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Manage multi-cloud security with effective policy and configuration strategies to ensure compliance, optimize performance, and protect your network infrastructure. Multi-Cloud Security Network Policy and Configuration Management Taking advantage of cost and performance improvements, enterprises are extending their networks far beyond the traditional perimeter to incorporate multiple public and private clouds. Migration of applications to clouds has become an indispensable strategy for enterprises as clouds deliver many financial, performance and other advantages. Public clouds have become part of the computing fabric of millions of enterprises. Overview Digitally transforming their businesses with numerous new applications, mobility and big data, enterprises are rapidly expanding their networks. Taking advantage of cost and performance improvements, enterprise networks extend way beyond the traditional perimeter and now incorporate software-defined networks (SDN), micro-segmentation and multiple clouds. The typical medium or large enterprise now manages a dynamic heterogeneous network that includes: Data centers Public clouds Private clouds Traditional network security policy management within the data center has always been challenging enough. Multiple firewalls from different vendors, thousands of rules and hundreds of weekly or monthly changes call for their own careful management and automation. But as the network estate becomes even wider and more complex, coherent security policy now has to extend across the entire heterogeneous network that includes multiple public clouds (e.g., AWS, MS Azure, Google Cloud Platform), each with its own language and methods. In the world of multi-cloud deployments, the need for cloud vendor-agnostic, holistic security policy automation becomes essential. In this paper, we will discuss the major security policy issues that concern enterprises as they expand their networks across multiple clouds. We will explain how AlgoSec delivers a comprehensive, unified, vendor-agnostic automation solution that enables security managers to reduce risk, improve compliance and boost efficiency across the heterogeneous network including multi-clouds. Introduction In the data center, AlgoSec automates network security policy in device vendor-agnostic fashion—that is, it provides a unified console from which security teams can holistically manage security policy across multiple data centers and network segments that include many firewalls and other network devices. The AlgoSec solution is vendor-agnostic, enabling security teams to use a common security interface to handle policy management regardless of type of network device. The AlgoSec solution is able to tie security-policy management to business processes and applications, proactively assessing risk, and ensuring continuous compliance in addition to quick provisioning, change, migration and decommissioning of network connectivity for business applications. That businesses are migrating applications to private and public clouds doesn’t change anything for AlgoSec. Neither do virtualization nor multi-cloud deployments. In fact, the accelerating deployment of heterogeneous networks greatly increases the need for an automated Network Security Policy Management (NSPM) solution like AlgoSec. Where the data center meets the cloud The network landscape of today differs radically from what we knew only a few years ago. For a variety of quantifiable reasons that include productivity, agility and costs, enterprises are migrating their applications to public and private clouds. Public clouds Migration of applications to public clouds has become an indispensable strategy for enterprises as public clouds bring a great many advantages. The most popular of the public clouds, AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, have become part of the computing fabric of millions of enterprises. Because of the proliferation of easy-to-use and cost-effective public clouds, enterprises leverage multiple cloud vendors. IDC estimates that nearly 80 percent of IT organizations are currently deploying, or are planning to deploy, multi-cloud environments. A study conducted by Microsoft and 451 Research, The Digital Revolution Powered by Cloud, stated that nearly a third of organizations already work with three or four cloud vendors. The embracing of the multi-cloud environment can be attributed to the advantages each cloud vendor has to offer such as unique functions, proximity and pricing models. Since application requirements can vary greatly and require specific functions and capabilities to operate optimally, matching them to specific cloud vendors is important. Various cloud environments offer the functions and tools that deliver the best capabilities for each application. Some public clouds excel in cost advantages, others in availability, still others in compute power. Businesses evaluate the advantages of each cloud to take advantage of the functions that will best support each application. Enterprises also worry about lock-in—a commitment to a single cloud vendor—that might turn them into a captive customer allowing that vendor to dictate the terms of service and costs. Businesses avoid lock-in by deploying applications across multiple clouds. Private clouds As enterprises transform digitally, their data and applications grow exponentially. Network managers are constantly challenged to re-consider the network infrastructure that will best support business needs now and into the foreseeable future. Today, private