Cloud Computing Security Compliance Best Practices

Cloud computing security compliance is one of the major reasons many organizations are hesitant to embrace a cloud-first strategy. At the same time, enterprise IT has now firmly established cloud computing as the new normal. 

The key to mitigating the security concerns in the cloud is for CIOs to invest in compliance. Here are the compliance best practices to help you take advantage of the cloud’s scalability and agility. 

Shared Security Responsibilities

Understand that both the vendor and the user have a shared responsibility for cloud security. When signing up with a cloud service provider, you must find out what aspects of cloud security it’s responsible for. You should also find out the aspects you need to take care of. 

Data Encryption

It is very important to properly protect data stored in the cloud. Make sure your provider supports data encryption for data moving to and from the cloud. Find out what encryption policies the vendor has put in place to safeguard against data breaches. 

The vendor should have detailed guidelines showing how it protects your data when stored on its servers. Do not migrate any data until you have gone through and understood these guidelines. 

Data Deletion Policies

Your organization may decide to change cloud providers or migrate to an on-premises deployment at some point. In some cases, you might need to delete customer data after your engagement with your provider ends. Whatever the case, you’ll need to establish the cloud provider’s policies concerning data deletion. 

Figure out how you can safely remove data from your system without compromising on security compliance. 

Access Control

After proper clearance, only authorized persons should access data stored in your cloud. As such, you should enact access control policies giving you oversight over users who try to access your cloud environment. With proper access control measures in place, you can assign specific rights to different users. That way, low-level users won’t have the same access rights as admins.   

Cloud Monitoring 

Traditional IT security focuses on defending against threats as they attack your systems. With the cloud, organizations have to take a more proactive approach toward cloud computing security compliance. You need to stop threats even before they take place. This is why it’s important to constantly monitor your cloud environment. You must take proactive steps to neutralize threats well in advance. 

Routine Penetration Tests

Cloud security should be preventative, not reactive. For this reason, it is important to regularly look at security gaps in your cloud infrastructure and close them. Failure to do so is leaving the door open for malicious actors to enter your cloud environment. 

Most cloud providers allow organizations to customize routine penetration tests to search for security gaps in their cloud deployments. Some providers do this themselves.  

Employee Training

One of the often-overlooked threat to cloud security is employees. An employee misusing your cloud environment because of negligence or ignorance can leave you vulnerable to attacks. It is important to train employees who’ll be using your cloud environment on cloud computing security compliance.

See how CloudBolt can help enhance your security tools for hybrid cloud.