An enterprise must assess many things when developing a cloud computing strategy. When you decide on your cloud computing platform and infrastructure, it is also important to choose a reliable and effective cloud security platform to ensure the security of the information on the cloud.
According to statistics, the average large company has over 1,000 cloud applications in use. That’s a lot of risks to manage without the proper security tools and processes in place.
When looking for a cloud security platform, there are ten essential elements you should consider.
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
- Data Leakage Protection (DLP)
- Threat Detection and Response (TDR)—also known as Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM)
- Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR)
- Privileged Account Management (PAM)
- Vulnerability Assessment
- Patch Management
- Configuration Management
- Continuous Monitoring
Each of these elements is critical for protecting your data in the cloud, and implementing a cloud security platform that doesn’t have all of these elements will leave you vulnerable.
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Identity and Access Management (IAM)
One of the essential parts of a cloud security platform is identity and access management (IAM). With IAM, you can control who has access to what data and when. It is critical to protect your data from unauthorized access.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Data loss prevention (DLP) is another essential element of a cloud security platform. DLP helps you identify and prevent sensitive data from being leaked outside your organization.
Data Leakage Protection (DLP)
Data leakage protection (DLP) is similar to data loss prevention, but it prevents sensitive data from being accessed or stolen by unauthorized individuals.
Threat Detection and Response (TDR)
Otherwise known as security incident and event management (SIEM), threat detection and response (TDR) is another essential element of a cloud security platform. TDR enables you to detect, investigate, and respond to security incidents in a more automated way.
Security Orchestration, Automation, And Response (SOAR)
This is a cyber-attack containment tool that enables your IT team to detect, investigate, and respond to security incidents in a more automated way. Security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) are critical solutions to contain cyber-attacks. SOAR allows you to automate the process of detecting, investigating, and responding to security incidents. It can help you speed up the process of containing an attack and minimizing the damage it causes.
Privileged Account Management (PAM)
Privileged account management (PAM) is the process of securely managing privileged accounts, which are accounts with elevated privileges or permissions.
These accounts can typically access all areas of a system and may store and distribute sensitive data.
Vulnerability Assessment
Vulnerability assessment is concerned with identifying and assessing potential security vulnerabilities in your systems, applications, and networks. A vulnerability is any weakness that enables an attacker to cause harm or breach your defenses.
Vulnerability assessment tools help you identify such weaknesses, so they can be addressed before attackers exploit them.
Patch Management
Patch management ensures that security patches are applied as soon as possible to keep your organization protected against vulnerabilities.
Your systems and applications will likely be filled with security holes that attackers can exploit without patch management.
Configuration Management
Configuration management helps you ensure the proper configuration of your software and hardware.
It ensures that they are configured securely and don’t contain possible loopholes that attackers can exploit.
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous monitoring is another essential element of cloud security platforms. With continuous monitoring, you can monitor changes to your network and systems to detect cyber-attacks as quickly as possible after they occur.
It minimizes the damage caused by attacks and keeps your business running smoothly at all times—even when you’re under attack from hackers.
Why is a Cloud Security Platform Important?
According to reports, North America is the world leader in cloud markets by region, with 61 percent of the overall market by 2020.
A cloud security platform is essential because it provides a comprehensive, holistic approach to cybersecurity.
By incorporating all of the essential elements of a cloud security platform into your organization, you can significantly improve your security posture and reduce your risk of being attacked.
In addition, deploying a cloud security platform can help you to better protect your organization against today’s advanced cyber-attacks.
With this approach, you can maintain fine-grained control over all of your users, applications, and data—wherever they are located. You can also respond to cyber-attacks more quickly and minimize the damage they cause.
A cloud security platform’s advantages can help you reduce your risk of being attacked.
You can also maximize the availability of your critical business applications, control access to sensitive data, speed up incident response times, simplify compliance with industry regulations, and much more!