cloud is one of their main considerations. Private cloud is a type of cloud computing that delivers advantages similar to public cloud, including scalability and self-service, but through a proprietary architecture that the enterprises maintain themselves. While public clouds deliver services to any number of enterprises, a single enterprise establishes its own private cloud dedicated to its own needs. Therefore, private cloud is the best choice for enterprises who wish to control all the aspects of their computing and where it is easier to manage security and regulatory compliance. According to Market Research Future, the global private cloud market, although not as widely adopted as the public cloud, is still expected to grow explosively at 26% CAGR between 2017 and 2023 and reach a valuation of more than USD 50B by 2023. Get a demo Hybrid networks As a result of the distinct advantages and disadvantages of each type of cloud implementation, most enterprises utilize two or three types of environments: traditional data center processing, private clouds and public clouds; and in many cases, employing multiple vendors for the cloud environments. Taken together, they give rise to the heterogeneous network environment or hybrid network . Migration to the cloud and virtualization – a growing trend Running applications across the hybrid network can prove eminently useful for business teams but extraordinarily challenging for security teams. The complexity of the heterogeneous environment introduces a new level of security policy management challenges. We identify seven major challenges that must be addressed to ensure security and compliance across hybrid networks. 1. Visibility The more heterogenous the network, the more complex it becomes. Complexity is the enemy of security. Across the vast landscape of physical equipment, virtual firewalls, and public-cloud network security groups, security teams find it difficult to obtain a clear picture of application-connectivity requirements and overall network security. You can’t protect what you can’t see. Visibility is essential to security and rapid incident response. Obtaining full visibility across the entire hybrid network requires a deep understanding of the hybrid network’s topology and the flows between: On-premise networks and cloud providers Multiple public cloud environments VPCs and v-NETs Regions within the same cloud providers Cloud environments and the internet A study sponsored by Forbes surveyed professionals in enterprise IT departments about their cloud infrastructures. More than one-third said they lack visibility into their application operations in the public cloud. The independent market research company, Vanson Bourne, conducted a survey to investigate the state of network security. In Hide and Seek: Cybersecurity and the Cloud , two-thirds of respondents cited network “blind spots” as a major obstacle to effective data protection. Ixia’s recent survey of senior IT staff in various organizations regarding their cloud security concerns concurred. The top concern with cloud adoption was the ability to achieve full visibility. 2. Maintaining compliance posture Put bluntly, compliance is absolutely necessary for the business but is a nuisance for the IT staff. With the recent introduction of the GDPR and the growing body of legal and industrial regulations, compliance is taking up more and more effort and time from IT departments and especially security staff. Keeping up with the numerous regulations that are found in a growing number of geographies and industries is challenging enough in a single-cloud-provider environment. Compliance challenges multiply rapidly in heterogeneous environments due to: The need to apply compliance processes for each regulation for each network entity Service contract terms and SLAs across the estate Compliance methodologies that work for one cloud vendor don’t necessarily work for another Audits are point-in-time exercises, but most regulations require continuous compliance, tough to achieve in a dynamic environment Compliance needs to be documented for every entity and vendor, very tedious and time-consuming, and a drain on scant resources The essence of information security regulations such as PCI-DSS, GLBA and HIPAA is to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information. While these regulations are addressed by the best practices that IT departments have continuously implemented for years, the challenges are rapidly expanding in the heterogeneous environment. Due to the chronic lack of IT and security staff, teams are incessantly pulled in different directions. In many cases, it’s gotten to the point where IT staff are busy putting out security and operational fires and have little time to perform critical strategic work such as addressing compliance issues at the network and cloud level. Multiple clouds just make the task that much harder. 3. Identifying and mitigating risks Due to the dynamic nature of the hybrid (on-prem and cloud) network, numerous changes to security policies are likely to ensue. These changes will be implemented on all the devices that direct traffic and will likely be performed by the multiple stakeholders involved in the hybrid network such as application developers and DevOps in addition to cloud and security teams. The ever-transforming environment necessitates close attention as risk may be introduced inadvertently by these changes. The risks within the complex hybrid-cloud estate will likely be too numerous and complex to be identified manually. Therefore, it’s imperative to obtain a dashboard that depicts all risks on a single screen. This dashboard should indicate the severity, the affected devices and rules, and the changes required to remediate each risk. The dashboard also requires the ability to notify pro-actively (via alarm) whenever the network is exposed to new risks. 