What is Cloud Security?

Cloud security protects your data, apps, services, and any other infrastructure components hosted on the cloud. It involves using technologies and software solutions that are crucial for protecting, storing, and managing your mission critical business data. Cloud security includes the use of policies and controls as well to safeguard cloud-based systems against data breaches, unauthorized user access, and evolving cyber threats. Cloud security is a component of cybersecurity specifically aimed at maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) of data, applications, and services controlled partially or entirely by one or more cloud providers.

The main goal of cloud security is to minimize security risks, maintain compliance with industry standards and regulations, and implement the best security measures. This post explains what cloud security is and the challenges that come with it, as well as some effective strategies for implementing cloud security solutions.

Cloud Security Is a Shared Responsibility Model

Cloud security as a shared responsibility model holds both the customer and the cloud service provider accountable for managing different aspects of security within the cloud environment. The CSP takes care of the infrastructure and hardware while the customer is responsible for securing their data, apps, and managing their access rights. The CSP’s responsibilities also include the physical security of data services and securing any services offered by them. They maintain and ensure the availability and reliability of cloud services. CSPs are also responsible for patching and updating systems and infrastructure services. Customers are in charge of implementing and maintaining security configurations for their cloud workloads. They should also monitor and manage their cloud resources to prevent dangerous security risks.

Top 7 Cloud Security Challenges

Cloud security challenges identify key areas and issues that organisations face when protecting their cloud-based data, systems, and apps from various cyber threats. Here is a list of the common cloud security challenges experienced by them:

1. Increased Attack Surface

Cloud adoption increases the attack surface which is a major cloud security challenge. Moving to the cloud also introduces additional entry points for attackers, which includes more networks, devices, and other cloud-based apps. Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud ecosystems can make it increasingly complex to manage and minimize attack surfaces as they’re constantly expanding.  There are also numerous APIs, services, and consistencies with security policies involved with all these cloud environments.

2. Lack of Visibility and Tracking

Cloud resources are not easy to track and it can be hard to control data movements, especially when these resources are external to corporate networks. It’s easy to lose track of how your data is accessed and who has access to it, including third-party access rights.

3. Ever-Changing Workloads

Cloud workloads present unpredictable demands that shift without warning, creating security vulnerabilities which organizations can’t adapt to quickly. You will encounter situations where your applications suddenly need to scale from handling hundreds of users to thousands within minutes, but your security controls may not scale at the same pace. Multi-cloud environments make workload distribution even more complex, as different cloud providers don’t perform consistently across all scenarios.

4. DevOps, DevSecOps, and Automation

You will find that CI/CD pipelines handle sensitive data, credentials, and production environment access, making them attractive targets for malicious actors . The automation that makes DevOps powerful also creates new security challenges as tools like Kubernetes aren’t secure by default and require complex hardening steps.

Credential leaks represent one of the most common security risks in CI/CD environments, often occurring when API keys, passwords, and tokens get inadvertently included in source code repositories. Supply chain attacks target third-party components and dependencies used in development processes, potentially introducing vulnerabilities or malware that affects numerous downstream users.

5. Granular Privilege and Key Management

Privilege escalation attacks exploit weaknesses in access controls to gain higher-level permissions than originally granted, allowing attackers to perform unauthorized actions within cloud systems . You will encounter both vertical privilege escalation, where attackers move from low-level to high-level access, and horizontal privilege escalation, where they move laterally across systems at the same privilege level . Cloud environments are particularly vulnerable because small misconfigurations in Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies can expose critical resources to unauthorized access .

Overly permissive IAM policies account for a majority of cloud security breaches, often resulting from unused credentials or failure to enforce least-privilege access principles. Encryption key theft represents another major threat in multi-cloud environments, where keys can be stolen through misconfigured access controls, insecure inter-cloud communications, or compromised third-party integrations.

