Everything You Need to Know About Cloud Security Tools – How and When to Use Them

What are Cloud Security Tools?

Each and every part of our stack comes with its own threats and challenges when it comes to security.  With the growing adoption of cloud, and cloud native technologies, there are unique threats to the cloud landscape that require their own set of tools to overcome. 



As cloud-based systems grow from clusters to fleets, understanding the intersection between cloud infrastructure and secure operations is vital. Our Cloud Security overview provides further insights into where cloud security fits into your overall Application Security and DevSecOps strategy. Here, you can learn how development, operations, and security teams can collaborate to enhance the security of your cloud infrastructure, applications, and data.

In this article, we’ll review the core categories of cloud security tools, their pros and cons, and the leading tools in each category. We’ll also examine best practices for implementation. 

Let’s start with the basics of cloud security tools: what are they, and what are their benefits? What can they find? Let’s get started.

Cloud Security Tools: The Basics

What are Cloud Security Tools?

Cloud security tools embed security mechanisms and controls directly into the cloud infrastructure lifecycle to prevent, detect, and manage threats effectively. These tools are categorized based on their specific functions and the stages of the cloud lifecycle they are used in. 

Cloud security is not just about securing the cloud environment itself; it also involves protecting the data and applications that reside in the cloud, ensuring a comprehensive security posture.

Some of these capabilities & protections include:

• Prevention of Potential Breaches: Vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure can lead to significant security breaches, due to companies running their most business critical workload and data in the cloud today. Cloud security tools are built to help identify and mitigate these vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them, and cause significant downtime, data or economic losses to companies.

• Proactive Risk Mitigation: By integrating cloud security tools early in the cloud lifecycle, organizations can identify potential security issues before they become significant problems - this includes common misconfigurations of services or access control or other human errors. This proactive approach minimizes the risk of costly breaches and reduces the time and resources needed for remediation, when caught and mitigated early and before deployment to production.

• Gain Compliance with Industry Standards: Regulatory bodies are increasingly focusing on cloud security standards, as the cloud has become the nearly de facto infrastructure organizations today are using. Technical controls have become a crucial way to ensure they are properly safeguarding user data and maintaining trust.

What Kind of Vulnerabilities Do Cloud Security Tools Find?

Cloud security tools are designed to identify a wide range of vulnerabilities across different stages of the cloud lifecycle. These tools target various types of security issues, including those listed in the OWASP Cloud Top 10. Some common types of vulnerabilities that cloud security tools aim to find include:

• Misconfigurations: Incorrectly configured cloud resources can expose sensitive data or services to unauthorized access.

• Identity and Access Management (IAM) Issues: Weak IAM policies can allow unauthorized access to cloud resources.

• Weak cryptography: Unsecured data storage and inadequate encryption can lead to data breaches.

• Insufficient Logging and Monitoring: Lack of proper logging and monitoring can result in undetected security incidents.

• Insecure APIs: Vulnerable APIs can be exploited to gain unauthorized access to cloud services.

The Core Categories of Cloud Security Tools

In this overview, we will categorize cloud security tools based on their specific functions and review each:

• Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

• Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP)

• Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)

• Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security

• Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is a category of security tools designed to continuously monitor and manage cloud infrastructure security. CSPM tools identify and remediate risks and misconfigurations, ensuring that cloud environments adhere to best practices and compliance standards. 

These tools provide visibility into cloud assets, automate security assessments, and enforce policies to prevent configuration drift and potential security breaches. CSPM helps organizations maintain a strong security posture by addressing vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and non-compliance issues across their cloud infrastructure.

CSPM tools are the cloud equivalent of other *SPM categories like ASPM or DSPM (application security or data security posture management, respectively), where Jit serves as an open ASPM - which includes the cloud layer as well. These tools continuously monitor cloud infrastructure to detect and remediate misconfigurations and compliance violations. CSPM tools provide visibility into the cloud environment and ensure that cloud resources adhere to security best practices and regulatory requirements.

Evaluating CSPM tools

Pros of CSPM Tools:

• Continuous Monitoring: Provide real-time visibility into cloud infrastructure, allowing for immediate detection of misconfigurations and compliance issues.

• Automated Remediation: Many CSPM tools offer automated remediation capabilities to quickly resolve identified issues.

• Compliance Assurance: Ensure that cloud infrastructure complies with industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Challenges of CSPM Tools:

• Complex Setup: Initial setup and configuration can be time-consuming and complex to start delivering real tangible security coverage and value.

• Alert Fatigue: High volumes of alerts can overwhelm security teams if not properly prioritized.

Popular CSPM Tools:

Open Source:

• Cloud Custodian: A rules engine for managing cloud environments by ensuring compliance and security.

• CloudMapper: Helps you analyze your AWS environments and visualize your resources.

