What is a Cloud Security Scanner?

A cloud security scanner is an automated scanning tool designed to help organizations identify vulnerabilities in their cloud deployments. This early detection of issues allows the organization to remediate these security holes before they can be exploited by an attacker.

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Why Cloud Security Scanners Needed

Under the cloud shared responsibility model, a cloud customer is partially responsible for the security of their cloud deployment. The exact breakdown of security responsibilities between the cloud provider and the cloud customer depends on the cloud service model used.

Cloud security misconfigurations are one of the leading causes of data breaches and other security incidents in the cloud. As companies adopt complex, multi-cloud infrastructures, the complexity of securing these environments continues to grow.

Cloud security scanners provide organizations with the ability to quickly and scalably identify security misconfigurations and similar issues in their cloud environments. Cloud security scanners — which may be deployed as part of a cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) — can help to find and fix these issues and protect the data and applications hosted in cloud environments.

Which Areas Does the Scanner Cover?

Cloud security scanners are designed to identify vulnerabilities and other issues that could open up cloud environments to attack or create regulatory compliance or legal issues for a company.

Some of the key functions of a cloud security scanner include the following:

Vulnerability Scanning: Cloud security scanners commonly include vulnerability scanning functionality. These check cloud infrastructure, applications, and other services for known and common vulnerabilities
Fuzzing: Fuzzing involves sending random or malicious inputs to an application and checking if it handles them appropriately and securely. A cloud security scanner can fuzz cloud systems and services to identify potentially exploitable vulnerabilities.
Security Posture Assessment: Cloud environments are commonly managed by numerous security settings that — if misconfigured — can expose the environment to attack. Automated cloud security posture management (CSPM) solutions can verify if cloud environments and the resources that they host are properly configured.
Compliance Validation: Regulations and standards commonly mandate best practices for the configuration and security of applications, databases, and other environments. Cloud security scanners can be configured to validate that a cloud environment meets regulatory requirements and complies with security best practices.

How Scanners Help to Secure the Cloud Environment

The adoption of DevOps practices and the scalability of cloud environments mean that cloud deployments are rapidly expanding. As a result, security teams often struggle to keep up with the vulnerabilities, security misconfigurations, and other issues that place their cloud infrastructure at risk.

Cloud security scanners automate much of the process of identifying issues, enabling analysts to rapidly respond to potential problems.

Some of the main benefits that cloud security scanners provide include the following:

Automated Vulnerability Scanning: Cloud security scanners commonly scan cloud environments and applications for known vulnerabilities. By identifying these vulnerabilities earlier in the software development lifecycle (SDLC), these scanners reduce the cost of remediation and the probability that vulnerabilities will be identified and exploited by attackers.
Security Configuration Management: Cloud security misconfigurations are a common source of cloud security incidents. By continually scanning configuration settings and alerting on insecure configurations, cloud security scanners reduce the time that cloud infrastructure or applications remain in an insecure and potentially exploitable state.
Regulatory Compliance: An organization’s regulatory compliance obligations are equally applicable in cloud environments but are also often more difficult to meet. Cloud security scanners make it easier for organizations to identify potential compliance violations and fix these issues.

Cloud Security Scanners in the ‘Big 3’ Platforms

The three main cloud platforms offer integrated cloud security scanning functionality. These include the following systems:

AWS Security Hub: Security Hub can scan AWS resources and configuration settings for security issues that are reported as “findings”. An “insight” in Security Hub collects multiple findings that pose a significant risk and should be remediated as soon as possible.
Azure Cloud Security Scanner: Azure Cloud Security Scanner ensures that cloud resources are using a vulnerability scanner and, if not, deploys Qualys. It also includes Defenders for Containers Registries which scans container images for known vulnerabilities.
Google Security Command Center: Google Security Command Center monitors for threats to containers and identifies threats based on monitoring cloud events. It can also scan running applications in cloud environments for known and common web application vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting (XSS).

Cloud Security with CloudGuard

A cloud security scanner enables security teams to scale their operations and rapidly respond to potential security issues within their cloud environments. Cloud security scanners can identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance violations that put an organization at risk.

CloudGuard Cloud Security Posture Management is part of Check Point’s cloud-native cloud security platform. CloudGuard CSPM automates security posture management across multi-cloud environments, enabling an organization to centrally manage its security across its entire multi-cloud deployment. To learn more about how CloudGuard can help to enhance your organization’s cloud security, sign up for a free demo today.