6. Complex Environments

Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures complicate security; they go far beyond traditional on-premises environments . You will face challenges managing resources across different cloud providers, each with their own security tools, interfaces, and management consoles. Integration complexity arises when legacy systems lack modern APIs or compatibility with cloud platforms, making seamless connections difficult and potentially insecure . You will encounter situations where different cloud platforms use proprietary interfaces and data formats, complicating integration efforts and increasing development time and costs

7. Cloud Compliance and Governance

You will need to navigate different regulatory frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS, each with specific requirements for data handling, storage, and access controls. The shared responsibility model complicates compliance because you must understand which security and compliance obligations belong to you versus the cloud provider.

Lack of visibility and control over cloud environments makes it difficult to maintain compliance with regulatory requirements. You can’t demonstrate compliance if you don’t have complete oversight of where your data resides and how it’s being accessed across multiple cloud platforms. Shadow IT increases compliance risks when employees use unauthorized cloud services, creating data repositories outside of approved governance frameworks. Governance frameworks must also address both technical security controls and procedural compliance requirements across multi-cloud environments which they fail to do.

Zero Trust and Its Role in Cloud Security

Embracing zero trust security is crucial for organizations because it helps them mitigate risks. It improves compliance despite the interconnected nature of the cloud landscape. Zero trust security can help organizations verify identities, enforce strict access controls, and minimize attack surfaces. It reduces risks, limits access to only what’s necessary, and constantly monitors cloud environments for threats. Organizations also become more agile and secure as a result and effective when combating advanced threats like phishing, malware, and insider attacks. The core principle of zero trust is that it operates on the assumption of trusting nobody and authenticating everyone, granting minimum necessary access to authorized users where required, on a need-to-know basis.

Cloud Security Deployment Models (Public, Private, Hybrid, Multi)

Private clouds are appropriate for highly sensitive information and hybrid clouds offer security to sensitive information in the private environment. Public cloud environments are ideal for hosting non-critical workloads with basic security requirements.

They allow any user to connect to any systems and services, and resources are accessible to anyone. You don’t have someone leasing your hardware in a private cloud deployment model. Private clouds give you more control and are used to run legacy systems which cannot be directly integrated with public clouds. They give you a higher degree of customization compared to public clouds. Hybrid cloud deployments give you the best of both. You keep your applications in a safe environment and also enjoy the cost-saving benefits of public cloud deployments with them. Multi-cloud security deployment models interconnect services from different cloud environments without connecting the clouds themselves.

Compliance in Regulated Industries

Healthcare organizations subject to HIPAA regulations risk severe penalties. If they are not compliant, they may lose up to millions of dollars in fines due to violating patient confidentiality and because of healthcare record data breaches. You need to have full Business Associate Agreements with cloud vendors that clearly define responsibilities for protecting electronic Protected Health Information. Data encryption in transit and at rest are required, as well as secure access controls with multi-factor authentication and full audit logging capabilities.

Financial organizations must deal with intricate regulations such as GDPR, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and PCI-DSS while storing sensitive payment card information securely on cloud infrastructure. You will find it challenging when regulatory environments insist that data stay within certain geographic limits as cloud providers use dispersed international infrastructures.

CNAPP, CWPP, CSPM

Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) consolidate multiple security tools into a single solution addressing all cloud-native application lifecycle stages from development through production. You can natively integrate CNAPP solutions into CI/CD pipelines so security vulnerabilities are found before they are introduced into the production environment. CNAPP comes with container security, serverless security, and infrastructure-as-code scanning. Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) are heavily invested in safeguarding all workloads like virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions in hybrid and multi-cloud ecosystems. CWPP solutions offer runtime protection that monitors workload activity and detects threats 24/7. CWPP platforms solve the ephemeral nature of cloud workloads where traditional endpoint security products cannot offer persistent protection. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solutions continuously scan cloud configurations for misconfigurations that expose your system to various security vulnerabilities. You can have SentinelOne scan your cloud configurations against security policies and automatically enforce regulatory compliance.

Cloud Security Governance

Cloud security governance defines the policies, procedures, and controls by which organizations can operate within cloud security risk and in response to business goals. You need to establish well-defined roles and responsibilities among stakeholders ranging from executives through technical professionals who are responsible for security decisions. Risk-based solutions enable security investments to be prioritized by determining which threats are most critical and where you need to allocate resources to achieve maximum protection.

