Zero-Trust in the Intracloud
As organizations increasingly integrate their cloud and data center ecosystems and accelerate the move to hybrid cloud environments, the risks presented by this dynamic, complex IT landscape will become all the more prominent in 2022—making organizations even more prone to successful cyberattacks.
Defining your Intracloud Ecosystem
Think of it this way: Any time there’s surface between two distinct infrastructure types, understanding and securing the middle area between the two is a serious challenge. Right now, even if people believe their cloud configuration is correct, they are uncovering more unknown and unseen risks in their intracloud environments than they initially realized, because it’s really hard to see and understand risks across clouds. And this issue will continue as cloud spending and migration to multi-cloud environments grow.
According to Flexera’s 2021 State of the Cloud Report, 92% of organizations today have a multi-cloud strategy in place or underway, and 82% of enterprises have adopted some sort of hybrid cloud infrastructure. On average, organizations are using 2.6 public and 2.7 private clouds—and as the number of cloud vendors grows, so does the threat exposure potential.
Case in point: According to Gartner, “nearly all successful attacks on cloud services are the result of customer misconfiguration, mismanagement and mistakes.” Security and risk management leaders need to invest in cloud security processes and toolkits that prioritize identifying risk(s) proactively before they can be exploited by bad actors, impact end-users or impair the business’ bottom line.
Security leaders today need to embrace trusted industry frameworks like zero-trust to address and account for the unique security concerns posed by today’s dynamic cloud environment.
The Need for Zero-Trust in the Intracloud
Zero-trust can best be defined as “a security framework built around the concept of ‘never trust, always verify’ and ‘assume a breach,’” as Forrester succinctly explained. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a single product or platform that can be purchased but rather a framework that we must practice across the entire organization. But unfortunately, as awareness grows, zero-trust adoption still isn’t moving fast enough.
A recent Illumio report showed that while nearly half (49%) of IT leaders believe zero-trust strategies are critical to their organizational security model, only 19% of organizations have fully implemented or widely implemented their zero-trust plan today.
Particularly as cloud complexity skyrockets and gaps continue to grow between IT infrastructures, it’s imperative that organizations look to bolster their cybersecurity resilience from the inside out. This means starting with the workloads and applying least-privilege polices. When we make our organizations resilient, a cybersecurity incident (or an initial breach) doesn’t become a full-blown disaster because there are safeguards in place to limit the reach of the attack. To enhance your resiliency, start by adopting an “assume a breach” mindset and apply zero-trust approaches in the cloud and across IT environments.
Bolstering Intracloud Defenses
In addition to adopting zero-trust, there are other ways organizations can bolster cybersecurity resilience. Most notably, as IT complexity grows and M&A proliferates across industries, visibility becomes all the more vital for SecOps success.
Whether you’re protecting your data center or cloud environment, the best way to understand (and, ultimately, defend) your intracloud infrastructure is with enhanced visibility. Visibility allows organizations to uncover risks and achieve a least-privilege model without breaking applications. And by leveraging cloud-native tools that offer a comprehensive overview of all communications—within and between cloud and data center environments—organizations can gain an even better understanding of what’s happening in their IT surroundings.
As they say, knowledge is power. And although getting started with zero-trust can seem daunting and overwhelming, visibility is the first quick and easy step organizations can take to build cybersecurity resilience in the intracloud and across their entire IT ecosystem.
