A Quick overview to Multi-Cloud Security

The 2023 Multi-Cloud Security Report by Valtix says that 95% of companies have marked multi-cloud as a main priority for the year.

However, only 58% feel truly confident about their current security measures.

This reminds you that while multi-cloud offers great potential, it has its fair share of challenges.

That’s where multi-cloud security steps in to safeguard your cloud infrastructure. It’s not just a buzzword; multi-cloud security strives to strengthen your data spread across diverse cloud environments.

In this article, you will learn what multi-cloud security includes and the potential risks it mitigates.

What is multi-cloud security?

Multi-cloud security safeguards your organization, its user data, assets, and applications from advanced security threats and cyberattacks that aim to penetrate cloud infrastructures and environments.

Each cloud provider implements their signatory way when establishing security protocols, rules they must follow, and threats they aim to protect from. So, as a user, when you aim to keep everything secure in a multi-cloud environment, you need to take a big-picture approach. This means thinking about the security of each cloud provider and how they interact.  

Why do organizations require multi-cloud security?

Multi-cloud security is required by organizations because, with multiple cloud apps, the attack surface naturally expands, posing a significant challenge for organizations aiming to safeguard their assets comprehensively.

In the event of a security breach occurring within one cloud provider, the risk of the attack spreading or unauthorized access across multiple clouds is a major issue.

This means that vulnerabilities exposed in one cloud can potentially compromise other interconnected cloud environments. 

With a multi-cloud security protocol, a breach can be contained to a single source. In contrast, the security teams work on regaining complete control and eliminating access points or security gaps used to breach the network. 

In other words, with this in place, the focus of post-breach protocols is limited to one source instead of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. And the multi-cloud security challenges will be limited too.

Check: Vulnerability to Vigilance: The importance of Security Configuration Management

Benefits of multi-cloud security

The benefits of multi-cloud security are many; the most prominent is securing diverse cloud assets. And that’s the reason many organizations globally are opting for it. Now, let’s take a look at the other important benefits:

1. Safeguards from data breaches

Even a single cyber attack can be really grave for your business. They can lead to costly fixes and recovery efforts. When you secure your multicloud setup, it helps protect your business from the expensive consequences of cyber threats.

2. Continuous monitoring

You get constant security with a safer multi-cloud setup. It means your business is watched for cyberattacks and risks 24/7. Also, you’ll get reminders for important security updates.

3. Meet your compliance requirements

Some pretty strict multi-cloud data security and privacy laws, like CCPA and GDPR, say you must store customer data in certain places. With multi-cloud, you can do this without the hassle of building and running your data centers.

What are the best practices for implementing multi-cloud security?

Multi-cloud might sound great with its flexibility, but there’s more to it. It can get pretty complex and bring extra security worries. So, here are some best practices you need to follow when you’re setting up multi-cloud security.

1. Simplify it with a compliance tool

Look for software that helps you stick to the rules, whether they’re inside your company, required by the law, or part of industry standards. This way, you won’t struggle with the manual work of keeping everything in check.

But picking the right tool is crucial because it’s responsible for most of your uptime – that’s when everything’s running smoothly. So, what can one of these compliance automation tools do for you?

• Handles compliance tasks automatically
• Create and manage documents, policies, and protocols
• It brings all your public cloud apps together in one dashboard so you can see the progress all at once
• Sends you alerts if anything unusual happens in your cloud apps

Also, these tools often come with other features like risk assessment, policy management, handling training, keeping track of what’s been done, and helping with audits.

Take Sprinto, for example. It’s a real-time compliance tool that closely monitors your compliance activities connected to cloud services. It even sends you alerts if anything goes wrong, so you’re always on top of compliance.

2. Simplify your policy setup

Cloud service providers (CSPs) offer ways to set up rules for things like encryption and data usage, but the tricky part is that each cloud uses its own system and tools for this.

If your data is in different clouds, complying with all those compliance requirements is tough, and you’ve got to do it manually.

Take healthcare, for instance, with its strict privacy regulations like HIPAA. 

So, the solution is to use a compliance automation platform that supports consistent security policies. It helps you work with all these different systems and keeps everything in check. 

3. Synchronize your policies

Keeping things the same across all your clouds is important. So, if you use different clouds or security tools, ensure they have the same security settings. You can do this by using special tools that do it automatically instead of suffering from a lack of visibility.

4. Use a single dashboard

Having everything in one place is super helpful. So, without this visibility, the setup might be tougher to manage. Imagine having a single dashboard that lets you oversee your entire multi-cloud setup. This means you can monitor all the people accessing your data from different places and how it’s affecting your business.

