Role of Network Security in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the new buzzword these days in the IT industry. It is, however, more than a word as its usage has seen a remarkable rise, and thus with it, begins a new circle of a virus/anti-virus regime.

Cloud computing benefits businesses by making them leaner and smarter with their resource consumption. However, having the whole company online or persisting with a hybrid model of half physical-half online system has its flaws.

The physical system is a straight dash to the finish line for developers and our network security. It is the cloud computing sphere where things get interesting as new parameters and functionalities get introduced; each with its pain points.

These new network security threats need a different approach to tackle them as 80% of organizations surveyed in the last 12 months have been subject to a cloud computing security threat.

Third-party solutions, such as Symantec, Sophos, and the Helm repository by JFrog, look to tackle these newly introduced threats in the IT ecosystem.

These tools offer cloud-based network security by formulating rules, processes, and systems to keep check of cyber-security threats to cloud computing-based networks. It is a must-have process to protect the integrity of data and prevent any accidental data breaches.

Some Things to Know About Network Security Systems:

As more and more users move towards a cloud computing environment, more data is susceptible to attacks by hackers. Even the largest tech giants are not safe from such incidents as one instance of a database breach indicates. This breach occurred due to a hack into the Alibaba cloud system.

The migration to the cloud itself has many variables that could be exploited. Thus, a network security system for such a cloud computing environment is the only way moving forward to mitigate such would-be lapses in the new system.

1. More Surface for Attacks:

Opting for cloud computing means there’s more surface for attacks as the data gets scattered to more places. The physical system where the data originated and the final cloud computing servers where the data ended up make a lot of real estate for the security system to cover. It means your system is more at risk and needs professional cloud security to prevent data breaches.

2. Hybrid Model Increases Complexity:

The hybrid model of cloud computing and physical servers adds to the woes of any security systems. It only adds to the specific requirement of having a dedicated network security system built for a cloud computing system.

The physical IT system of any company is probably a well-known system that security professionals can set up quickly. However, this hybrid model requires extra attention and expertise.

3. Cloud Security as a Shield:

The cloud computing security apparatus acts as a shield to protect the in-house system/servers from malware. Thus a good cloud network security regime not only helps protect the data in the cloud but also safeguards the physical apparatus of a business. It also fulfills all mandatory requirements from companies by network and data security regulators.

4. Pace of Changes in the Ecosystem:

The pace with which changes are occurring in the IT industry is astonishing. On top of that, the deployment of serverless systems and cloud computing ensures changes are made to the system at a brisk pace.

To counter any threats that are made at this speed, we need a system capable of handling threats related to cloud computing and not just any conventional network security system.

Today, cloud computing is preferred because there are apps or software that the whole world uses, and is not restricted to a single country or region. The perfect example is Amazon, Facebook, and Apple’s cloud servers, where users reside all over the world.

5. Shared Responsibility May Prove Risky:

Many users worry about publishing their content over the internet and subsequently storing it in the cloud. What you should really worry about are the grey area between the shared responsibility of cloud companies to protect your data.

These companies may face confusion as to whose domain certain data lies in when it is in the cloud since the cloud is an evolving and dynamic ecosystem.

How to Minimize Cloud Network Security Risks?

When faced with the problem of minimizing the security risks of a cloud network system, it is important to accomplish the basics correctly.

While educating your employees to use the cloud responsibly and safely should be your first step, you should set some rules to manage network security for your cloud system. Defining a security baseline is the first step any organization must take while looking to shore up its cloud computing network security.

The baseline helps everyone to see what their responsibilities and limitations are in a cloud-based environment. It leads to a more cohesive flow as the DevOps guys, engineers and management are on the same page.

The baseline shall define who gets access to each function of the cloud ecosystem. This way everyone knows of their roles, and it is easy to manage them going forward.

Another way is to limit user access to cloud storage. Only the users who are directly responsible for performing functionalities in the system should be given access – that too with proper authentication with a track record. The limited the users are, the easier is to catch the potential attack source.

Multi-factor authentication is another way you can make the intrusion difficult. A pre-step in this regard is to ask the user to set a strong password that is a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.

And then the two-factor authentications should be applied. Like when a person wants to log in, he should receive an OTP on his registered mobile number which should be entered before he can log in.

Frequent backing up of company data is not a preventive but a corrective way to save yourself from data loss consequences. Even the world’s biggest companies like Disney, have gone through the pain of losing data. So, back is extremely important, preferable to the disks that are distant from the primary servers.

In addition to this, there needs to be a complete policy on cloud security, for which you need Cyber security experts. Here if you can’t afford them as your permanent employees hire them as consultants for an initial road map and security plans. Such experts will not only make a security plan but also identify potential areas and probable hacking attacks.

Once these consultants train your users, they will be able to regularly audit the security plan, frequently change the passwords of each employee, keep an eye on usual log-ins and at unusual times, manage data leaks with file encryption, frequently backing up the data to a remote or physical server.

Another way to make your cloud computing secure is to increase the bandwidth that might help from Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS).

Because that happens, an intruder bombards the server with fake requests which bottleneck the bandwidth, making it unable to receive or send the request. This ad-hoc increase in bandwidth can help prevent the system from crashing.

Last but not least can be an alternative internet connectivity option for the employees, so that if the users are barred by some attacker to log in using their connections, they may connect through the alternative IPs.

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