Addressing Cloud Security Concerns

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ressing Cloud Security Concerns: Key Issues and Recommendation... http://www.securityweek.com/addressing-cloud-security-concerns-key-...

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Home Cloud Security

Addressing Cloud Security Concerns: Key Issues and

Recommendations

By Mandeep Khera on September 01, 2011

Security is a Big Issue, But it Shouldn't

Scare you Away from Utilizing Cloud Computing Services

Cloud is great for business. The hype seems to be turning into reality. Is it a reincarnation of the old ASP

(Application Service Provider) model? May be. But, its real and corporations are jumping on the

bandwagon. With the total market size from various analyst firms ranging from $10B to $25B, the

numbers are heady. These numbers are forecasted to grow at a double digit compounded growth rate over

the next few years. Cost and flexibility are certainly key in driving this ferocious appetite for cloud

computing. But, as we know very well from social networking, security can be a thorn in the rosy outlook.

But, before we dive into security issues related to Cloud, lets start

with the basics.

The word Cloud most likely was derived from the image of Cloud

that was commonly used for the Internet. So Cloud Computing

basically means doing all or most of the computing in the Internet

without relying on physical resources.

So, lets now look at Cloud. There are many confusing definitions

floating around but I think probably the clearest definitions have

been established by NIST and Cloud Security Alliance.

Software as a Service (SaaS): In case of SaaS, you use the providers applications on a cloud

infrastructure with little to no control over the infrastructure, network, servers, operating systems,storage,etc. There are many examples of SaaS vendors Salesforce.com, Google Apps, Ning, Cenzic, etc.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): Customer deploys applications using an application development

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environment and middleware capabilities for specific languages like java, python, .net etc. and doesnt

control infrastructure, servers, OS, or storage but has control over the apps. Some examples of PaaS

vendors include Microsoft Azure, Amazon, Force.com

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Customer gets processing, APIs, storage, networks, and computing

resources from the provider using his own OS, applications and may be some networking components.

Some examples of IaaS vendors include Amazon, Rackspace, CloudFoundry.

The lower down the stack you go, the more security capabilities customer is responsible for.

Cloud Characteristics While a lot of people are claiming to be a cloud provider, the key characteristics

that are important for Cloud are:

Self-Service Customers must be able to self-service to get the service.

Network Access Customers have be to be able to access the service over the network versus on an

on-premise hardware.

Multi-tenancy The provider must allow for an environment with multi-tenancy i.e. multiple customersare sharing a common environment. Thats what helps in optimizing the costs.

Scalability Cloud solution has be to scalable with thousands or even millions of customers using the

service over the network.

Usage Metrics Usage metrics have to be visible and tracked

Cloud Benefits

With so many companies jumping on the bandwagon, there must be some benefit. In fact, Cloud can be

very powerful and offers many benefits. Cloud leverages Massive Scale, Homogeneity, Virtualization,Low cost software, Service orientation, and Advanced security technologies resulting a lot of benefits for

the customers some of which include:

Reduced Cost This is perhaps the biggest benefit from customers point of view. Economies of scale

allow vendors to reduce the cost dramatically. Currently, servers are used at only 15% of their capacity in

many companies and 80% of enterprise software expenditure is on installation and maintenance of

software. Use of cloud applications can reduce costs from 50% to 90%

More Mobility By definition Cloud can be accessed from anywhere which allows mobility in using the

information.

Flexibility to Adjust Flexibility or elasticity to use the service based on your needs and scale up as

needed is a huge advantage.

Increased Storage Storage in Cloud is cheap and you are only using what you need to.

Leverage vendor Expertise Assuming you pick the right vendor, you can leverage the vendor expertise

and have your IT focus on other critical issues.

Security Barrier

In most surveys for Cloud services, top issues continue to be security,

performance, and availability. These are all good concerns and need

to be addressed. Performance and availability are big issues because


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as soon as you move your services from your environment where you

can touch and feel things to out there literally in the Cloud, there

could be some impact. Make sure that your Service Level

Agreements (SLAs) from Cloud providers are very clear on these

issues.

Security continues to be the # 1 issue and thats what well address in detail here.

The key security issues from customers point of view seem to be around security defects in the

technology itself, unauthorized access to customer information, encryption, application security, identity

management, virtualization security etc.

Responsibility for security issues depends on which tier of cloud offering you are using. So, for IaaS,

vendor responsibility is around physical, environmental, and virtualization security. Every other aspect of

security in applications, operating system, etc. still needs to be handled by the customer. On the other

hand if you are using a SaaS offering, the vendor is responsible for all elements of security. Here are the

key issues to keep in mind with some recommendations:

Physical Security You want to make sure that physical security around the infrastructure is very

tight even tighter than in your environment because its not your employees anymore.

