How to Secure Cloud Applications in a Multi-Cloud World
Multi-cloud has ushered in an era that promises resiliency and reduced vendor lock-in for financial institutions, but it is far from faultless. As banks and credit unions distribute their application infrastructure and workloads among different cloud providers, teams must navigate a complex landscape of security controls, compliance requirements, and risk management practices. It seems inevitable that embracing a multi-cloud strategy comes hand-in-hand with operational and security challenges – but don't let that deter your progress.
The Challenge of Workload Identity
Securing multi-cloud applications at financial institutions poses a significant challenge: managing workload identity. As illustrated by incidents like the 2023 Cloudflare and Okta breaches, the consequences of mishandled identities and access credentials in such environments can be catastrophic.
A nation-state attacker gained persistent access to Cloudflare's diverse internal systems by exploiting stolen authentication tokens and service account credentials from a prior Okta breach. This breach encompassed Cloudflare's Confluence wiki, Jira bug database, and Bitbucket source code management system. While Cloudflare's swift response (including cutting off access and rotating over 5,000 production credentials) mitigated further damage, the incident starkly highlights the difficulties in consistently managing identities and access controls across a dispersed multi-cloud architecture.
While securing infrastructure is crucial, threats can also manifest at runtime. A 2023 report by Armosec revealed a staggering 49% increase in runtime security incidents. As applications execute across multi-cloud environments, vulnerabilities and misconfigurations can lead to dangerous breaches. Banks and credit unions must implement monitoring, detection, and response capabilities to identify and mitigate runtime threats in real-time across, adopting a comprehensive security approach that extends beyond just infrastructure hardening.
Securing Applications in a Multi-cloud World
When distributing workloads across different cloud platforms, ensuring a strong, consistent identity for applications and services is crucial. Some solutions provide identity-based access controls to seamlessly integrate with a multi-cloud strategy, ensuring only authorized workloads can communicate and access sensitive data. Other best practices include:
Zero Trust
Even with identities in place, you must operate under the assumption that you can't blindly trust any request. Zero-trust principles enforce continuous verification and prevent unauthorized access – leverage your identity and access management (IAM) solutions to the fullest. Inherently, multi-cloud forces teams to prioritize security from the outset rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Secure Code
Writing secure code is paramount to avoiding vulnerabilities in a multi-cloud world. Leverage automated secrets management and code scanning as part of your release process to catch insecure code before it reaches production environments. Comprehensive security demands protecting applications at every level, from infrastructure to code.
Vulnerability Scanning
Conduct regular vulnerability scans of your cloud infrastructure and applications to identify and remediate security weaknesses before they can be exploited. Select a vulnerability scanner that is specifically designed for multi-cloud environments. These scanners should be able to identify vulnerabilities across different cloud platforms and integrate with your existing security infrastructure.
Security Policies
Implementing consistent security policies across multiple cloud environments is a complex task, but essential for maintaining a strong security posture. Establish and enforce uniform security policies and standards across all cloud platforms, guaranteeing consistent protection regardless of where applications reside and helping prevent vulnerabilities from slipping through the cracks.
Threat Intelligence and Monitoring
Leverage threat intelligence feeds that provide real-time information on emerging threats, vulnerabilities, and malicious actors. Financial institutions can also integrate these feeds into SIEM and CSPM tools for automated threat detection and correlation. Plus, consider deploying Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) solutions across the multi-cloud environment to detect and prevent unauthorized access attempts, malicious traffic, and suspicious activities.
Social Engineering is Still Alive and Kicking
Technology alone is not sufficient, which may come as a surprise. Social engineering attacks, which manipulate individuals into divulging confidential information or granting unauthorized access, pose a significant threat to multi-cloud security. No tech can stand up against human error and the importance of a security-conscious culture.
Hence, the final tip is to implement regular security awareness training to educate users about common social engineering tactics like phishing, pretexting, and baiting. A holistic approach to multi-cloud security necessitates both technological fortifications and well-informed, vigilant users, empowering them to identify and report suspicious activity.
Building Multi-layered Defenses
They say there's safety in numbers. The same principle applies to securing your multi-cloud environment. Security can be likened to an onion: each layer adds another barrier against potential threats and relying on a single layer leaves vulnerabilities exposed.
By implementing these multi-layered defenses, financial institutions can significantly enhance the security posture of their multi-cloud environments. Remember, security is an ongoing process, but with a layered approach you can confidently scale your applications across multiple cloud providers, fostering resilience and minimizing the risk of breaches.
About Author:
Dotan Nahum is the Head of Developer-First Security at Check Point Software Technologies. Dotan was the co-founder and CEO at Spectralops, which was acquired by Check Point Software, and now is the Head of Developer-First Security. Dotan is an experienced hands-on technological guru & code ninja. Major open-source contributor. High expertise with React, Node.js, Go, React Native, distributed systems and infrastructure (Hadoop, Spark, Docker, AWS, etc.)