4. Managing application connectivity The growing body of applications requires a complex, multi-tiered, distributed and interconnected architecture supported by elaborate communication paths that cross other applications, servers and databases. A Symantec analysis found that while most CIOs think their organizations use only 30 or 40 cloud applications , in fact, most have adopted an average of 928! Even if they get a grip on their current application volume, network and security teams can’t consider themselves in control. There are constant upgrades and changes, as well as new applications to deploy, connect and secure. Business users demand that they be up and running immediately while security is hard-pressed to keep up. Trying to manage application connectivity across on-premise, private and public clouds, each with multiple vendors, is prohibitively expensive in time and effort. 5. Managing policies Maintaining a clean set of firewall rules is a critical network-management function. Difficult enough in the data center, things really get out of hand when networks cross borders into the cloud. Private clouds add unique security controls such as ACI contracts and distributed firewalls. And each public cloud has its unique security controls such as cloud-native security groups, cloud-vendor firewalls (e.g., Azure firewall and AWS WAF), and 3rd-party cloud firewalls by the traditional firewall vendors (e.g., CloudGuard from Checkpoint and Palo Alto Networks’ VM series). The proliferation of security controls that make up the hybrid, multi-cloud network multiplies policy-management complexity. Maintaining a clean set of firewall rules is a critical firewall management function. Difficult enough in the data center, things really get out of hand when networks cross borders into the cloud. Adding more than one cloud further multiples the policy-management complexity. Unwieldy rulesets are not just a technical nuisance, they also introduce business risks, such as open ports, unneeded VPN tunnels and conflicting rules that create the backdoor entry points that hackers love. Bloated rulesets significantly complicate auditing processes that require the careful review of each rule and its related business justification. Examples of firewall rules that institute problems include: Unused rules Shadowed rules Expired rules Unattached objects (rules that refer to non-existent entities such as users who have left the company) Rules that are not ordered optimally (e.g., the rule that is “most hit” is near the bottom of the rule list) These problems drive organizations to take on ad hoc firewall “cleanup” or “recertification” projects. The problems are magnified in enterprises with: A large number of traditional physical firewalls Firewalls from multiple vendors (Checkpoint, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks) Different types of platforms (on-prem, private cloud, public cloud) Different types of security controls (traditional firewalls, security groups, etc.) Such complexities contribute to a lack of visibility, poor accountability, and undetected network breaches. They accumulate unnecessary costs for the business and waste precious IT time. Enterprises across the board are well aware of the need to get a handle on security controls. Research by ESG indicates that 70 percent of organizations plan to unify security controls for all server workloads across public clouds and on-premises resources over the next two years. 6. Enforcing security-policy consistency The only constant in today’s IT environment is change. Today, change occurs at a breakneck pace. As business needs transform (due to rapid business growth, mergers and acquisitions, new applications, decommissioning of old applications, new and departing users, evolving networks, new cyber threats), so must security policies—and fast. Managing change can lead to major headaches for IT, security and cloud management teams who try to enforce consistent security policies across the heterogenous network. Maintaining consistency across the hybrid and multi-cloud network meets with many problems such as: Each security entity has a different method of managing policy changes. Lack of intricate understanding of the proper management of changes for each security entity can lead to critical business risks as benign as legitimate traffic blockage all the way to the entire business network going offline. Manual workflows and change management processes that are unique for each security entity can substantially slow down the change process, impeding IT agility. Some enterprises with a very complex heterogeneous network are so concerned about change control and its potential negative impact that they may resort to network freezes during peak business times so as not to suffer inexplicable outages. Changes are slow. It can take several days—sometimes weeks—to process a single change in a complex enterprise environment. Enterprises may implement hundreds of changes each month. It’s difficult to assess the risk of a proposed change. The change process in a hybrid network involves disparate teams (security, networking, cloud, business owners). These teams speak different languages and have different objectives. They lack a unifying factor. 