Lateral Movement: How to Solve the Cloud’s Biggest Risk

The cloud holds the most critical and sensitive data of businesses worldwide. In fact, 98% of organizations store their most sensitive data in the cloud, and 89% rely on the cloud for their highest-value applications.  

These statistics make it clear that attackers see the cloud as a goldmine of valuable information. But many organizations are still depending on traditional security methods that let cybercriminals take advantage of the cloud’s biggest risk: lateral movement.

In this blog post, learn why it’s so easy for attackers to move laterally in the cloud, the four cloud security missteps making it even easier for them, and how microsegmentation is the key to stopping lateral movement.

The cloud is a prime target for cybercriminals

In today’s world of cybercrime, the harsh reality is that cybercriminals will eventually breach your network. Once inside, their mission is simple: move laterally until they reach your most valuable assets.  

But why is the cloud such a prime target for cybercriminals?  

According to the Cloud Security Index 2023:

• 98% of organizations store sensitive data in the cloud

• 89% of organizations run their highest-value applications in the cloud

• 89% of organizations operate most or all of their services in the cloud  

• 38% of organizations are fully cloud native

These statistics paint a clear picture. The cloud is becoming the heart of many businesses. For attackers, this means there’s a vast treasure trove of data and assets waiting to be breached.  

In fact, nearly half of all cyberattacks in 2023 started in the cloud.

Despite the critical importance of cloud security, many organizations are still relying on traditional approaches that fall short in protecting against lateral movement.

What is lateral movement in the cloud?

A significant threat in cloud security is lateral movement. This is the process of cybercriminals moving through a network once they’ve breached an initial point of entry.

In traditional on-premises environments, organizations can rely on firewalls to restrict movement between different parts of the network. But in cloud environments, where workloads and data can be distributed across multiple environments and service providers, this type of control is much more difficult to set up.

Even purpose-built cloud security tools, designed with modern cloud environments in mind, often fail to stop lateral movement. These platforms may enforce security policies between different environments (such as public, private, or hybrid clouds), but they frequently lack the ability to segment traffic between individual workloads or processes within the same environment.  

As a result, once an attacker breaches a single point in the cloud, they can often move freely within the environment. This means that a breach at one endpoint can quickly lead to the compromise of entire applications, databases, and services. This allows cybercriminals to access sensitive data without encountering additional security barriers.

4 security missteps putting your cloud at risk

Many organizations are making it easy for attackers to move through their cloud environment — and the rest of the network. But by paying attention to these four issues, you can help reduce your cloud security risk.  

1. Off-the-shelf configurations

Many organizations assume that standard configurations provided by cloud service providers (CSPs) are enough to secure their environments. However, these default settings are often insufficient for complex workloads and sensitive data. Attackers can easily exploit poorly configured services, especially when companies fail to customize security settings to their specific needs.

2. Incorrect or incomplete configurations

Even when organizations try to customize their cloud security, errors are common. Misconfigured identity and access management (IAM) controls, overly permissive security group settings, and improper firewall configurations are just a few examples of common mistakes. These flaws leave doors open for attackers to slip through.

3. Flawed deployment processes

Many organizations struggle with the proper deployment of security tools in the cloud. Without visibility across all parts of the environment, it's easy to overlook critical vulnerabilities or fail to apply necessary security patches in time. These flaws can leave unprotected gaps for attackers to exploit.

4. Large, complex networks without complete visibility

Cloud environments often consist of sprawling, interconnected services and applications. Without comprehensive visibility, it’s difficult to detect and respond to suspicious activity in real time. Attackers can exploit this lack of visibility to move undetected through the network.

5. Lack of microsegmentation

The security tools designed to protect cloud environments often struggle to keep up. Many of these purpose-built cloud security tools are focused on enforcing policies between different cloud environments. While this is an important function, it overlooks a critical aspect of security: the ability to segment traffic between individual workloads and processes within the cloud itself.  

Without microsegmentation, attackers can move laterally across the network once they’ve gained access. In other words, once they breach a single point, they can spread easily, hopping from one workload to another, from endpoints to servers, applications, and data — without encountering significant resistance.

Read our ebook to learn more about cloud security challenges leaving your network vulnerable to breaches and ransomware attacks.

Microsegmentation: How to stop lateral movement in the cloud

To effectively stop lateral movement in cloud environments, organizations need to move beyond traditional security approaches and siloed cloud security tools towards more advanced solutions like microsegmentation. Microsegmentation helps you get complete visibility across your entire network so you can create granular security policies at the workload level. This isolates workloads from each other and prevents unauthorized communication between them.

With microsegmentation, even if an attacker gains access to one part of the cloud, they cannot move laterally to other parts or environments. Every workload is treated as its own security zone, with strict controls governing how and when communication can occur between workloads. This creates additional layers of security that significantly reduce the attack surface and limit the ability of attackers to spread within the network.

Build microsegmentation in the cloud with the Illumio CloudSecure

Without microsegmentation between workloads and processes, organizations are leaving their cloud environments vulnerable to lateral movement — and making it easier for attackers to reach their most valuable assets.

Extend visibility and microsegmentation across your hybrid multi-cloud with Illumio CloudSecure.

With CloudSecure, you’re empowered to:  

• Stop and contain the spread of breaches and ransomware in cloud environments.

• Eliminate security blind spots with a real-time view of your traffic flows across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.  

• See and understand how applications are communicating and where high-risk ports are open.  

• Set granular, flexible security policies that protect applications and workloads to proactively prepare for inevitable breaches and reactively isolate breaches when they happen.  

• Limit exposure and maintain least-privilege access across data centers and public clouds.  

Breaches will happen. Be ready with the Illumio Zero Trust Segmentation Platform.

Dig deeper into the cloud security challenges putting you at risk. Contact us today to learn how Illumio CloudSecure contains breaches and ransomware attacks across your hybrid multi-cloud, data centers, and endpoints.