IT-Sicherheit

Cloud Security Best Practices: How to Secure Your Cloud Infrastructure

Nico FreitagIT-Sicherheit

The cloud is not a safe haven. 45% of all data breaches involve cloud-based data – and the most common cause is misconfiguration, not sophisticated hacker attacks. The cloud provider secures the infrastructure – you secure your data and configurations. This article shows the most important best practices.

The Shared Responsibility Model

The biggest mistake: Assuming the provider handles everything. What the provider secures: - Physical data centers - Network infrastructure - Hypervisor and virtualization What you secure: - Data and encryption - Identity and Access Management - Network configuration - Application security In our IT security consulting, we first clarify the Shared Responsibility Model.

Identity & Access Management (IAM)

IAM is the foundation of cloud security: Least Privilege – Only necessary permissions. No wildcard policies. MFA for all accounts – Especially root/admin accounts. Details in the Password Management Guide. Separate service accounts – Each service gets its own account. Regular access reviews – Quarterly checks. No long-lived credentials – Short-lived tokens instead of permanent API keys.

Network Security in the Cloud

Cloud networks must be carefully configured: Security Groups and NACLs – Deny by default. Private Subnets – Databases belong in private subnets. Web Application Firewall (WAF) – Protects against OWASP Top 10. Details in our OWASP Guide. DDoS Protection – Activate AWS Shield, Azure DDoS Protection.

Data Encryption and Compliance

Encryption at Rest – AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, Google Cloud KMS. BYOK for maximum control. Encryption in Transit – TLS 1.3 for all connections. Data Location – For GDPR compliance: choose EU regions. More in our article on GDPR and Cloud Hosting. Logging and Audit – CloudTrail, Activity Log, Cloud Audit Logs – activate everything.

Cloud Security Monitoring

You can't protect what you can't see: CSPM – AWS Security Hub or Wiz automatically scan for misconfigurations. Cloud Workload Protection – Protects containers, VMs, and serverless in real-time. SIEM Integration – Feed cloud logs into your SIEM. Alerting and Automation – Automatic alerts. Automatic blocking of public S3 buckets. At Axis/Port., we help implement comprehensive cloud security strategies.

Fazit

Cloud security is an ongoing process. Start with IAM, ensure encryption, and implement monitoring. At Axis/Port., we guide you on this path.

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