CLOUD SERVICES AUDITS
Scope and Components of the Audit
The audit approach covers all critical configurations in the cloud, including account permission management, access policies, and deployment practices. Each component of the cloud infrastructure is ensured to comply with security best practices and industry regulations, reducing the risk of misconfigurations, unauthorized access, and potential security breaches:
Deployment Configuration Review:
The configuration of cloud deployment environments is verified to ensure compliance with best practices and security standards. This analysis includes reviewing network configurations, cloud firewall policies, data encryption protocols in transit and at rest, as well as evaluating secure storage configurations. The goal is to minimize the risk of unauthorized access and information leaks, ensuring a resilient infrastructure that is protected against external and internal threats.
Account and Privilege Analysis:
An assessment of user accounts and assigned permissions on each platform (Azure, AWS, and GCP) is conducted to ensure that the principle of least privilege is followed, limiting access and privileges only to those who need them for their functions. This includes reviewing roles and access groups, as well as configuring multi-factor authentication and other security mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access.
Access and Security Policy Review:
Access and control policies established on the cloud platform are analyzed, verifying that they are correctly defined to avoid default or insecure configurations. This analysis includes an assessment of security policies at the account level and for each individual resource, ensuring they align with best practices and effectively protect data and applications hosted in the cloud.
Identity and Access Management (IAM):
The implementation of the identity and access management system (IAM) on each platform is reviewed to ensure that access controls are strict, that accounts have secure password expiration policies configured, and that permissions are periodically reviewed to prevent unnecessary or excessive access to critical resources.
Monitoring and Activity Logs:
Cloud monitoring and activity logging services are verified to be correctly configured and active to allow complete visibility of actions taken in the environment. Proper configuration of these tools allows administrators to quickly detect and respond to any unusual or potentially malicious activity.
Benefits of Cloud Audit
By conducting a cloud services audit, companies achieve greater transparency and control over their cloud infrastructure, ensuring that deployments, account configurations, and access policies align with the highest security and compliance standards. This not only strengthens the protection of data and assets in the cloud but also increases operational efficiency and minimizes risks of information exposure and unauthorized access.