Cloud Compliance Guide

Cloud compliance not only protects a company from incurring financial fines and other types of penalties, but it also demonstrates that a company can be trusted and that it takes the matter of security seriously. 

But that’s not all; let’s study it in a complete guide here!

What is Cloud Compliance? 

Cloud compliance, often known as the process by which an organization successfully adheres to cloud standards defined by laws and contracts, is essential to the success of businesses in today’s modern environment.

Cloud compliance refers to the process of adhering to the regulatory requirements that govern how cloud computing can be used in line with local, national, and international regulations. How such standards are satisfied is the primary distinction that can be drawn between traditional compliance and cloud compliance.

Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to clarify these discrepancies by examining the difficulties associated with cloud compliance and explaining the procedures that may be used to guarantee the best practice. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s set some groundwork by going through some of the most widespread rules and standards.

The Importance of Cloud Compliance 

As a result of the fact that cloud platforms and services will continue to comply with a variety of international, federal, state, and local security standards, rules, and laws, compliance requirements have needed to be revised to keep up with the increasing use of cloud security. It is possible to face legal challenges, penalties, and fines for not adhering to these severe requirements, in addition to other unfavorable ramifications, if you do not comply with them.

It is more important than it has ever been to ensure compliance and security within the cloud, particularly as the panorama of potential dangers continues to become more complicated. It is not something that can be dismissed, ignored, or put on the figurative equivalent of the back burner. This is an issue that needs to be confronted head-on as quickly as is humanly possible.

However, the complexity of the endeavor cannot be ignored; as a result, it is not an endeavor that is attractive to organizations that already have a sufficient number of technically difficult tasks on their organizational to-do lists. This is because the difficulty of the endeavor prevents organizations from being able to deny the existence of the difficulty of the endeavor.

The process of complying with cloud standards takes place on multiple levels, not all of which are controlled by the same parties. This can make compliance with cloud standards challenging. One of the difficulties that come along with using cloud computing is this one. In addition, the implementation of shadow IT has made an already difficult position far more challenging. The vast majority of large companies, as well as the majority of smaller firms, have their own industry-specific laws and regulations on cloud compliance, in addition to the generic criteria for cloud provider compliance.

Suggestions to Improve Your Cloud Compliance

To ensure optimal cloud compliance, one must have a comprehensive awareness of both the big picture and the minutiae involved in the process. The following are some ideas that you could find useful:

1. Be Familiar with your Cloud Invest some time and effort into thoroughly comprehending your cloud model, in addition to the security obligations of your cloud service provider. This will assist you in determining where there are gaps in security and compliance. When comparing private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid clouds, there are significant distinctions as well as individual requirements for each. If you are not familiar with the configuration of your specific circumstance and the unique aspects that are involved, you will be unable to address cloud compliance in a meaningful manner.
2. Embrace Responsibility Let’s get one thing straight: Even if you and your cloud vendor or service provider can have “shared responsibility” for something, in the end, your organization is the one that is ultimately responsible for it. If the service provider violates the terms of the agreement, you are free to terminate the contract at any time; nevertheless, it is your responsibility to ensure that the information of your customers, employees, and the company as a whole is kept secure. Should you fail to do so, your company will find itself in a situation that is quite precarious.
3. Take SLAs seriously Service level agreements (SLAs) are frequently handled by companies as though they were simple template documents that were simply copied and pasted into place. In most cases, they are not read at all. And if they are, we only give them a cursory look. However, given the significance of compliance, you simply cannot afford to take a relaxed approach to this matter. The fees and restrictions associated with breaking regulations are significant. (And keep in mind that the responsibility ultimately rests with you!) If you aren’t clear on what it is that you require from your cloud service provider, you almost surely will end up exposing yourself to unwarranted amounts of risk. Your service level agreement (SLA) needs to explicitly explain how the cloud service provider will separate your environment from that of their other customers, where your data may or cannot be geographically situated, who can access data, and other relevant information. Remember that the fact that the cloud service provider has these things written down in an SLA does not guarantee that they will comply with the terms of the agreement. It is up to you to make sure that they follow through with it. Simply putting additional contractual pressure on them to adhere to the rules is all that your SLA does.
4. Be More Deliberate About Granting Access to Employees Access management is one of the most important components of cloud compliance, particularly about the security of data. You should put in place stringent restrictions that severely restrict which personnel have access to which programs, accounts, and data. Increase the stringency of your access expiration policies, enhance the need-based access restrictions you have in place, and conduct regular, in-depth audits to ensure that there are no security gaps that are just waiting to be exploited. In addition, having centralized visibility of your cloud platform can assist in improving the management of your compliance posture, which allows you to monitor the current state and rapidly respond to any potential concerns.
5. Take a Consolidated Approach to Safety and Security Your cloud infrastructure’s security, and consequently compliance with regulations, need to take a holistic approach and incorporate the principles of prevention, governance, visibility, and agility. To safeguard your application, enable a comprehensive security strategy that includes network security, threat intelligence, network, degree of access controls, and visibility. Encryption of data is standard practice in today’s world, yet the point merits restating. There will always be people who find a way in, regardless of how well the perimeter of your property is protected. Encrypting your data is now the most effective kind of protection that you have. You have to check that you are taking all the necessary precautions to ensure that it is completely safe. This means that data should be encrypted when it is at rest. If you have data encryption enabled while it is at rest, even if your access credentials get into the hands of a hacker (or even an employee), your data will not be able to be altered in any way. Because there are so many distinct forms of encryption, it is essential to spend some time carefully considering your specific requirements to develop a reliable solution that provides the highest possible level of security.

