Cloud computing is by no means a new concept; it has been around since the 1950s when technologies such as mainframe computing, utility computing, grid computing, and time-sharing were first introduced. Today, cloud infrastructures are becoming the norm for businesses, with McKinsey projecting that 80% of IT expenses will be dedicated to cloud technology by 2024.
While cloud technology has several benefits for businesses, it also poses some security risks that could lead to severe damage. A data breach could cost a company millions of dollars, and 45% of data breaches in 2022 occurred with cloud-based infrastructures, with 80% of those involving privilege abuse.
Access rights are the most valuable currency in complex and distributed cloud infrastructures, and different identities in cloud infrastructures have different access rights. Identity is the new security perimeter because malicious actors often prioritize it. An attacker can bypass most security measures with minimal challenges by hijacking an identity and gaining control over its access permissions.
The principle of least privilege (PoLP) is an age-old and fundamental concept in IT and other similar fields. It helps ensure that users have only the exact privileges they need to carry out their specific tasks, minimizing the risk of privilege abuse. Implementing PoLP by identifying over-permissions and right-sizing entitlements of all identities requires robust solutions that go beyond traditional identity security measures.
Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) is an effective solution that can help businesses navigate and manage entitlements across complex multi-cloud infrastructures. CIEM involves whittling down the permissions and privileges of cloud identities to the bare minimum, ensuring ultimate protection for businesses.
CIEM solutions provide several benefits, including visibility, true cross-cloud correlation, and intelligent correlation and insights. Visibility is critical for robust security, and CIEM solutions ensure that businesses have a panoramic view of all their entitlements, making it easier for them to monitor, manage, and mediate access controls in their cloud infrastructure. True cross-cloud correlation helps maintain consistency across components of an organization’s infrastructure, while intelligent correlation and insights use high-quality AI-driven data analytics to categorize users into similar groups and assess the need for separation of duties.
Ultimately, cloud technology has several benefits for businesses but also poses significant security risks. Implementing the principle of least privilege through solutions such as Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management can help mitigate these risks and ensure ultimate protection for businesses.
Check Point’s CloudGuard CNAPP provides businesses with a holistic approach and actionable security insights covering public clouds, workloads, identities, and applications. It’s an all-in-one solution that covers CIEM, CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management), workload protection, API security, threat intelligence, and pipeline security.
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