Governance models must adapt to maintain pace with constantly changing cloud environments where new configurations and services appear on an ongoing basis.

Public vs. Private Clouds

Public cloud security exists in a shared responsibility model in which providers are responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure and customers are responsible for securing their applications and data.  Private cloud security offers a complete degree of control over security controls such that you can customize policies to meet certain regulatory or business requirements.

Security visibility also differs significantly between private and public clouds, with the private environments giving more depth of visibility into infrastructure building blocks and configurations. You will have to decide whether your company has the in-house expertise to manage granular security controls before choosing private cloud deployment models.

Why is Cloud Security Important?

For most businesses, migrating to the cloud maximizes scalability and cost-saving opportunities and makes data management easier. Companies can access infrastructure on demand, enabling them to maintain cloud security frameworks that keep pace with emerging threats.

Organizations are often motivated to move to the cloud because cloud computing environments offer unmatched speed, agility, and efficiency. Organizations can instantly access new resources and services without waiting for hardware delivery or installing on-premises infrastructure.

But the shared nature of cloud infrastructure also introduces new risks. Because data lives on the cloud, organizations’ devices and servers must use application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with cloud servers. APIs act like doors, connecting one system to another, and cloud providers control the locking mechanisms that let information in or out.

That means cloud security isn’t just about securing the cloud – it’s about securing all the applications that connect your software, networks, services, and devices to the cloud. This is why cloud security is important.

What Makes Cloud Security Different?

Cloud security is different as it’s distributed and dynamic when compared to traditional IT data infrastructure. It follows a shared responsibility model that is shared between the customer and cloud service provider. In traditional security, the organization owns and manages the entire security stack. But on the cloud, resources are provisioned and deprovisioned frequently, with the customer being responsible for uploading, sharing, and streaming data, and the CSP giving them access to various cloud services powered by their infrastructure which is hosted across global data centers. Cloud security data encryption encrypts data both in transit and at rest. Cloud security is more elastic and can scale up or down as needed. Cloud workloads are more adaptable as well and organizations can allocate their resources for further performance optimization effectively. This improves business continuity, operations, and provides more flexibility than traditional on-premises security.

Organizations need to learn and be aware of their obligations before they onboard and work with a dedicated cloud service provider.  In the cloud model, customers maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their data.

Public cloud platforms like AWS are scalable but there’s a downside to using them – they don’t offer complete physical access and control of the underlying hardware of the CSP’s. Public cloud environments are notorious targets for threat actors since they store vast amounts of information online. Cloud environments are more prone to cyber threats, malware, and other kinds of digital threats.

To address security concerns in public cloud environments, many organizations turn to open-source containers. Containers provide isolation at the application level—so if one container is compromised, the issue is contained and doesn’t spread to the entire server.

Despite the benefits, containers introduce their own set of challenges. Tools like Kubernetes require constant monitoring, patching, and configuration to stay secure. Each cluster contains multiple components that must be individually managed and updated to prevent vulnerabilities.

While cloud users may relinquish some control over infrastructure security, containers often strike a favorable balance between cost, flexibility, and protection—making them a practical choice despite the overhead of maintenance.

How Does Cloud Security Work?

Here are the core components of a cloud security strategy.

1. Identity & Access Management (IAM)

When it comes to IAM, most organizations and solutions adopt what is known as the principle of least privilege. That means the right users are only given access to the right resources at the right time to complete their job.

IAM solutions deliver the policies and technologies that make this objective reality by managing user identity information, defining and enforcing security policies, auditing access, and providing single sign-on capabilities. Although IAM tools help reduce identity-related access risks, they aren’t always designed with security in mind.

2. Cloud Workload Protection (CWP or CWPP)

Like user workstations (i.e., faster and more capable computers intended for individual professional users), cloud workloads are vulnerable to malware, ransomware, and zero-day attacks. CWPP solutions protect workloads from exploits as they move across different cloud environments.

