CISOs and their teams are under growing pressure to modernize security across hybrid cloud and multicloud environments. In an Enterprise Strategy Group survey, security decision-makers said increased use of cloud is one of the top factors making cybersecurity more difficult since the pandemic started.1 They also cited increases in remote work and IoT devices, as well as the growing threat landscape.
As cloud usage continues to expand, the attack surface continues to grow. Traditional security point tools and services are less effective and more costly to maintain. In fact, they may increase risk by giving organizations false confidence that visibility and protections are in place when, in reality, potential threats and vulnerabilities are being missed.
Another key challenge is the new reality of hybrid environments with multicloud and on-premises infrastructure combined with a dramatic increase in attacks aimed at hybrid and remote workers. One of the biggest risks in this more complex workplace is that security teams have less visibility into their organization’s environments, which means they are unable to proactively monitor threats and mitigate cloud exploits.
A modern approach to cloud security is needed for this new era. CISOs must be able to leverage modern tools and integrated solutions to improve their organization’s overall cyber hygiene in the cloud. One of the first priorities is to identify where sensitive data is kept so the cyber team can ensure safeguards are put in place for compliance, governance, and data protection requirements.
As CISOs navigate the growing complexity of hybrid and multicloud infrastructures, they have the opportunity to incorporate a new class of technologies designed to address the challenges of today’s environments and give them more confidence in their cloud security.
Foremost among these are solutions for cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection (CWP). With these tools, cyber teams can identify weak spots across cloud configurations, strengthen the cloud security posture, and protect workloads from evolving threats across multicloud and hybrid environments.
Of this new class of solution, Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers capabilities other platforms can’t match. Microsoft Defender for Cloud combines CSPM and CWP capabilities into an integrated solution that fills three vital needs for cyber teams:
- Continuously assess vulnerabilities by providing visibility into the current security posture. A quick snapshot of the existing security situation helps cyber teams set priorities and reduces the risk that a vulnerability will be successfully exploited.
- Secure infrastructure through customized and prioritized security recommendations. This improves the security posture by protecting all connected resources and services. For many recommendations, Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers a quick-fix button to easily execute the recommendation or remediate the problem.
- Strengthen defenses by creating alerts when threats are detected. Microsoft Defender for Cloud leverages Microsoft Threat Intelligence, which amasses billions of security signals to provide the necessary context, relevance, and priority—sometimes called enrichment—for team members to make faster and better cybersecurity decisions.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud can be hosted in Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services or on premises. This enables cyber teams to manage security centrally across all of the major cloud platforms. They can receive customized threat intelligence and prioritized alerts according to their specific environments.
Taking the Next Step
Visibility and proper protection are key to ensuring a successful cloud security strategy. To learn more about how Microsoft Defender for Cloud can help accelerate your organization’s cloud security maturity, review the article “How to Increase Your Confidence in Cloud Security With Microsoft,” read this guide, watch this Defender for Cloud series on the Microsoft Security YouTube channel, and check out this webcast on delivering security protection for your organization’s entire hybrid, multicloud, and multi-platform environment.
1 “ESG Complete Survey Results: 2021 SASE Trends: Plans Coalesce But Convergence Will Be Phased,” Enterprise Strategy Group, Dec. 13, 2021
