Mastering modern cloud security risk and threat management

Key takeaways:

• Identity breaches and excessive permissions are the top two cloud security threats, making stronger identity governance your most critical defense.
• Research finds 19% of organizations have no one responsible for cloud security. Learn how attackers exploit this resource gap and how a unified strategy for both cloud and on-prem security can help.
• Explore a six-part framework for consolidating data, scaling governance, and leveraging automation to stop modern cloud attacks before they cause damage.

Identity breaches and misconfigurations increase cloud security threats

The top security threats to cloud environments are specific weaknesses that attackers actively exploit. These findings highlight critical identity and access management challenges your organization faces.

According to a survey of security and DevOps professionals, the most significant threats are identity-related breaches (25%) and excessive permissions (22%).

Further data on identity and access management shows that organizations also struggle with siloed teams making privilege management difficult (18%) and relying on ad-hoc or best effort access reviews (15%). These issues underscore the need for better identity and access management.

Close behind are unpatched vulnerabilities at 19%, which reinforces the foundational importance of a proactive vulnerability management program to shrink attackers’ windows of opportunity.

Your organization must also address persistent cloud misconfigurations and prepare for potential zero-day exploits to secure your operations.

• Uncover the top cloud security threats your organization faces. Download the report.

A new playbook for scaling cloud security

The Techstrong Research report offers clear cloud risk management strategies:

1. Consolidate and integrate security data
2. Leverage CNAPP for more complex architectures
3. Increase governance across cloud identities and entitlements
4. Focus on Kubernetes and container security
5. Embrace automation to scale security processes
6. Invest in continuous employee training

• Download the free 2024 Techstrong Research cloud security report to learn more.

For complex environments built on microservices and APIs, the report recommends leveraging a cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) to fill knowledge gaps, including a dedicated focus on Kubernetes security and improving software supply chain security, which the report identifies as a significant threat vector.

Your teams should also pair these technical solutions with stronger processes and governance, such as enforcing least privilege access to reduce breach risk.

From insight to action with Tenable

Tenable Cloud Security directly addresses these core challenges by giving your cloud security team unified visibility across your cloud identities and entitlements so they can implement least privilege and automate critical risk discovery, just as the experts in this report recommend.

• Access your copy of the analyst report.

Frequently asked questions

Find the answers to common questions about cloud security. This information can help you understand the key details.

Who is responsible for cloud security in most organizations?

The 2024 TechStrong report finds that most organizations have fractured cloud security ownership. While 41% have a dedicated team, 19% have no one specifically responsible for cloud security.

What are the top security skills teams want to learn?

In 2024, security professionals were most focused on learning container and Kubernetes security (17%), zero trust and least privilege (16%), and AI-driven automation (15%).

What is the biggest weakness in cloud environments?

The research identifies identity as a critical focal point. The top two threats are identity-related breaches (25%) and excessive permissions (22%), making identity governance a top priority.

• Read the findings on risk and threat management strategies.