Because workloads pass between multiple vendors and hosts, cloud workload security can get complex. Ultimately, responsibility for protecting cloud workloads must be shared to be effective.

Without the proper precautions, cloud workloads run on Linux or Windows hardware may be vulnerable to malware and ransomware.

3. Configuration Security Posture Management (CSPM)

CSPM solutions are designed to automate identifying and mitigating risks across cloud infrastructures, making them easier to secure. By continuously monitoring risk in the cloud, CSPM helps organizations prevent, detect, respond to, and predict risks in accordance with their centralized governance, security, and compliance policies.

CSPM is particularly important for internet-facing resources since threat actors increasingly automate probing cloud infrastructure for exploitable vulnerabilities. Because customer lists and intellectual property are more accessible for cyber criminals to exfiltrate quietly, configuration security failures often make headlines.

When cloud storage services containing sensitive corporate data are misconfigured, it can inadvertently expose that data to unauthorized eyes. Fortunately, the Center for Internet Security (CIS) publishes benchmarks for the secure configuration of cloud resources so organizations can compare their security posture to proven best practices at any given time.

4. Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)

A CASB is a security solution providing additional visibility and control over cloud services.

CASBs act as security enforcement points, sitting between cloud users and providers and enforcing security policies that ensure compliance with data loss prevention (DLP) regulations.

CASBs can also provide real-time activity monitoring, so security teams can see which users are accessing which cloud services and when. They’re an important part of a cloud security strategy because they help to ensure that only authorized users have access to sensitive data, which helps prevent data leaks.

Organizations should consider a CASB if they are using cloud services to store or process sensitive data, or if they must comply with data privacy regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

5. Cloud Application Architecture

Cloud-native applications, or programs designed for cloud computing architecture, should be built to provide in-depth security. Building security into the application architecture and development process means following secure coding practices, using encryption for data in transit and at rest, and ensuring that authentication and authorization mechanisms are fully in place.

Organizations must consider the security implications of various cloud services before using them. For example, organizations with a managed database service should be familiar with the security controls to protect their data.

But building secure cloud applications may require a shift in thinking for many developers. Although security is often an afterthought in traditional application development, it must be front and center in the cloud. However, because data protection typically falls on the customer, it’s often up to organizations to ensure the cloud-native applications they use are secure.

Cloud Security Benefits

With so many security concerns, organizations may question whether cloud migration is right. The good news is that most major cloud providers invest heavily in security, including built-in features and controls that keep data safe.

Nonetheless, organizations need to understand that cloud security is a shared responsibility. Fully understanding a cloud provider’s security features and controls can help organizations fill in any gaps as they develop a cloud security strategy of their own.

Some of the major benefits of cloud security solutions and services are described below.

Better Visibility Against Threats

Cloud services give organizations a clear view of activity in their network, enabling them to identify potential threats quickly. With thousands of accounts spread across multiple clouds, having the right security for cloud infrastructure is important.

Cloud providers typically provide various tools to assist users with these tasks. For example, activity monitoring helps organizations detect malicious behavior and block it before damage occurs. Many providers also offer threat intelligence services that can give users insights into the latest threats and provide guidance on protecting against them.

Improved Collaboration Across Teams

In a cloud environment, it’s easier for security teams to collaborate with other departments, such as the development team. Cross-collaboration ensures that security concerns are addressed at every application development stage and supports integrated compatibility, so nothing operates in isolation and data is synchronized in a reliable exchange.

Regulatory Compliance

Cloud security technology can also help organizations meet the regulatory framework requirements that they abide by, ensuring that organizations use, store, manage, transmit, and protect sensitive data in the cloud according to applicable controls.

This includes but is not limited to data encryption and a robust endpoint protection (EPP) solution. The best endpoint protection platforms use a multi-layered defense against sophisticated threats, combining signatures, static AI, and behavioral AI. They protect, detect, and respond to threats in real-time, at machine speed.

Autonomous Response

Cloud security tools built with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are effective against modern threat actors attacking the cloud. AI cloud technology augments security teams by automating the interpretation of attack signals, prioritizing alerts and incidents, and adapting responses based on the scale and attacker’s speed.