Also, you can track what everyone’s doing on your network, get alerts, deal with security issues, and improve your security posture.

With a tool like Sprinto that offers compliance automation across multi-cloud environments, you can easily see if your encryption works for all your devices and virtual machines, no matter which cloud they’re in. And if something’s wrong, you’ll get a heads-up with timely alerts.

The best part? You don’t have to spend countless hours reviewing complicated data from different parts of your multi-cloud security. This single dashboard saves you time and keeps your operational costs down by keeping you safe from potential threats.

5. Consolidate monitoring

You want to gather all the logs, alerts, and events from all your cloud providers in one place using a security monitoring plan. Then, set up automation to take action when there are alerts from failing security controls without needing humans to step in.

Shift to a system that’s always keeping an eye on your compliance. For example, Sprinto works with your other tools to gather solid proof that you follow the rules.

It continuously monitors your business environment to ensure you’re still compliant and, if needed, alert you about mishaps and handling compliance tasks. This way, you stay on top of your compliance without missing a beat.

6. Use confidential computing

Usually, companies encrypt their data when it’s sitting still or moving around, but they often forget about keeping it safe when applications use it.

That’s where Confidential Computing comes in. It uses special hardware called trusted execution environments (TEEs), known as enclaves.

These enclaves create a safe and separate space for the code and data you use. Enclaves keep it away from any software or systems that might be compromised or unsafe, even if they’re on the same server. Now your data will be safe even when it is still or moving around.

7. Implement access control

Instead of just trusting, you need to verify. Access management makes sure that only the right people can handle specific data. You can even break down the permissions into tiny segments.

Let’s say someone wants access. With access management controls, they must prove themselves through multiple checks, like confirming their name, password, biometrics (like fingerprints), the type of device they’re using, the software, where they are, and the time.

Once they’re in, they still have to confirm their credentials whenever they want to do something with the data – like downloading, editing, or moving it around. 

Only the ones you’ve authorized should be allowed to access it.

8. Regular security audits and assessments

Start conducting regular security audits and assessments. Why? Because it’s a great practice to maintain multi-cloud security. It helps your company identify security vulnerabilities in an instant. When you systematically review your systems, networks, and processes, you are bound to uncover potential weaknesses before malicious actors have the time to exploit them.

Also, conducting security audits allows you to take timely corrective actions. Once you discover vulnerabilities, you can implement necessary security measures and patches swiftly, reducing the window of opportunity for cyberattacks.

Challenges of multi-cloud security

When you’re dealing with a multi-cloud setup, it is more complicated. You must rely on more than just the same tools and tactics you use for on-premises or hybrid systems. Here are the main challenges you’ll face with multicloud security solutions and some tips on tackling them to meet your business requirements.

1. Difficulty in managing user access controls

Controlling who can access the cloud gets trickier in multi-cloud environments. Each cloud provider has its way of handling who gets to do what. So, when you use multiple clouds, you juggle many different user access systems simultaneously. 

Trying to keep the rules the same everywhere without a central control system can be challenging.

To keep things secure and straightforward, you really need one central system that works with all your clouds. This way, you can set up your multicloud security solutions and access permissions consistently across the board, ensuring no one gets where they should be.

2. More clouds = More complexity

Adding more cloud providers means more complications. Keeping everything secure and organized on just one cloud platform can take time and effort. When you start dealing with 2 or 3 providers, the whole situation is even trickier.

3. Data Governance

Managing data is already a big challenge for companies today, given the huge amount of data they handle. But when you go for a multi-cloud strategy, that challenge gets bigger. You’ve got to make sure your data is available to the right apps, processes, and people while also keeping it super secure. This is where strong cloud data governance with security policies comes in.

To tackle this, you can use multi-cloud data monitoring and governance tools like Sprinto. They help you keep tabs on where your data is, who’s accessing it, and who’s making changes, no matter which cloud you’re using, and any unauthorized access attempts are flagged and reported to the assigned owners.

Also check: Most Recommended GRC Tools in 2024

4. Visibility

Seeing what’s happening within your multi-cloud environments can be a real challenge. 

This means you might miss out on spotting security problems or weak spots even if you do have a dedicated part of your security team looking into it.

Cloud providers offer some basic monitoring tools but might show you only some details. Also, juggling all those different monitoring tools simultaneously is tedious when dealing with multiple clouds.

To really see what’s happening in your m