Cloud security requires a different mindset than traditional on-premise security. Understanding the shared responsibility model and implementing proper controls is essential for protecting your cloud infrastructure across AWS, GCP, and Azure.
Shared Responsibility Model
Cloud Provider Responsibility: Physical security, hypervisor, network infrastructure, global backbone
Customer Responsibility: Data encryption, access management, application security, guest OS patching
Shared Responsibility: Configuration management, patch management varies by service model (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS)
Identity & Access Management
MFA Everywhere: Enable MFA for all human access, especially root/admin accounts
Least Privilege: Use role-based access control (RBAC) with minimal permissions
No Long-Lived Credentials: Use temporary credentials, rotate keys, eliminate hardcoded secrets
Service Accounts: Dedicate service accounts with scoped permissions
Access Reviews: Quarterly review of all IAM policies and permissions
Network Security
VPC Design: Segment networks by environment (prod/staging/dev) and function
Security Groups: Default deny, explicit allow, no 0.0.0.0/0 ingress
Private Subnets: Keep databases and internal services in private subnets
WAF/DDoS Protection: Enable web application firewall and DDoS protection
VPN/Private Link: Use private connectivity for sensitive traffic
Data Protection
Encryption at Rest: Enable default encryption for all storage (S3, RDS, EBS, etc.)
Encryption in Transit: TLS 1.2+ for all communications
Key Management: Use cloud KMS with proper key rotation policies
Backup Strategy: Automated backups with cross-region replication
Data Classification: Tag resources with sensitivity levels
Logging & Monitoring
Centralized Logging: Aggregate logs from all services (CloudTrail, VPC Flow, application logs)
SIEM Integration: Forward logs to your SIEM for correlation and alerting
Retention: Maintain logs for at least 1 year for compliance
Real-time Alerts: Configure alerts for security events (root login, permission changes)
Compliance Automation
Infrastructure as Code: Use Terraform/CloudFormation for repeatable, auditable deployments
Policy as Code: Implement guardrails with OPA, Sentinel, or cloud-native tools
Continuous Compliance: Use tools like Prowler, ScoutSuite, or cloud-native security posture management
Drift Detection: Alert on configuration changes that violate baselines