systems—may not be as effective because data that were once monitored internally have been intentionally moved offsite. This shift requires changes in processes and procedures to ensure that security incidents are not occurring.
It is important that every enterprise considering moving to the cloud first understand what information it holds, where it is and what the impact of a breach of that data would be. Information inventory, classification and labeling are important for all enterprises because information that is uncontrolled has the potential to be transformed from an asset to a liability. It is particularly critical that data owners understand the sensitivity of data currently stored within the enterprise that may be relocated to a cloud environment.
The following initiatives have significant implications for cloud computing.
IAM
Users have always been, and continue to be, a threat to enterprise data. Intentional and unintentional actions carried out by humans can put the enterprise in harm’s way.
One way to control access to information is to implement an IAM system. Such systems can control and manage access to data based on user role, data classification and data type, among other things. However, IAM systems are inherently vulnerable to the same threat that they are protecting against: insider attacks by employees or other trusted parties. For IAM to be an effective security measure, it must be updated regularly to avoid unnecessary accretion of privilege (violation of least privilege) and continuing access by individuals who no longer are entitled, such as terminated employees or contractors whose period of service has ended. Policies should exist and be followed for adding new users, changing existing user access and deleting users no longer needing access. This process holds true with cloud computing because unauthorized access to enterprise information resources is a prime cause for data theft or corruption of data integrity through modification or deletion.
The IAM risk consideration for a private cloud setting is similar to the consideration for traditional enterprise IT settings. Since the data are segregated from all other cloud data and are often managed by the organization owning the data, access is typically restricted to users within the enterprise, business partners and e-commerce customers. However, the public cloud setting includes authorized users employed by the CSP, thereby allowing more people to handle information assets and increasing potential egress points.
By definition, public cloud clients share databases, sandboxes and applications—the multitenancy of resources. Within the multitenant databases, CSPs’ clients’ data are commingled; there is no guarantee that an enterprise’s data are not stored with the data of a competitor. In major public cloud SaaS offerings, stored data could remain unprotected if the client fails to apply an encryption solution before pushing the data to the cloud. Having commingled data in the public cloud environment