure that your data will always stay secure. You should also focus on confidential computation. This will ensure that your data is secure when you are using it. In-use data encryption can protect your business from RAT attacks.

6. Tenant Isolation

This is a simple method that you can use for improving your cloud security. Your team needs to ensure that every cloud application is running in a different tenant. This will ensure that all the tenants are isolated. You should also ensure that all the environments are running in every tenant.

If you want more security, then you can use landing zones. These zones will help your team in setting up the multi-tenant environment.

7. Principle of Least Privilege

You should ensure that your employees only have access to the resources that they need to complete their work. This will help you in isolating your important data and applications. It will ensure that attackers can’t move laterally in your network. They can’t access your sensitive data by hacking into your employee accounts. It will also help you in complying with data security and privacy laws.

You shouldn’t use your cloud vendor tools for controlling access if you have a multi-cloud environment. Solutions from different cloud vendors won’t work together. This will increase the risks. Thus, you should look for a tool that can centralize access controls.

Make sure that you are not hindering your team with lost or missing access rights. You should have a fast approval process. Try to create a transparent process for access rights. This will help you in protecting your multi-cloud without reducing your team productivity.

8. Backup Cloud data

You should regularly backup your cloud data. It is a good idea to store your backups in both your cloud and in-house storage. Immutable backups will ensure that attackers can’t delete your data even after getting access to your database.

You should keep a separate backup for every cloud environment. Make sure that you are backing up your data multiple times every day. You can use zero-trust strategies for protecting your cloud backup.

Make sure that you are regularly testing your backup. You should also work on a disaster recovery plan. This plan will help you quickly restore your data and services.

9. Audit Logging

You should log all the changes related to your cloud tenants. This will include basic things like the addition and removal of users. You should also log their access rights and their login duration. Make sure that you are logging the user activity of your employees.

Audit logs can help you in achieving multi-cloud security. It will help you in identifying malicious behavior. You can use AI and ML for detecting malicious behavior. It will also help you in discovering the breach before attackers hurt your systems. You can also find cloud-related issues in your network.

Audit logs are also compulsory in some industries. You need these logs for proving compliance to your auditor.

10. Smart Policy Management

You should create security policies that you can enforce on all cloud environments. It should help you in simplifying your security operations. Your policy should define the data that you are storing. It should define cloud ownership. Also, you need to define your access and authentication rules. You should have cloud workload gateways and security. Your security policy should contain your cloud migration protocols. You need to create a response plan for every type of attack.

A standardized policy should be your starting point. It will help you in speeding up the deployment and configuration phase. Also, it will reduce the probability of a human error. It will ensure that your multi-cloud environment is consistent.

Try to synchronize your policies if you are running the same applications on multiple clouds. Your team can use an automation tool for synchronizing settings between multiple clouds. They should focus on creating a policy with general definitions only.

11. Update your strategy

You should regularly assess your security strategy. This will ensure that your security strategy is keeping up with the latest security standards. You should check for software patches and updates. Your team should keep up with the latest security trends. Regular vulnerability assessments will also help you in protecting your network.

How Bleuwire can help your business?

Cloud security is a difficult task for SMBs. Thus, you should consider outsourcing cloud security to a good MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in handling your multi-cloud environment. They will help you in regularly monitoring your cloud environment. Bleuwire will help you in creating a cloud security strategy for your business. This will ensure that your cloud environment is protected from attackers. If you need more information regarding IT security services, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.