What to do Ask your provider for the physical security policies. Every cloud vendor should

have a clear architecture related to their physical security. What type of layout they have? Who

can access what? Are you allowed to do periodic visits to see their physical structure? What

happens in case of a disaster like Earthquake, hurricane, etc.?

Insider Abuse When you cloudize your environment, you lose control over whos managing

that infrastructure with your confidential information. Insider abuse is a common problem where

information can be stolen and passed on to outsiders or they can collude with hackers.

What to do Ask your cloud provider what their policy is for background checks of all their

employees. Who has access to sensitive information? If a lot of employees have access to

sensitive information, your risk of insider abuse is much higher. Do they have any hacking

background or past felonies?

Data Encryption Cloud environments are shared and your data is in the same environment

alongside data from other customers. Breaches can easily happen from one database to another.

What to do Find out how do Cloud Providers protect sensitive data in storage infrastructure?

What kinds of logs are available? How is the data encrypted? Although encryption is not a

panacea and other issues like access control are very important, its an extremely important

element of data protection. Data needs to be encrypted at rest, in transition, and for disposition.

Hows the key management handled?

Third party Relationships You are as strong as your weakest link. And, in corporate

environments, your weakest link could be your integration with your partners. In case of Cloud

providers, this is even more important due to integrations of various third parties and applications

into the Cloud environment.

What to do Find out how do Cloud Providers enforce security processes for their integrationswith third parties? Is there a certification process to make sure that third party applications are

secure and wont allow hackers to get into the Cloud Provider environment through one of these

partners?


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Network Security In the recent months, aggressive marketing by various Cloud providers have

made it easier for hackers to get accounts and plant botnets. Cloud is also susceptible to a lot more

Denial of Service attacks. Cloud Providers need to ensure that their perimeter is secure and barrier to

attacks is high.

What to do Find out what devices are the Cloud Providers using to stop bad guys from getting

in through the perimeter? Do they have strong network firewalls? How are they kept updated?

Do they have good IDS/IPS systems in place? How do they monitor the events? Do they have aSIEM or Log Management software in place?

Virtualization Security Almost all Cloud providers use virtualization to provide economies of

scale and optimal distributed architecture. Virtualization has its own set of security issues.

What to do Find out what security process do they have for their virtualization environment.

How are they testing for vulnerabilities and fixing them?

Access Controls Some of the big issues for Cloud services are around access control,

authentication, user management, provisioning etc.

What to do Find out how what types of standards is the Cloud provider following? Hows the

provisioning of users done? Who manages the credential management process? How much

control do you have? Is there a dedicated VPN? Is there a federated identity process and hows

that managed? Can OpenIDs be used for registration and authentication?

Application Security With over 75% of attacks happening through Web applications, this

becomes a critical piece in the overall cloud decision making process. Although the exposure is

similar to what you would have in your own environment, its on a massive scale and you may not

have any control over it.

What to do Questions to ask and consider: Does security ownership transfer to the

infrastructure provider? Whats the impact on security in the SDLC? How do you ensure

protection against key vulnerabilities like XSS, SQL Injection, CSRF, Session Management etc.?

What happens in case of a breach? Whos responsible? What are the security issues around APIs

(integration is very important when you move to Cloud) and what kind of encryption keys are

used for these integrations? Does the Cloud provider use vulnerability scanning tools and

services to find vulnerabilities in applications? What is the process of remediating or blocking

those vulnerabilities? Would the Cloud provider allow you to run your own vulnerability

assessment tools?

Cloud Computing offers a lot of benefits. Although Security is a big issue, it should not scare you away

from using Cloud that can save you a lot of money and resources. The key is to do proper due diligence

with your Cloud Providers and really understand their Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Ask the right

questions and take your time in selecting the right provider for you based on your requirements and risk

appetite. You should definitely jump on this exciting car ride. Just make sure you are secure with your

seatbelt on.

Mandeep Khera is the Chief Marketing Officer at LogLogic. Prior to LogLogic, he was at Cenzic, a Web

Application Security software and Cloud company, where he served as the CMO for 8 years. He has more

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than 25 years of diversified experience in marketing, engineering, business development, sales, customer

services, finance and general management for companies such as VeriSign, Hewlett-Packard, Unisys, and

many start-ups. You can follow him on Twitter at @appsecurity

Previous Columns by Mandeep Khera:

PCI DSS 2.0 Compliance Deadlines are Looming - Are you Ready?

Busting Myths: Why SSL Application Security

Cyber Security Awareness Month - A Checklist

Addressing Cloud Security Concerns: Key Issues and RecommendationsDo You Know Your ABCs of Web Application Security?

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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS Cloud Security

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