Industry Insights with Andrew Stevens

Cloud Security , Next-Generation Technologies & Secure Development , Security Operations

3 Major Benefits of Cloud Migration: Cloud Compliance

Leverage Cloud Security Tools to Ensure Compliance is Met Along the Way
3 Major Benefits of Cloud Migration: Cloud Compliance

Part of a secure cloud migration strategy is ensuring compliance of all the moving pieces. Just like your cloud journey, compliance isn’t a final destination. Discover how to leverage cloud security tools to ensure compliance is met along the way.

See Also: When Every Identity is at Risk, Where Do You Begin?

The unforeseen acceleration of cloud adoption due to COVID-19 led to many organizations scrambling to launch their services into the cloud to stay afloat. But these hasty transitions often come at the cost of neglecting compliance, which can result in not only hefty fines but damage to customer trust and reputation.

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"The unforeseen acceleration of cloud adoption due to COVID-19 led to many organizations scrambling to launch their services into the cloud to stay afloat."

Governmental institutions have responded to the mass cloud adoption by developing new data privacy and regulatory laws, and compliance organizations continue to create more relevant frameworks for cloud computing. It's critical to implement a scalable security strategy that can grow throughout your migration and keep up with compliance requirements.

Compliance 101

Compliance seems to be shrouded in mystery and requires a ton of labor-intensive work but at its core, it's quite simple. Basically, compliance is all about ticking the right boxes and making sure everything works properly in order to prevent damage in the future.

With cloud compliance, organizations must have the proper procedures in place to meet regulations applicable to their industry, such as GDPR, PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO and more. There are also compliance standards and frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, CIS Benchmarks and AWS Well-Architected Framework that aren’t mandatory but are great tools to help you stay on the good side of the other guys.

While compliance laws and standards may differ across industries and regions, they often address the same challenges:

  • Data transfer: You must abide by the applicable national and regional privacy violations when moving your data.
  • Data visibility: According to Flexera, 80% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy. While the hybrid cloud approach is popular, the distribution of storage can make securing it more complex.
  • Data security responsibility: Ah, the shared responsibility model. Your data center is just the host - you are responsible for securing it.
  • Data access: Compliance regulations are designed to help you limit access to a least-privilege level so you can avoid a breach.

How to Achieve Continuous Compliance

The first step is identifying which security tool will meet the needs of compliance standards that will keep up with your evolving infrastructure. A security services platform is ideal for tackling these four compliance challenges:

Challenge #1: Data Transfer - Localized Protection

Unlike point products, a platform can be deployed across multi- and hybrid cloud environments so you can run continuous scans and audits to ensure compliance, wherever your data may be.

Challenge #2: Data Visibility - Enhanced Insights

On-premises solutions only provide network-level insights, and your cloud service provider, or CSP, can’t tell you the entire story due to privacy concerns. A platform enhances visibility across networks, security layers and more so compliance issues can be identified and remediated quickly.

Challenge #3: Data Security Responsibility - Automated Guardrails

Say goodbye to the tedious task of manually monitoring, configuring and maintaining your systems to stay compliant. Automated operational controls also ensure rules are enforced at scale - so you stay compliant as your business grows.

Challenge #4: Data Access - Centralized Identity and Access Management - IAM

One console for easy management of all your permissions, accounts, passwords and policies.

The next step is identifying which platform is best. To achieve your compliance goals, look for specific features and functions, such as:

  • Intrusion detection and protection for each sever across every type of cloud environment, examining all incoming and outgoing traffic for protocol and policy violations or content that signals an attack;
  • Virtual patching to provide an extra layer of security against vulnerabilities while you wait for the official vendor patch;
  • Integrity monitoring for critical operation system and application files - directories, registry keys and values - to detect and report unexpected changes in real time;
  • Malware prevention that leverages file reputation, behavioral analysis, machine learning and other advanced techniques to protect your systems;
  • Localized/specific compliance measures across the broadest range of industry, geography and cybersecurity regulations and standards;
  • Advanced threat intelligence as part of the platform for visibility into the entire threats landscape to protect against current and future threats.

Automated Compliance With Trend Micro Cloud One - Conformity

In the cloud computing world, conforming to compliance standards and regulations sets you up for success. Trend Micro Cloud One - Conformity can help you follow the rules to avoid breaches and fines while driving innovation and bridging the gap. Conformity is one of seven security solutions that compose the Trend Micro Cloud One platform.

Check out how the Trend Micro Cloud One can help tackle the four compliance challenges:

Challenge #1: Data Transfer

Monitor the compliance of all your cloud environments across different regions from one dashboard, so you can identify and remediate unwanted vulnerabilities and build to industry best practices.

Challenge #2: Data Visibility - Enhanced Insights

Conformity provides real-time visibility of your entire infrastructure through a single, multi-cloud dashboard, giving you true situational awareness.

Challenge #3: Data Security Responsibility - Automated Guardrails

Auto-check against nearly 1,000 cloud service configurations across major CSPs, auto-remediate violations and run scans against hundreds of industry best practice and compliance checks. Customize audit reports with an endless of combination of filters and prioritize alerts so you can stay organized.

Challenge #4: Data Access - Centralized IAM

Ensure that your IAM policies are enforced with several automated IAM configuration checks. If any high-risk access violations are discovered, auto-remediation takes care of them.

Next Steps

Is your cloud is up to code throughout your cloud journey with automated compliance checks and remediation? Get started with a free 30-day trial of Conformity.



About the Author

Andrew Stevens

Andrew Stevens

Director of Product Marketing, TrendMicro

As a senior manager for Secure Computings network gateway product line, Andrew has led strategic efforts in several areas including the companys entry into the firewall appliance market, new business partnerships, and acquisition & integration of several firewall products. Prior to joining Secure Computing, Mr. Stevens held several computer and networking positions with education, federal and local government organizations. Mr. Stevens has been involved with network security at Secure Computing for over 11 years and has a background in computer networking for 16 years. He is frequently called upon to speak at many industry and security conferences on the topics of network gateway security and application firewall technologies. Mr. Stevens has broad experience in the European and Asia/Pacific regions and earned his degree in Business Information Systems from Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.




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