What Is Cloud Security?

In the software-as-a-service model the vendor is responsible for application security, while the customer is responsible for endpoints, user and network security, configurations, workloads, and data.

In the platform-as-a-service model, the vendor is responsible for platform security, including software and hardware, while the customer is responsible for the security of applications developed on the platform, endpoints, user and network security, and workload security.

In the infrastructure-as-a-service model, the vendor secures all infrastructure components while the customer secures all applications installed on the infrastructure.

Cloud-based resources require a different management infrastructure, one that prizes central management and visibility above all else;

Shared resources increase risk (the IDC/Ermetic study revealed that 83% of cloud breaches stem from access vulnerabilities); and

Vulnerabilities can arise from misconfigurations and user error (a full two-thirds of cloud security incidents are due to misconfiguration, according to a Unit 42 report).

A cloud-friendly approach for application and network security. For a machinery manufacturer that moved many of its workloads to the cloud, the traditional castle-and-moat approach to network and application security was no longer effective. The company struggled to provide its workforce and growing cadre of IoT devices with secure access to web and custom applications through traditional VPN products. The company decided to standardize on Zscaler technology. First, the company deployed Zscale Internet Access to connect globally distributed mobile users to its SaaS applications. The company then added Zscaler Private Access (ZPA) to give its mobile workforce and contractors access to apps running on-premises. More recently, the company began using ZPA for secure access to apps running on AWS and Azure in a zero-trust model.

Continuity of digital business operations. A major insurance company with a large web presence wanted to prevent web application attacks, common to the industry because of the sensitive data that insurance firms handle. While the company already had a service for monitoring website traffic, the product didn’t have a granular level of visibility or the desired flexibility. The company implemented Imperva Cloud WAF, which provides real-time visibility into web activity, separates legitimate from malicious website traffic, and protect against application-layer attacks.

Security for hybrid cloud model. An online broker used a hybrid cloud model in Microsoft Azure and AWS that demanded consistent and secure connectivity, along with resource-sharing availability. To meet these requirements, the company implemented a Fortinet Secure SD-WAN offering based on FortiGate. The offering integrated FortiGate with a Fortinet Secure SD-Branch product based on FortiSwitch and FortiAP at the branch offices to optimize wireless connectivity. As a result, the broker achieved improved security performance and threat blocking, along with secure and transparent connectivity from any location. The IT staff can now quickly integrate the multi-cloud environment of Azure and AWS from the Fortinet technology dashboard, centrally manage the entire network, and configure multiple security rules they couldn’t previously deploy.

Visibility and threat protection for AWS. An IT services firm running on AWS needed a way to keep customer data safe. The firm was particularly concerned about spreading files that contained malware. While the company was achieving its goals by manually checking cloud configurations, the work became overwhelming, leading the company to look for an automated product for scanning data against data loss prevention policies. The company settled on Netskope for AWS, which provides automated control from a cloud-native platform that includes CASB, Secure Web Gateway, and zero-trust networking capabilities.

Secure cloud-native applications. An online retailer with 500 developers on 100 teams moved to the cloud to adopt more agile processes for software development and use cloud-native technologies like microservices and containers. Decision-makers wanted to provide its developers, which build applications to improve buying experience, with a security platform that supports secure code in the cloud. The team implemented Aqua Security’s CSP, which allowed for the detection and remediation of security issues earlier in the software development lifecycle. Aqua Security is now heavily used within the retailer’s development pipeline, where the retailer uses its own purpose-built security application for data aggregation and to call for scans from the Aqua CSP.