• cnspec and cnqery (by Mondoo): These tools focuses on full-stack cloud security scanning, evaluating the security of various infrastructures, and identifying gaps that attackers could exploit, and ​​querying the entire cloud infrastructure to gather detailed information about assets, configurations, and relationships, respectively. They support creating custom security policies and running comprehensive security checks across different platforms such as Linux, Windows, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes, and meeting compliance requirements.​

Commercial:

• Prisma Cloud: A comprehensive CSPM tool that offers visibility and automated remediation for cloud environments.

• AWS Security Hub: A native AWS tool that provides continuous monitoring and compliance checks for AWS environments.

• Wiz: widely known for its ability to provide runtime context for surfaced vulnerabilities, Wiz focuses on cloud misconfigurations and CVEs in runtime.

Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP)

A Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) is a security solution designed to protect workloads running in cloud environments, including virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions. CWPPs provide a range of security controls such as vulnerability management, compliance monitoring, runtime protection, and threat detection. 

They ensure that cloud workloads are secure by continuously monitoring and protecting them against threats, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations throughout their lifecycle, from development to runtime in production environments.

Evaluating CWPP

Pros of CWPP Tools:

• Comprehensive Workload Protection: Provides security for various types of cloud workloads, ensuring consistent protection across the cloud environment.

• Runtime Protection: Offers real-time protection against threats targeting running workloads.

Cons of CWPP Tools:

• Performance Impact: Security controls can impact the performance of the protected workloads.

• Complex Management: Managing security policies and configurations for diverse workloads can be challenging.

Popular Tools

Open Source:

• Falco: An open-source runtime security tool for containerized environments.

• Anchore: An open-source tool for container image scanning and policy enforcement.

• Trivy (by Aqua Security): An open-source tool for comprehensive security scanning of container images, file systems, and Git repositories.

Commercial:

• Trend Micro Deep Security: A commercial CWPP tool that provides comprehensive protection for cloud workloads.

Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)

Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) focuses on managing and governing access to cloud resources. It enforces least privilege policies, ensuring that users and services have only the necessary permissions to perform their tasks. CIEM tools provide detailed audit logs and reports to help organizations comply with security standards and regulatory requirements. By continuously monitoring IAM configurations, CIEM tools can identify and mitigate potential security risks related to access control, thereby enhancing the overall security posture of cloud environments.

CIEM tools manage and govern access to cloud resources by enforcing least privilege and custom-defined security policies and by monitoring identity and access management (IAM) configurations.

Evaluating CIEM tools

Pros of CIEM Tools:

• Enhanced Access Control: Ensure that cloud resources are accessed only by authorized users and services.

• Compliance and Auditability: Provide detailed audit logs and reports to demonstrate compliance with access control policies.

Cons of CIEM Tools:

• Configuration Complexity: Setting up and managing IAM policies can be complex and time-consuming.

• User Friction: Strict access controls can sometimes hinder legitimate user activities if not properly managed.

Popular Tools

Open Source:

• AirIAM (by Bridgecrew): An open-source tool for cleaning up and right-sizing IAM permissions.

• Aaia (AWS IAM Auditor): An open-source tool that audits AWS IAM policies to ensure they adhere to best practices and least privilege principles.

• GCP Permissions Cloud: An open-source tool for analyzing and managing IAM policies in Google Cloud environments.

Commercial:

• CloudKnox: Acquired by Microsoft, CloudKnox CIEM provides visibility and governance for cloud IAM policies.
• Ermetic: Acquired by Tenable, Ermetic is an advanced CIEM solution that automates the management of cloud identities and entitlements.
• Entitle: Acquired by BeyondTrust, Entitle is a CIEM tool that provides visibility and governance for cloud IAM policies, along with provisioning of just-in-time access (JIT) and revocation of privileges.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security refers to the practice of integrating security measures and policies into the development and deployment processes of infrastructure using code. IaC allows developers to define and manage infrastructure through code rather than manual processes, enabling automated, consistent, and repeatable deployments.

IaC security tools are designed to analyze and manage the security risks associated with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates. These tools help detect misconfigurations, enforce security policies, and ensure that infrastructure is provisioned securely.

Evaluating IaC security tools

Pros of IaC Security Tools:

• Proactive Risk Mitigation: Detect security issues in IaC templates before infrastructure is deployed (oftentimes largely containers and cloud resources), preventing potential vulnerabilities from reaching production.
• Policy Enforcement: Ensure that IaC templates comply with organizational security policies and best practices.
• Comprehensive Coverage: They support multiple IaC frameworks, providing broad coverage for various infrastructure components.

Cons of IaC Security Tools:

• False Positives: May generate false positives, requiring manual review to verify identified issues.
• Complex Configuration: Setting up and configuring these tools to align with specific security policies can be complex.

Popular Tools

Open Source:

• Checkov (by Bridecrew): An open-source tool for scanning IaC templates, supporting frameworks like Terraform, CloudFormation, and Kubernetes.
• TFLint: An open-source linter for Terraform that detects potential issues in Terraform templates.
• KICS (by Checkmarx): An open-source tool for detecting security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and misconfigurations in IaC templates.