Challenges Of Cloud Compliance

The new and diverse types of computing environments each provide their own unique set of issues regarding compliance. The following are only a few samples out of a much larger pool of options.

• Certifications and Other Forms of Accreditation You and your public cloud vendor will both be required to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of applicable standards and legislation to satisfy the requirements. Therefore, in addition to the responsibilities that are specifically yours, you will also be responsible for ensuring that the cloud platform you use possesses the proper certifications or attestations. In addition, you will need to monitor validation because data protection laws are constantly evolving, new requirements are constantly being implemented, and cloud service providers might at any point lose their compliance status.
• Data Residency Because the majority of data protection rules only allow you to host personal data within approved territories, you will need to carefully consider which cloud locations you intend to use before moving further with your plans. If your company is subject to a substantial number of various regulations, this may prove to be an especially difficult task. In such circumstances, it is possible that you will need to implement a multi-cloud approach to guarantee that you have the appropriate combination of regions to cover all regulated data.
• Complexity of the Clouds You are unable to protect what you are unaware that you possess. The cloud, on the other hand, is a significantly more complicated environment with a great deal of variability. Because of this, maintaining visibility and control over the data that needs to be protected can be difficult. In addition, because of the complexity of the situation, it is more difficult to evaluate the threat posed to your data to come up with a strategy that will adequately safeguard it.

How to Achieve Cloud Compliance? 

For an organization to ensure that its cloud infrastructure complies with the necessary legislation and standards, that organization must follow several measures to achieve cloud compliance. Listed below are some important steps:

• Determine which regulations and standards are applicable Determine the rules and industry standards that are relevant to your company, depending on the kinds of data that you handle and store in the cloud. Be familiar with the compliance criteria that you must meet. Review the specific compliance standards in depth and make sure you have a good understanding of them to guarantee that your organization is adhering to all the relevant controls and guidelines.
• Make sure the cloud service provider you choose is compliant Choose a cloud service provider that complies with the legislation and standards that apply to your company, and check to see that the provider’s security procedures are adequate to satisfy the requirements of your organization.
• Be sure to do routine risk assessments Conduct regular risk assessments to discover potential risks and vulnerabilities in your cloud infrastructure, and then take the right steps to remedy these issues once they have been uncovered.
• Put in place appropriate safety measures Access restrictions, encryption, and data backups are some examples of security controls that should be implemented to guarantee the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of your data while it is stored in the cloud.
• You should do inspections and tests It is important to carry out frequent audits and assessments to ensure continuous compliance with applicable legislation and standards, as well as to locate areas in which improvements can be made.
• Be sure to document your guidelines and processes To assure and verify compliance with regulators and auditors, documenting all the policies, procedures, and controls that have been put into place is essential.
• Train current staff members On compliance policies, procedures, and security controls to ensure that they are aware of the duties and obligations that fall under their purview in maintaining compliance.

The Best Practices of Cloud Compliance 

There are many recommended procedures that companies might carry out in the cloud to ensure compliance with relevant standards. The applications of the following strategies are especially helpful:

• Encryption It is essential to encrypt the data both while it is stored and when it is being sent to ensure its safety. However, to ensure the safety of the data, it is essential to practice good key management, as the data’s confidentiality is dependent on the encryption keys.
• Confidentiality by Default It is possible to make compliance with data protection legislation and standards simpler by designing systems and processing operations with privacy as a basic aspect of the design.
• The Principle of the Lowest Possible Privilege It is crucial to allow users access to only the information and resources that are essential for them to carry out their responsibilities. This not only reduces the likelihood that an internal or external threat actor may compromise the system but also confirms that compliance procedures have been taken.
• Zero Trust It is necessary to implement stringent authentication, authorization, and monitoring procedures for all users, endpoints, and applications that use the network using zero trust and always verify the policy.
• Frameworks with a Good Architecture Organizations have the option of utilizing modular frameworks such as those that have been provided by key cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and the Cyscale platform. These frameworks provide guiding concepts that can be used to construct workloads that are optimized, secure, and resilient on their respective platforms.

A Solution to Cloud Compliance: Cyscale

When it comes to the utilization of cloud-based services, cloud compliance service providers are businesses that are specifically geared toward assisting organizations in achieving and sustaining compliance with the applicable legislation and standards. These service providers offer a variety of services, some of which include doing risk assessments, establishing and implementing cloud security policies and controls, providing compliance training, conducting audits and assessments, and delivering continuing monitoring and assistance to maintain ongoing compliance. All of these services are designed to assure ongoing compliance.

It may be beneficial for businesses that deal with sensitive data, such as those in the healthcare or financial industries, to use these services to guarantee that they are in compliance with regulatory regulations and prevent themselves from incurring expensive fines or legal actions. AWS Compliance Center, Microsoft Compliance Manager, Google Cloud Compliance, Cyscale, and many other companies are examples of cloud compliance service providers.

For example, the Cyscale Cloud Platform gives you complete visibility across all of your cloud and data repositories, from the app level up to your overall compliance posture. Cyscale provides the capability to evaluate, improve, and continually monitor compliance levels across a wide range of regulatory standards, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), and NIST.

You can maintain compliance with these requirements at all times by using the platform’s automated compliance monitoring, which keeps you abreast of any changes or upgrades that may occur. In addition to that, it makes it possible to apply new and updated policies across several cloud environments, all while offering the capability to monitor and track any changes. You may readily access and export data relating to policy changes by taking advantage of our choices for retaining data for a year and exporting it. On-demand, we may provide you with a free demo.