Private vs. Public Clouds

When adequately managed by the user, public clouds are generally more secure than self-managed data centers. Top cloud security companies are motivated to address cloud security because their profits depend on it.

Moreover, these CSPs have the resources to hire the best talent specializing in cloud security. The overwhelming majority of highly publicized cloud security failures are the responsibility of the user, not the provider, a point that Gartner continues to make in their research.

Hybrid Clouds

A hybrid cloud combines public and private clouds, one or more of each, where the private cloud component is typically an on-prem data center. A hybrid cloud strategy combines the best of both worlds. For businesses with on-premises infractures, it provides opportunities to leverage existing investments for continued financial return while simultaneously developing or expanding public cloud environments to augment their IT strategy.

However, hybrid cloud models have some disadvantages, including increased management overhead, staffing, and tooling.

Cloud Security Concerns

To better understand the security challenges cloud environments introduce, it can help to look at recent examples of what happens when things go wrong.

Less Visibility and Control

Suppose a user’s data is hosted on multiple servers outside their control. Typically, public cloud providers host multiple tenants on the same server. Although reputable providers tend to maintain good data isolation between different tenants, attackers can compromise private clouds by accessing the public cloud.

If such a bug was exploited on a remote server belonging to the cloud provider, customers might want to know: What visibility do I currently have into what is happening on my workloads? What cloud security controls do I have in place that would alert me to unauthorized access or allow me to threat-hunt across my containers after such a vulnerability came to light?

Endpoint Hacking

The sustained hacking campaign dubbed Cloud Hopper brings additional considerations for cloud security to mind. Multiple top-tier organizations, including Philips and Rio Tinto lost intellectual property to Chinese-backed APT actor APT10, which penetrated at least a dozen cloud service providers, including Hewlett-Packard and IBM. The hackers dropped “bespoke malware,” used dynamic DNS, and exfiltrated large amounts of data.

In this case, deploying EPP solutions designed primarily for protecting end-user devices like laptops and desktop computers won’t help. Using solutions designed for endpoints on cloud instances may put enterprise data and applications at even greater risk.

Identity Security Mismanagement

Cloud security issues don’t end at endpoints, either. The biggest threat to cloud security in the next few years is likely to come from “mismanagement of identities, access and privilege,” with at least half of all cloud security incidents coming from such problems by 2023.

External actors or insiders can exploit weak access controls due to misconfiguration, which can lead to unintentional but damaging data leaks.

Ideally, protection should extend beyond the initial authentication and access control to other identity aspects such as credentials, privileges, entitlements, and the systems that manage them, from visibility to exposure to attack detection. This can be done through ITDR or identity threat detection and response.

ITDR and cyber deception-based detections can enhance XDR platforms, which correlate additional attack data and activate incident response actions.

ITDR solutions add layers of defense by efficiently detecting and responding to identity-based attacks. This security method offers visibility to credential and identity misuse, privilege escalation activities, and entitlement exposures and extends from the endpoint to the Active Directory (AD) and multi-cloud environments.

Container Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities or misconfiguration in the container stack, such as container escapes, represent a challenging technical problem for security teams whose members may have limited experience in Docker and Kubernetes technology.

Modern attack methods in containerized environments are gaining traction and becoming increasingly sophisticated. Given the rewards, threat actors will expend more effort to stay under the radar and defeat “best practices.”

Cloud Security Best Practices

The kind of problems noted in the previous section with bugs, misconfigured Docker images and attacks on MSPs—i.e., provider-side security issues—can be managed through proper visibility and control over containerized workloads.

Pre-runtime protections that scan both the host and ensure that it and the container image are infection-free are essential, but they are not enough on their own. They can’t protect the container against attacks once in use and don’t offer the ability for SOC teams to threat hunt or provide incident response.

It’s important to follow the best cloud security practices for good results.

