Heather AxworthyMay 2010

Moving to the Cloud?

Agenda

• Cloud Computing…..What Is It?• Before Moving To The Cloud• Questions to ask yourself and the vendor• Security Implications – Top Threats• After Moving To The Cloud

Cloud Computing

• It Is Not a New Technology.

• It Is a Service Offering.

• It Is Outsourcing of Your Internal Assets to a 3rd Party Provider (Hardware, Software or Both.)

• Often Referred to As “Internet Based Computing.”

Types of cloud offerings

Public (External)

The Cloud

Private (Internal)

Cloud Lingo……..

Private – the infrastructure is operated solely for a single organization

Public – the infrastructure is made available to the general public i.e Amazon, Google, Microsoft

Hybrid – combination of public and private

“On prem” - infrastructure is on the company’s premises

“Off prem” - infrastructure is on the cloud provider’s premises

Moving to the Cloud…

•Decide Which Assets Are Going to Be in the Cloud•Document the Security Posture for the Asset – Most Important

Why?

•3 Reasons - CIAC – Confidentiality

I – IntegrityA – Availability

•Multi-tenancy – Do I want to share resources with other entities?•Sketch Out the Data Flow – Visio, Whiteboard, Post-its Etc.•Figure Out Which Cloud Model Works Best Based on Compliance, Security Posture and Data Flow

What Is the Risk If:

• Assets Become Widely Public and Widely Distributed• Employee of the Cloud Provider Accessed the Data• Process or Function Was Manipulated by the Outsider• Process or Function Failed to Provide Expected Results• Data Was Unexpectedly Changed• Asset Was Unavailable for a Period of Time

Ask yourself these questions..

• The SAS 70 Is No Longer Enough.

• Cloud Vendor Must Provide Full Disclosure Regarding Security

Practices and Procedures That Are Stated in the SLA.

• Cloud Vendor’s ISO 27001 Security Roadmap

• Examine and Assess the Provider’s Supply Chain (Service

Provider Relationships and Dependencies.)

• BCP and DR Plan

• Right to Audit Clause

• Encryption Options – Encrypting Data at Rest and While in Motion

• Authentication – Two Factor, make it mandatory.

What to ask the vendor…

• Abuse and Nefarious Use – Criminals Using Cloud Vendors to Serve

Malware, Phishing E-mails, Spam etc.

• Insecure Interfaces and API’s – Anonymous Access, Clear-text

Passwords, Reusable Session Tokens or Passwords

• Malicious Insiders

• Shared Technology Issues

• Data Loss or Leakage – strong AAA, strong API access control

• Account or Service Hijacking – monitor activity, two-factor

authentication

• Unknown Risk Profile – vendor disclosure of infrastructure

Top threats to cloud computing

•There is no “set it and forget it” once the asset is in the cloud.

•Whatever you used to do to the asset while on prem, you still have to do when it’s in the cloud. It might be modified slightly based on your SLA, but it must incorporate monitoring and auditing.

After you move to the cloud…

Cloud Security Alliance

http://cloudsecurityalliance.org

LinkedIn group: Cloud Security Alliance

Resources