Source URL: https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/articles/ciem-and-secure-cloud-access-best-practices
Source: CSA
Title: CIEM & Secure Cloud Access
Feedly Summary:
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The text discusses essential best practices in cloud security, emphasizing the importance of Zero Trust principles, particularly in the context of managing permissions and access controls. It provides insights on leveraging solutions like Cloud Infrastructure Entitlements Management (CIEM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) to enforce least privilege access, enhance visibility, and minimize identity risks, ultimately strengthening organizational security posture.
Detailed Description:
The content predominantly revolves around cloud security and the implementation of Zero Trust principles to secure environments effectively. Here are the major points discussed:
– **Understanding Cloud Security Complexities:**
– As organizations build cloud infrastructures, they often create intricate models of roles, permissions, and resources that need to be secured.
– Attackers can exploit these complexities if they acquire valid credentials.
– **Introduction to Zero Trust:**
– Zero Trust is framed around the mantra “never trust, always verify,” which should extend beyond mere authentication practices like Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
– Emphasizes that significant breaches often originate from identity compromise.
– **Importance of CIEM and PAM:**
– CIEM (Cloud Infrastructure Entitlements Management) provides visibility into permissions and aids in implementing least privilege strategies, which limits the potential impact of an attack.
– PAM (Privileged Access Management) helps secure and audit access to sensitive resources post-authentication.
– **Best Practices for Cloud Security:**
– **Visibility into Cloud Identities:**
– Organizations should gain centralized visibility into who has access to what across their environments.
– CIEM offers a complete map, correlating human and non-human identities with permissions.
– **Removing Identity Risks:**
– Identify and eliminate excessive access rights to align with least privilege principles.
– Conduct regular reviews to ensure that unused and misconfigured identities are adjusted promptly.
– **Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP):**
– Shift to granting access on a “just in time, just enough, and gone just after” basis to reduce attack surfaces.
– With ZSP, even if an attacker compromises an identity, they won’t have meaningful access to critical systems.
– **Prioritization of Critical Attack Paths:**
– Use security graphs to correlate identity risks with broader cloud vulnerabilities for better risk management and remediation.
– **User Experience Balance:**
– Implement privilege controls without disrupting the native user experience for engineers and other end users.
– **Post-authentication Safety Measures:**
– Continuous authentication and session protections bolster security once users gain access.
– Session recording is valuable for compliance and forensic investigations.
– **Continuous Identity Governance:**
– Contextual governance helps discover new risks as cloud environments evolve, ensuring least privilege is maintained over time.
– **On-demand Access Planning:**
– Establishing automated, context-based approvals allows for urgent permissions while enforcing ZSP.
In summary, the text presents a rigorous approach to addressing contemporary challenges in cloud security, focusing on reducing identity risks through strategic access management, proper governance, and adherence to Zero Trust principles. This comprehensive strategy is critical for security professionals aiming to protect their organizations from advanced threats in increasingly complex cloud environments.