Choosing a Workload Protection Solution

For a better cloud security solution, consider an Application Control Engine, which removes the need for “Allow-Lists” (aka “Whitelists”) and protects cloud-native workloads with advanced “lockdown” capabilities. This guarantees the immutable state of containerized workloads, protecting them against unauthorized installation and subsequent abuse of legitimate tools.

Bugs that allow Linux container escapes are best addressed by deploying behavioral detection capabilities on the workloads themselves. To that end, Workload Protection that can provide EDR and runtime protection for cloud servers is essential.

Such a solution needs to be lightweight so that it does not impact performance, and ideally, it should offer functionality such as a secure remote shell, node firewall control, network isolation, and file fetching. With a capable Workload Protection solution, users can gain visibility and control over containerized workloads.

Managing and Securing User Access Properly

In terms of securing the client (data owners) side of the equation, user access must be appropriately managed and locked down to achieve a secure cloud apart from having trusted endpoint security on communicating devices. Allowing admins or other users excess access to critical data on cloud platforms can lead to data breaches. Identity and access management (IAM) helps define and manage individual users’ correct roles and access privileges.

Role-based access control (RBAC) should be implemented with Kubernetes clusters. Having Workload Protection with EDR will help SOC teams hunt for abuses of user privileges, whether insider threats or external attacks conducted through credential theft.

Protecting Communication Between the Cloud and the Client

When protecting communication between the cloud and the client, there are at least two considerations to bear. First, ensure that all data is encrypted at rest and in transit. Even if a data leakage occurs, the information should be unusable to the attackers.

Second, in the event of a denial of service attack, a business continuity plan must be in place. This might include the redundant capacity to cope with extra network traffic (easier in public or hybrid cloud situations) or engaging a DDoS mitigation service, both of which cloud providers may offer.

Types of Cloud Security Tools

Cloud users can utilize a myriad of cloud security tools. They all have the potential to impede cyberattackers and strengthen cloud security, but these are the fundamental types of cloud security tools:

Cloud Infrastructure Security Tools

Comprehensive cloud security begins with infrastructure and architecture. This includes physical hardware, like workstations, servers, and storage devices, along with the various switches, wires, and routers, required to maintain an active network connection and software for connecting to access points.

The tools needed to secure this type of hardware include:

1. Cloud web security scanners
2. Cloud vulnerability detection
3. Cloud penetration testing
4. Cloud antivirus and firewalls

Cloud Regulatory Compliance Tools

Regulatory compliance is an integral part of any cloud security strategy. Depending on the type of data being stored or processed in the cloud, there may be several compliance regulations that organizations must meet.

Some common regulatory compliance requirements for cloud storage include:

1. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
2. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
3. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
4. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The Best Cloud Security Tools

SentinelOne’s Singularity™ Cloud helps organizations secure endpoints across all public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. Undoubtedly, organizations need to have the proper security for their cloud architecture because there are thousands of accounts dispersed across numerous cloud systems.

Singularity™ Cloud extends distributed, autonomous endpoint protection, detection, and response to computing workloads running in private and private clouds and on-prem data centers.

SentinelOne’s Singularity™ Cloud:

• Blocks and quarantines malware across cloud instances, containers, and Kubernetes clusters.
• Stops threats such as crypto miners and ransomware.
• Preserves immutability of containerized workloads.
• Innovates quickly without sacrificing security.
• And more.

Choose the Right Cloud Security Provider

Cloud security requires a different approach to endpoint security, especially given the shared burden of protecting both the devices organizations control – and those they don’t. Servers outside of a user’s control can be running a software stack with vulnerabilities that they cannot see or patch, and these servers may be managed by an unknown number of people who are equally outside of their control.

Organizations can expect reputable cloud service providers to take their security responsibilities seriously, but the issue’s core is that a threat surface inevitably increases when dealing with third-party devices and staff. Moreover, the containers can contain topics themselves.

These details should help organizations keep cloud security plans comprehensive and up-to-date. Ready to see how SentinelOne can improve its cloud security strategy? Book a demo here. Whether it’s container security, threat hunting, EDR capability, or more, SentinelOne is here to help with enterprise security.