Spring Cleaning: Tidying up Unauthorized Access in Multi-Cloud Configurations

Unauthorized cloud access is a lingering and growing concern for security teams overseeing intricate, multi-cloud environments. In this article, Pravin Rasiah, vice president of product management, CloudSphere, suggests that to thwart common pitfalls, IT leaders must improve IAM policies, limit misconfigurations, and reduce internal privileges.

Over three-quarters, (81%Opens a new window ) of public cloud users are utilizing two or more cloud providers. While cloud computing is undoubtedly the future of digital operations for enterprises, securing multi-cloud environments is an increasingly challenging task that organizations are not adequately prepared for. Through 2025, Gartner estimates that 99%Opens a new window of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault.  

Recent data also shows that nearly one-thirdOpens a new window of enterprises experienced unauthorized access to cloud resources, and an additional 19% are unaware if unauthorized access occurred. Organizations that are able to strategically enforce identity and access management (IAM) policies, educate security teams, and establish real-time security policies to monitor systems actively will avoid critical multi-cloud misconfigurations that often lead to undetected, unauthorized access.  

Improve IAM Policies in the Cloud

IAM explicitly determines and restricts access controls in cloud resources. This is a key building block to a secure environment as it outlines what employees and users can specifically utilize in a variety of remote and online systems. IAM is difficult to enforce because companies with multi-cloud solutions are using numerous cloud IAM tools to govern their environments.

In fact, over halfOpens a new window (57%) of companies are utilizing multiple services, and 85% are using different cloud provider access tools for each environment. This makes visibility into the authorization management process far more complex as security teams will need to be familiar with multiple platforms to govern and secure their cloud environments. 

Another root of the problem is that organizations are not utilizing proper enforcement strategies to limit access. 78%Opens a new window of enterprises claim they are able to enforce IAM policies, yet 69% report that enforcement issues create unauthorized access.

This is a clear juxtaposition that demonstrates how askew the perceived regulation is compared to the actual flawed governance. Security leaders believe that they have a solid grip on IAM policies, yet it is one of the largest reasons why unauthorized system access occurs. To mitigate these red flags, organizations need to closely review security configurations, prioritize cloud visibility, and receive real-time updates on events like password changes or alterations to access paths to sensitive, protected data to govern the overall security posture better. 

Learn More: Cloud Security: 4 Predictions on What Lies Ahead for Organizations in 2021

Prioritize Limiting Cloud Misconfigurations

When devastating breaches and data leaks occur, the blame can likely be traced to a misconfigured cloud resource, as incidents involving security misconfigurations more than quadrupled from 2015 to 2019. Cloud environments are unquestionably a complex system to comprehend, manage and most importantly, secure.

This obviously increases when multiple providers, platforms and security postures are added to the mix. Nearly 20%Opens a new window of breaches from April 2019 to 2020 resulted from cloud misconfigurations, making it one of the most common and expensive vectors. The reality is that misconfigurations are very common and often a cause of unauthorized access. 

But security leaders and analysts do themselves no favors when misconfiguration errors and security gaps are infrequently monitored. 60%Opens a new window of companies only correct misconfiguration errors on a monthly basis at best, giving threat actors an abundance of time to find and take advantage of security vulnerabilities.

Enterprises need to re-prioritize misconfiguration detection and invest in education and controls to properly manage cloud platforms. Leveraging a unified approach to govern access across multiple clouds and supporting multi-cloud security solutions will provide comprehensive visibility into the landscape while also minimizing misconfigurations. 

Learn More: Maximizing Cloud Security With a Shared Responsibility Model

Scale Back Internal Cloud Access

Over half of companies (53%Opens a new window ) reported that 100 or more individuals have cloud access across internal and external teams, the majority of which possessing no security-specific expertise. This poses an unmitigated risk for platforms as this access can be easily misused. The more users with access to sensitive security areas, the greater the risk that an incident, leak or breach occurs, whether purposefully or incidentally. It is therefore essential to limit access to those who solely need it, as vulnerabilities for exposure increase with each additional user. 

While it can be challenging to view which users have access to what data, it is imperative to establish policies that improve visibility and provide real-time privilege monitoring. Narrowing access and improving visibility will ensure that expired credentials, internal accidents and compromised internal resources are limited and swiftly mitigated. 

Multicloud platform adoption is increasingly becoming the new digital operating standard as companies expand cloud computing services. Securing these environments is increasingly difficult for security teams as IAM policies are more intricate to navigate and enforce, configuration challenges arise, and demands for internal access builds.

Organizations need to develop a culture around security that emphasizes visibility, ongoing platform monitoring and stringent internal access controls. Implementing a united approach to govern cloud access and protect enterprise data will restrict unauthorized access and safeguard sensitive corporate information.

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