What Is Security Management in the Cloud?

Security Management in the Cloud: Defined and Explained

Security management in the cloud is a set of strategies designed to allow a business to use cloud applications and networks to their greatest potential while limiting potential threats and vulnerabilities. This is often done with several independent tactics:

 

• Identifying and assessing cloud services. First, you need to spend time identifying which cloud products and services are being used in your organization, and which ones might be considered in the future. Then, you’ll need to assess and audit those items, analyzing their security and potential vulnerabilities.
• Auditing and adjusting native security settings. Within each application, you’ll have full control of your own privacy and security settings. It’s on your cloud security team to understand which settings are available, and take full advantage of them to grant your organization the highest possible level of security.
• Encrypting data. In many cases, you’ll need to take extra efforts to prevent data loss and preserve data integrity by encrypting your data and securing your connections. It’s your responsibility to allow legitimate network traffic and block suspicious traffic.
• Managing devices. Cloud applications allow you to reduce the amount of physical infrastructure you maintain, but you and your employees will still be accessing data and services with specific devices. You’ll need some way to manage and monitor those devices to ensure only authorized devices can access your data.
• Managing users. Similarly, you’ll need to consider user-level controls. Establish varying levels of user permissions, to restrict access to your most valuable or sensitive information, and change user permissions as necessary to allow secure access.
• Reporting. It’s also important to monitor cloud activity from a high level, and report on that activity so you can better understand your risks and ongoing operations.

Comprehensive Security Management in the Cloud

IT and security staff members often face difficulty managing all these strategies simultaneously, especially with the sheer number of cloud applications and services used by a modern organization. Large companies rely on hundreds, and sometimes thousands of different cloud-based services, making it nearly impossible to conveniently apply consistent security settings or monitor the use of those applications all at once.

 

That’s why it’s important to employ the use of a comprehensive security management tool, designed for cloud security. With the right platform, you can hypothetically manage and monitor all your cloud applications and gateways at once, all from one central location.

 

Are you interested in learning more about security management in the cloud? Check out our cloud security products, or contact us directly for more information today!