Cloud has revolutionized the way we design and manage systems. It has accelerated releases, elastic scale as well as global coverage. Cloud has also altered the risk model. Identity became the new perimeter, and everything communicates over APIs. Misconfigurations may reveal petabytes in one click. This guide outlines the major cloud risks and the controls to decrease them.
The cloud risk experience is different
shared accountability. In cloud, the cloud provider is responsible for the security of all the hardware and technology of cloud (data centers and hypervisors, hardware,) and you are responsible for your data on the cloud (identities applications, data configurations, and identities). Security issues often stem because of misunderstanding this division.
API-first operation. Admin planes, applications and services are governed by APIs. an insecure or broken access design is a major risk factor. The OWASP API Top 10 highlights how easy to leak or alter data via poorly constructed endpoints.
Scale and speed. Elastic resources and self-service IaC allow you to design (or duplicate) unsafe patterns quickly and then lose them in the chaos. Security reports for the industry consistently list insecure configurations, IAM issues as well as APIs that are not secure as the top cloud security risks.
The most important category of cloud risks (and how they appear)
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Poor configuration and poor position
Shares and buckets that are public with permissive security groups blocked logging, open management ports. -
Access and identity security
Machine and human identities that have overly restrictive permissions, keys that last for a long time with no MFA/JIT, and secondary movement through role chaining. -
Insecure or exposed APIs
Broken object-level authorization, broken auth flows, lack of rate limiting/schema validation. -
Data exposure and uncontrolled exit
Backups or data lakes exposed shadow copies that are not encrypted. -
Supply chain and Third-party/SaaS
Integrations that are over-privileged malware or compromised packages as well as dependency confusion. -
Runtime and workload dangers
container escapes Base images that are vulnerable, insecure runtime isolation, and secrets hidden in images. -
Multi-tenancy & shared tech
isolation bugs aren’t common but can be very damaging and you must still create your system as if neighbors aren’t trusted (least privilege security, encryption, authZ). -
Resilience and availability
DDoS regions/zones outages, accidental deletions DR not verified RPO/RTO is not real. -
Compliance, sovereignty and the right to reside
Information located in the wrong place, no contract controls, audit evidence. -
Shadow IT & unannounced services like SaaS
data swells into unmanaged clouds, OAuth consents have broad areas.
Actual-world signs: Research has repeatedly discovered widespread misconfigurations across cloud accounts, and even mobile apps that leak data because of poor cloud settings. State-sponsored actors also focus on the cloud as well as SaaS providers.
An effective strategy can be to align your business with the framework, and then go to “zero confidence”
Make use of the the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 to plan your security program (Govern, Identify, Secure, Detect, Respond Recover). The framework defines ownership and metrics and coverage of control for cloud-based environments.
Architecture based on Zero Trust principles which include strong identity at each hop and continuous verification, the least privilege and explicit authorization of resources instead of implicit trust in the network. NIST SP 800-207 serves as the standard reference.
Controls that reduce risk
Identity is the border
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Enforce SSO and phishing-resistant MFA for administrators and operators.
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Apply minimum privilege when it comes to the roles, resource-level restrictions and JIT/JEA access. Beware of the use of wildcard grants.
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Rotate and remove keys with a long lifespan Use the short-lived tokens and workload identities.
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Secure machine-to-machine authentication (service principals and functions) through approval, and recording.
Secure the information (where it is located and to the place it goes)
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Sort data Tag data by sensitivity, and send classes with higher risk through more stringent control.
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Encrypt during the transit phase and in rest using keys managed by the customer separate the key admin from the admin of data; rotate and keep track of KMS use.
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Include DLP and Egress controls (private endspoints VPC control of services, SCPs) to prevent information from wandering.
The surface will be hardened.
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A default-deny network position (no public IPs, unless needed) WAF behind web APIs and managed DDoS protection.
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Automation of patches to manage OS and managed service images. Base CIS level hardening.
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You can enable the full audit log (CloudTrail/Azure Monitor, GCP Audit) and save copies of the audit logging in a different account.
API security (your main door)
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Create the Inventory of APIs and front endpoints using gateways.
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To enforce authN/authZ Access checks at the object level, input validation and schema enforcement, rate limitation; test against OWASP API Top 10.
Integrity in the build and runtime
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Shift-left in conjunction with policies-as-code (guardrails within CI/CD) Scan IaC for misconfiguration.
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Utilize SBOM/signed images scan images and dependencies; allow runtime control (eBPF/EDR for hosts and containers).
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Choose Managed services when possible. Smaller attack surface and provider-managed patches.
Visibility and posture at a scale
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Implement CSP/CNAPP to monitor for errors in configurations and potentially dangerous identities and the DSPM to label sensitive information.
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Map detects to the ATT&CK and determine the extent of coverage in time.
Resilience and recovery
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Backups that have the ability to change and copies across accounts Restores for test are made quarterly.
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Define real RPO and/or RTO and ensure failover across regions or zones.
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Make sure you have an IR + DR runbook that takes into account the possibility of identity compromise.
Vendor & compliance hygiene
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Create a map of the responsible parties for each service you use. Document who is responsible for what.
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Gather and analyze evidence (SOC 2 ISO attestations) DPAs,, and regions/residency choices; align with CSF NIST 2.0 functions for reporting.
A 30-90-90 day cloud security plan
Days 1-30 (Stabilize)
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Make sure that the entire org is on MFA and centralized logging along with the guardrails (org SCPs or policies).
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Inventory names, APIs web-exposed assets and data from crown jewel places.
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Repair high-risk configurations identified in CSPM. CSPM (public storage and group security that is open).
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Document shared-responsibility splits for your top 10 services.
Days 31-60 (Harden)
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Implement minimum rights or JIT on admin jobs. take away long-lasting secrets.
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Secure all APIs through an gateway using authZ, schema and rate limitations (OWASP The Top Ten coverage).
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Encrypt sensitive data files using keys managed by customers and limit the key administrators.
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Implement IaC code-as-policies checks into CI.
days 61-90 (Prove and scale)
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Add threats-aligned detections that are mapped to the ATT&CK cloud build IR playbooks.
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Test backup and restore and an failure to fail over a region to determine the RPO/RTO that is actually used.
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Release zero trust access patterns for services and management Report the progress made with CSF NIST 2.0 functions.
Quick checklist
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MFA everywhere; no standing admin access
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Centralized, immutable logs across accounts/subscriptions/projects
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CSPM/CNAPP + DSPM running and alerting on misconfig and data sprawl
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APIs behind gateways with authZ, schema, and rate limits (OWASP)
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Customer-managed encryption keys; strict separation of duties
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Backups are immutable, cross-account, and tested
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Egress controls for sensitive data; private endpoints for critical services
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Documented shared-responsibility matrix per service
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IR/DR runbooks exercised; detections mapped to ATT&CK
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Progress tracked with NIST CSF 2.0 (Govern-Recover)
Bottom line
Cloud security isn’t inherently weaker, it’s more secure. The most significant gains come from establishing the right identity by removing misconfigurations, secure APIs and planning for the possibility of failure. Make sure your program is anchored to the NIST CSF 2.0 and adopt Zero Trust and make sharing accountability explicit. If you do these things correctly, you’ll reduce risk, while maintaining the speed that led you to cloud computing in the first place.