Commercial:

• Bridgecrew (Acquired by Palo Alto Networks): Provides comprehensive IaC security, leveraging Checkov for deep scanning and adding features like automated fixes and policy enforcement.

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP)

A Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect cloud-native applications across their entire lifecycle. It integrates multiple security capabilities, including Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP), and Identity and Access Management (IAM). 

CNAPP provides end-to-end visibility and security for applications, ensuring that they are protected from development through deployment and runtime. It helps organizations identify, prioritize, and mitigate risks and vulnerabilities in complex cloud-native environments.

These tools provide a unified approach to securing cloud-native applications and infrastructure.

Evaluating CNAPP tools

Pros of CNAPP Tools:

• Unified Security Approach: Integrate various cloud security functions into a single platform, simplifying management and improving visibility.

• Comprehensive Coverage: Provide end-to-end security for cloud-native applications, from development to deployment and runtime.

Cons of CNAPP Tools:

• Complex Integration: Combining multiple security functions can be complex and may require significant effort to configure and manage, as well as understand and maintain in the long-term.

• Potential Overhead: The comprehensive nature of CNAPP tools can introduce performance overhead if not properly optimized.

Popular Tools

Open Source:

• Kubescape (by ARMO): An open-source tool for Kubernetes security that includes posture management, vulnerability management, and compliance checks.

Commercial:

• Lacework (Acquired by Fortinet): A CNAPP tool that offers integrated security for cloud-native applications, including threat detection and compliance management.

• Aqua Security: Provides comprehensive security for cloud-native applications with features like runtime protection and vulnerability management.

Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB)

A Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) is a security solution that acts as an intermediary between cloud service users and cloud service providers to enforce security policies. CASBs provide visibility into cloud service usage, help protect sensitive data through encryption and data loss prevention (DLP), and offer threat protection by monitoring user behavior and cloud service interactions. They enable organizations to extend their security policies to cloud applications, ensuring compliance and protecting against data breaches and other security threats.

CASB tools provide visibility and control over data and threats across cloud services, acting as intermediaries between users and cloud service providers to enforce security policies.

Evaluating CASB

Pros of CASB Tools:

• Visibility: Offer comprehensive visibility into cloud service usage and data transfers, helping to detect shadow IT and unauthorized access.

• Data Security: Protect sensitive data through encryption, tokenization, and data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities.

• Threat Protection: Detect and mitigate threats such as malware and account takeovers by monitoring user behavior and cloud service interactions.

Cons of CASB Tools:

• Deployment Complexity: Implementing CASB solutions can be complex, requiring integration with various cloud services and user authentication systems.

• Performance Impact: Intermediary nature can introduce latency and impact performance if not properly optimized.

Popular Tools

Commercial:

• McAfee MVISION Cloud: A CASB solution that offers comprehensive visibility, data security, and threat protection for cloud services.

• Netskope: Provides advanced CASB capabilities with a focus on real-time data and threat protection across multiple cloud services.

Best Practices for Implementation

Integrating Cloud Security Tools into the Software Development and Cloud Lifecycle

Cloud security tools should be integrated into the cloud lifecycle at various stages to ensure comprehensive protection. Here are some key points for integrating cloud security tools:

• Provisioning: During the provisioning stage, using CSPM tools helps ensure that cloud resources are configured securely from the start.

• Deployment: It is a good practice to implement CWPP tools to protect workloads as they are deployed in the cloud environment.

• Operation: Continuously monitor and manage cloud IAM configurations using CIEM tools to enforce least privilege policies.

• Compliance: Regularly audit cloud infrastructure and workloads using CSPM and CIEM tools to ensure ongoing compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Prioritizing Cloud Security Vulnerabilities

Cloud security tools often generate numerous alerts, making it essential to prioritize vulnerabilities based on their severity, exploitability, and impact. Here are some key factors to consider:

• Severity: Assess the potential impact of a vulnerability if exploited.

• Exploitability: Evaluate how easily a vulnerability can be exploited.

• Impact: Determine the potential damage to the cloud environment and business operations if the vulnerability is exploited.

By prioritizing vulnerabilities, security teams can focus on addressing the most critical issues first, ensuring that cloud resources remain secure and resilient.

Continuous Security with Cloud Security Tools and Jit

Maintaining continuous security in the cloud requires ongoing monitoring and management of cloud infrastructure and workloads. Cloud security tools, such as CSPM, CWPP, and CIEM, provide real-time visibility and protection, ensuring that your cloud environment remains secure even as new vulnerabilities emerge.  ASPM tools like Jit, help cover all aspects from the application code to the cloud infrastructure across the entire product stack, and continuously monitor your applications and cloud as your stacks evolve and grow in complexity.

With a comprehensive approach to application and cloud security, organizations can safeguard their cloud infrastructure, data, and applications, ensuring a secure and compliant cloud environment.  Leveraging the right set of cloud security tools and integrating them into the cloud lifecycle empower organizations to proactively manage security risks and maintain a robust security posture in the cloud, and the threat landscape evolves with the evolution of our cloud workloads.