Why Traditional Security Approaches Don't Work in the Cloud

If you are not in the cloud, chances are you are moving to the cloud at a rapid rate.

Organizations are leveraging the cloud to scale critical workloads in a more distributed model to meet demand - changing workflows from service delivery to consumption and accelerating innovation.

It is a win for the customers you serve and for the growth of your organization.

So, what's the catch? A new model (the cloud) requires new processes, especially when it comes to cybersecurity.

Hear from Erika Bagby, Illumio's Principal Product Marketing Manager, to learn more about the new blog series focused on cloud security:

Securing the cloud is different than securing other environments

For starters, how should you migrate to the cloud? Lift and shift, lift and optimize, move and improve, or refactor all together?

Safe to say there are many variables involved for organizations to consider and even more areas of impact, including IT alignment, expertise, organizational structure, role definition, and the list goes on.

The fact is, we will be managing and living in a hybrid multi-cloud world. Securing workloads with traditional security processes across different platforms and architectures is like playing the telephone game with everyone speaking a different language - things will be missed in translation.

Enter cloud blind spots and security gaps. They're unavoidable when trying to fit a traditional process onto a modern infrastructure.

Discover 5 things you might not know about cloud security.

ESG research: Cloud migration increases cyber threats

While the rapid shift to cloud-native applications continues, the cybersecurity threat landscape is intensifying.

According to a recent research report by analyst firm ESG, the three most commonly cited incident types across cloud-native infrastructure involved insecure use of APIs, code vulnerabilities, and compromised account credentials.

Additionally, three out of four organizations have significantly increased their efforts to secure open-source software, container images, and third-party software components as a result of recent software supply chain attacks.

Traditional security processes cause cloud security blind spots and gaps

The crux of successfully securing hybrid and multi-cloud environments is our perception and approach to cloud security.

We cannot fit a square peg into a round hole by superimposing traditional on-premises security operations over modern cloud-native infrastructure and expect to have visibility and consistent security control. Cloud-native security must adapt to fit the new model of dynamic, ever-changing environments.

Initiatives like infrastructure as code, shift left, and many other current trends are consumed in bite-size chunks, and understandably so. According to Forrester's Public Cloud Market Insights, 2022 report, 87 percent of respondents are adopting public cloud, but organizations' migration strategies vary in maturity.

Cyberattacks won't wait for your organization to properly secure its cloud infrastructure. Breaches are inevitable. It's vital that you put modern security processes in place that fully secure the cloud from ever-increasing cyber threats.

Zero Trust Segmentation: A modern approach to cloud security

A Zero Trust security strategy can fill cloud visibility gaps and ensure inevitable breaches don't turn into disasters for your organization.

In fact, a recent survey by ESG of 1,000 security professionals revealed that organizations with a mature Zero Trust practice experienced accelerated cloud adoption.

Zero Trust Segmentation (ZTS) aligns with the needs of cloud security. Starting from the premise of "assume breach," ZTS puts a priority on gaining consistent, context-based visibility everywhere, all the time.

Using that foundation of visibility, ZTS provides an iterative process that you can use to constantly improve your organization's cloud security.

Get more information about how to simplify cloud-native security with ZTS.

Want to learn more about cloud security best practices?

In this ongoing series, I will cover the hot topics in cloud migration and cloud security, like migration strategies, shift-left, security ownership, and overcoming challenges in securing your cloud environments.

Get insight into how to migrate to the cloud securely with Zero Trust Segmentation.

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