7. Handling multiple management consoles Each cloud vendor provides its own console that facilitates the day-to-day management of its cloud accounts and provides services such as monitoring cloud-resource usage, calculating current costs and managing security credentials. In addition, each firewall vendor offers its own unique management console for managing all of its devices. Each vendor’s console comes with its own language and GUI. To make network-wide policy changes that span firewalls and clouds, security staff must access multiple consoles forcing enterprises to employ a legion of experts just to implement even a simple change. Changes have to be meticulously coordinated across the many management consoles slowing down progress and introducing potential for errors. 8. Lack of skilled staff with cloud-security knowledge Despite all the advancements we have made in network security in recent years, enterprises still endure regular cyberattacks that continue to cause billions of dollars in damages. Effective network security professionals are now more important than ever. Yet, despite the urgent need (and handsome salaries), the world suffers from a severe scarcity in able and certified personnel. According to a recent McAfee study titled The ramifications of the skills shortage on cloud security, IT leaders need to increase their security staffs by 24% to adequately manage their current threat landscape. But these people are simply not available. The absence of adequately trained security professionals leaves gaps in many aspects of modern-day security infrastructure. In their report on security deficiencies , ESG found that 33% of responders indicated that their biggest deficiency was cloud security specialists followed by 28% who pointed to a deficiency in network security specialists and 27% who suffer a shortage of security analysts. A security officer with expertise in any cloud environment needs to be familiar with the best practices of incident response and must also be proficient in cloud security practices such as identity access management (IAM), deployment automation and cloud regulatory compliance. The requisite qualifications are amplified when the same officer needs to manage multiple cloud vendors. As security varies with each vendor, the multi-cloud security officer must know the security nuances of each cloud vendor and stay up to date with the ongoing security advancements of each. It is practically impossible to find such people. Many network and cloud security positions remain unfilled forcing organizations to compromise. Network security challenges in the hybrid network AlgoSec delivers business-driven security management across on-premise, SDN, hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud environments. With AlgoSec, enterprises maintain a uniform security policy across their entire network estate. From a single console, security teams can see across their on-prem and virtual networks and into all their clouds. They obtain accurate policy change automation across their physical and virtual firewalls as well as into their public cloud deployments. The AlgoSec approach bestows numerous critical benefits on the enterprise: Visibility across the hybrid cloud and multi-cloud from a business-application perspective Uniform security policy across complex hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments Compliance assurance across the hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments Hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud security policy change automation with zero touch Increased agility and responsiveness to business needs Accelerated application delivery Optimal training of security personnel—one console, one language—for the entire heterogeneous network The AlgoSec solution for heterogeneous environments AlgoSec delivers the acute visibility, automation and unified solution for managing the entire volume of hybrid-cloud security policies, configurations and controls to achieve and maintain security and compliance. Maintaining a robust security posture in such a complex environment that includes on-premise network equipment from multiple vendors, SDN, virtual, private and public cloud infrastructures necessitates automation . AlgoSec is the leading automation solution for network security policy management. Used by 1,800 customers in over 80 countries, AlgoSec delivers end-to-end visibility and analysis of the hybrid network security infrastructure (including real and virtual firewalls, routers and cloud security groups), as well as business applications and their connectivity flows—across cloud, SDN and on-premise enterprise networks. AlgoSec automates time-consuming and error-prone manual security-policy changes with zero touch, proactively assessing risk and ensuring continuous compliance. AlgoSec quickly provisions, modifies, migrates and decommissions network connectivity for business applications. To discover more about AlgoSec’s business-driven security management solution, visit www.algosec.com , or click here to request a demo. Executive summary Select a size Overview Introduction Where the data center meets the cloud Migration to the cloud and virtualization – a growing trend Network security challenges in the hybrid network The AlgoSec solution for heterogeneous environments Executive summary Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

