It’s too Risky to be Reactive! Learn How to Proactively Secure Your Cloud Computing Platform

The whirlwind of cloud computing is embracing us. Like social networking sites, some are passionately accepting the cloud while some are extremely reluctant. There is plenty of ongoing debate on whether or not to move to cloud computing but there is no questioning on the need for security. Security is a necessity in the cloud and should not be an afterthought. A proliferation of attacks including DDoS and Data Loss with various mandatory compliance regulations makes security an imperative design component of cloud computing. The use of shared infrastructure with other organisations in the cloud introduces new attack vectors that put the onus back on individual organisations to protect themselves. Whilst cloud computing is an exciting and economically viable platform, educational institutions and large organisations need to evaluate the challenge of limited control of cloud infrastructure. 

In this paper, a security engineer with industry and academic experience discusses some valuable lessons learnt – the positives and the challenges. The author will talk about the implementations and challenges faced by large academic and commercial organisations over the last few years. It’s vital for every organisation to be aware of their security challenges during the move to cloud computing. 

The author will discuss through his experiences, ‘Physical’ and ‘Virtual’ security gateways to protect organisations. Security gateways that control Virtual Machine (VM) infrastructure can be used to control intra-VM communications. Modern security gateways that include integrated functionalities like IPS, Application Control, URL and Malware filtering capabilities, VPN make security economically viable. For the public clouds, service providers like Amazon offer automatically provisioned security gateways with customisable base configuration. Provisioning services allow easy deployment of security gateways to align with design principles of cloud computing. 

In summary, strong security controls for cloud computing should be leveraged to protect against emerging and existing threats. It’s too risky to be reactive.