Cloud migration is transforming organisations into dynamic, agile entities. Cloud-native technologies enable greater scalability of applications, broaden remote access capabilities, reduce an over-reliance on legacy systems and positively impact the bottom line.
However, any cloud adoption strategy must be underpinned by robust security measures due to the increased threat surface and growing complexity of networks. Zero Trust represents a combination of technologies and strategies that bolsters cybersecurity within the enterprise network by enforcing the principle of ‘Never trust, always verify’. But when talking about the cloud, how can you apply this same framework to a borderless environment that exists outside the traditional network? We’re here to reassure you that every cloud has a silver lining (pardon the pun) with five steps to effectively implement Zero Trust in a cloud environment.
Design landing zones to form the basis of cloud environments
You wouldn’t build a house on poor foundations and the same principles apply for cloud computing security. Before beginning the practical steps of implementing a Zero Trust model in the cloud, you need to build an enterprise grade landing zone, a blueprint that establishes a secure and scalable cloud environment.
The initial planning behind a landing zone can be intensive, incorporating access management, upscaling, networking, security, and account structure considerations. This may sound like a lot of work, but it is important to get cloud computing security right from the start. A thorough analysis of your infrastructure will be the catalyst for a well-designed landing zone which in turn, will make the implementation of Zero Trust architecture easier.
Select suitable cloud vendors
The guiding tenet of Zero Trust is ‘Never trust, always verify’, but when moving workloads over to the cloud, you are entrusting vendors to look after your most valuable resource – your data. Despite this contradiction, Zero Trust can work in the cloud if strategic measures are taken in advance of implementation.
There is no one size fits all approach to cloud adoption and no shortage of platforms to choose from. But to achieve optimal results, a multi-cloud approach enables companies to spread their resources across multiple providers to boost overall security. Stringent vendor assessments preface a multi-cloud approach as you want to ensure that you are leveraging the most suitable cloud services before migrating workloads.
Introduce micro-segmentation
If the worst-case scenario happens and Zero Trust is breached in the cloud, there must be a failsafe in place for damage limitation. Fortunately, we can mitigate the threat by introducing micro-segmentation, a strategy that isolates workloads to limit user access.
For day-to-day business processes, it is important that machine-machine communication exists via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). However, not every application or resource needs to talk to each other and so to prevent collateral damage, an integral component of applying Zero Trust in the cloud is identifying where machine-machine communication should and should not be enabled.
Reinforce security with identity protections
In one of our previous blogs, we talked about the importance of Identity Access Management (IAM) and how Zero Trust is only as good as its access controls. This is especially true for maintaining cloud computing security as sufficient protection needs to be in place to protect resources that are accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.
Granular controls such as user categorisation enforces Zero Trust in the cloud by gatekeeping applications from users without sufficient privileges. For example, an IT administrator would be prevented from accessing confidential HR documents on SharePoint if effective user categorisation was established.
Constantly monitor cloud computing security
Implementation is only one half of the story. You need to maintain and monitor Zero Trust in cloud environments as business circumstances frequently change. This can potentially lead to more vulnerabilities being exposed, which is why monitoring is key to long-term success.
Conducting regular audits and vulnerability assessments will help identify and mitigate potential risks. Recent innovations such as AI-powered behavioural analytics facilitate thorough auditing by automatically responding to unusual activity, removing the need for network security professionals to manually trawl through endless logs.
Zero Trust is your responsibility
Despite offering significant benefits for organisations, the distributed nature of cloud environments means that security is a top priority. Even though you are outsourcing workloads to cloud vendors, the success of Zero Trust is in your hands. The cloud provider may oversee the maintenance of physical hardware, but it is the duty of your business to ensure Zero Trust is implemented effectively.
Therefore, you need to take into consideration which vendors you want to work with, what resources will be in the cloud, and which security solutions will be most suited to your network architecture. With meticulous planning and a thorough understanding of your capabilities as an organisation, Zero Trust can help you achieve a robust and secure service in the cloud.