AlgoSec & Palo Alto Networks AlgoSec seamlessly integrates with Palo Alto Networks NGFWs to automate application and user aware security policy management and ensure that Palo Alto Networks’ devices are properly configured. AlgoSec supports the entire security policy management lifecycle — from application connectivity discovery, through ongoing management and compliance, to rule recertification and secure decommissioning. Solution brief View webinar How to Regulatory compliance Learn how to prepare for a regulatory audit Risk Assessment Learn how to assess risk on your Palo Alto devices with AlgoSec Palo Alto Ignite See how Palo Alto Users Can Benefit from AlgoSec Schedule time with one of our experts Explore the partnership Enhance Your Palo Alto Networks Environment With AlgoSec Read document Palo Alto Networks and AlgoSec Solution Brochure Read document Protecting Your Network’s Precious Jewels with Micro-Segmentation, Kyle Wickert, AlgoSec Watch Download these resources to discover more about our partnership with Palo Alto Networks

Cisco awards AlgoSec with EMEA Co-Sell Partner of the Year and Cisco Meraki Marketplace Tech Partner of the Month based on the company’s continued innovation and dedication to application security AlgoSec Wins Two Cisco Partnership Awards, Recognizing the Value for Securing Application Connectivity Across Hybrid Networks Cisco awards AlgoSec with EMEA Co-Sell Partner of the Year and Cisco Meraki Marketplace Tech Partner of the Month based on the company’s continued innovation and dedication to application security November 20, 2024 Speak to one of our experts RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ, November 20, 2024 – Global cybersecurity leader AlgoSec announced it was named November 2024’s Cisco Meraki Marketplace Tech Partner of the Month. AlgoSec received the award for its Secure Application Connectivity platform, which transforms network security policy management by intelligently automating and orchestrating security change processes. Cisco’s cloud-managed Meraki platform enables users to centrally manage and configure security solutions, bridging the gap between hardware and the cloud to deliver a high-performance network. When integrated with AlgoSec’s secure application connectivity platform, joint customers can achieve holistic visibility across their Cisco and multivendor network, expedite security policy changes, reduce risks, prevent outages and ensure continuous compliance. “We are thrilled to be recognized as a value-added partner by Cisco,” said Reinhard Eichborn , Director of Strategic Alliances at AlgoSec. “In the current security landscape, embracing automation to eliminate human errors, misconfigurations and prolonged outages is vital. Our partnership with Cisco enables us to do this by giving customers a holistic view of how applications operate within their network, removing the need for manual monitoring and data processing. It’s a single source of truth for application security management that helps sustain business-critical operations and limit the threat of a potential data breach." AlgoSec has been recognized by winning Cisco’s Co-Sell Partner of the Year EMEA award for its collaborative efforts to jointly market and sell complementary solutions alongside Cisco to allow joint customers to secure their complex networks by focusing on the applications that run their businesses. The dynamic partnership focuses on improving visibility, automating application connectivity changes and easily discovering and managing risks by integrating the AlgoSec platform with Cisco’s network solutions. The awards program honors top-performing partners that have introduced innovative processes, seized new opportunities and adopted sales approaches that achieve substantial business outcomes for customers. In today’s threat environment, innovative security measures that prioritize security at the application level have become essential. Further underscoring AlgoSec’s commitment to application security, the company was recently recognized by Cyber Defense Magazine’s Top InfoSec Innovator 2024 awards as a winner in the Hot Company Application Security and Most Innovative Network Security and Management categories. The program awards companies that demonstrate understanding of tomorrow’s threats, today, providing a cost-effective solution and innovating in unexpected ways that can help mitigate cyber risk and get one step ahead of the next breach. To find out more visit https://www.algosec.com/cisco-algosec/ . About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to secure application connectivity and cloud-native applications throughout their multi-cloud and hybrid network. Trusted by more than 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations, AlgoSec’s application-centric approach enables secure acceleration of business application deployment by centrally managing application connectivity and security policies across the public clouds, private clouds, containers, and on-premises networks. Using its unique vendor-agnostic deep algorithm for intelligent change management automation, AlgoSec enables the acceleration of digital transformation projects, helps prevent business application downtime and substantially reduces manual work and exposure to security risks. AlgoSec’s policy management and CNAPP platforms provide a single source for visibility into security and compliance issues within cloud-native applications as well as across the hybrid network environment, to ensure ongoing adherence to internet security standards, industry, and internal regulations. Learn how AlgoSec enables application owners, information security experts, DevSecOps and cloud security teams to deploy business applications up to 10 times faster while maintaining security at https://www.algosec.com . 

