When designing your security policies, you will want to address cloud security solutions that protect your systems and data from two of the most common attacks on cloud environments:

Distributed Denial of Service: Distributed denial of service (DDoS) overloads a selected system to block its availability. It sends more traffic than the target can handle, causing a failure and making it unable to offer service to existing, normal users. A DDoS generally creates overwhelming traffic that comes from distributed sources, so it can’t be addressed by simply blocking the source.

Cloud systems have more resources, so they can be harder to take down than a corporate system, but a successful DDoS attack has widespread impact, making it attractive to malicious actors.

Cryptomining: Cryptomining malware is another major cloud security concern, co-opting the computing resources of the target to gain access to cryptocurrencies. Also referred to as cryptojacking, this has become one of the more common cloud security concerns hitting infrastructure. Container management platforms are a common target, drawing attackers that use vulnerable application programming interfaces (APIs) to gain access to the system.

Cryptomining attacks have been on the rise, with access gained through weak or absent passwords or through vulnerabilities in supply chain software.

Shared Responsibility: One of the complications of securing data and systems is the fuzzy distinction between security handled by the cloud service provider and the company. What’s been adopted is a shared responsibility model in which cloud service providers are responsible for securing the cloud, while the client is responsible for securing the data in the cloud.

Attackers can go undetected because of their tendency to move between cloud layers. Even if you know that there’s a suspected intruder, you may see activity that is exceptionally hard to follow as it bobs around in different layers.

Cloud Security Solutions: There are a number of cloud security solutions, but here are the main options:

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms: Cloud workload protection platforms (CWPP) reduce cloud security risk through system hardening, the identification of workload misconfiguration, and detecting vulnerabilities in static code. CWPP can be useful in application whitelisting, anti-malware scanning, endpoint threat detection and response, system file integrity monitoring and patching, and configuration management. These agent-based tools typically use a combination of approaches, including system integrity protection, network segmentation, and anti-malware capabilities. Security is provided at the workload level, with no coverage at the application or data layer.

Network Detection and Response: Taking a network-based strategy against cloud threats, network detection and response (NDR) offers in-depth defense by detecting post-compromise activity within the perimeter of the network and securing containers. This approach has gained effectiveness as more data has been available to understand network activity.

Cloud Access Security Brokers: Available in on-premise or cloud-hosted solutions, cloud access security brokers (CASB) monitor users and apply policies such as authentication, encryption, and credential mapping. They can be used to extend security policies into the cloud and specify custom controls for cloud environments. They can be particularly useful for introducing better visibility into software as a service (SaaS) applications.

Static Application Security Testing: Used to identify potential vulnerabilities, static application security testing (SAST) tools are useful for scanning application code to detect common vulnerabilities. They are limited in their ability to identify broader sets of vulnerabilities but are commonly chosen for use in software development.

Cloud Security Posture Management: This approach automates the identification of cloud misconfigurations. Cloud security posture management (CSPM) is an evolution of original security posture assessment solutions.

Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management: This management solution ensures legitimate cloud access rights. Cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) is also called cloud entitlements management solutions.

If your company is exploring cloud security solutions to eliminate risk associated with threats like cryptomining and DDoS attacks, contact us at S2 Solutions. We can help you identify specific vulnerabilities, assess overall risk, and choose cloud security solutions that benefit your overall business priorities.