Multi-cloud environments create complex IT architectures that are hard to secure. Although cloud computing creates numerous advantages... Cloud Security 3 Proven Tips to Finding the Right CSPM Solution Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 11/24/22 Published Multi-cloud environments create complex IT architectures that are hard to secure. Although cloud computing creates numerous advantages for companies, it also increases the risk of data breaches. Did you know that you can mitigate these risks with a CSPM? Rony Moshkovitch, Prevasio’s co-founder, discusses why modern organizations need to opt for a CSPM solution when migrating to the cloud and also offers three powerful tips to finding and implementing the right one. Cloud Security Can Get Messy if You Let it A cloud-based IT infrastructure can lower your IT costs, boost your agility, flexibility, and scalability, and enhance business resilience. These great advantages notwithstanding, the cloud also has one serious drawback: it is not easy to secure. When you move from an on-premise infrastructure to the cloud, the size of your digital footprint expands. This can attract hackers on the prowl who are looking for the first opportunity to compromise your assets or steal your data. Cloud security solutions include multiple elements that must be managed and protected, such as microservices, containers, and serverless functions. These elements increase cloud complexity, reduce visibility into the cloud estate, and make it harder to secure. For all these reasons, security issues arise in the cloud, increasing the risk of breaches that may result in financial losses, legal liabilities, or reputational damage. To protect the complex and fluid cloud environment, sophisticated automation is essential. Enter cloud security posture management. How to Identify and Implement the Right CSPM Solution 1) It must offer a flat learning curve to accelerate time to value: The CSPM solution can be easy to implement, adopt, and use. It should not burden your security team. Rather, it should simplify cloud security by providing non-intrusive, agentless scans of all cloud accounts, services, and assets. It should also provide actionable information in a single-pane-of-glass view that clearly reveals what needs to be remediated in order to strengthen your cloud security posture. In addition, the solution should generate reports that are easy to understand and share. 2) It must support non-intrusive, agentless, static and dynamic analyses: Some CSPM solutions only support static scans, leaving dynamic scans to other intrusive solutions. The problem with the latter is that they require agents to be deployed, managed, and updated for every scan, increasing the organization’s technical debt and forcing security teams to spend expensive (and scarce) resources on solution management. The best way to minimize the debt and the management burden on security teams is to choose a CSPM that can scan for threats in an agentless manner. It should also perform agentless dynamic analyses on all container applications and images that can reveal valuable information about exposed network ports and other risks. 3) It must be reasonably priced: CSPM is important but it shouldn’t burn a hole in your pocket. The solution should fit your security budget and match your organization’s size, cloud environment complexity, and cloud asset usage. Also, look for a vendor that provides a transparent license model and dynamic security features instead of just dynamic, expensive billing (that could reduce your ability to control your cloud costs). Conclusion and next steps The global CSPM market is set to double from $4.2 billion in 2022 to $8.6 billion by 2027. Already, many CSPM vendors and solutions are available. In order to select the best solution for your organization, make sure to consider the three tips discussed here. Need more tailored advice about the security needs of your enterprise cloud? Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

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Looking to learn about cloud security compliance requirements and standards This article covers everything you need to know how AlgoSec can help your company Cloud compliance standards & security best practices Did you know that about 60% of the world’s corporate data is stored in the cloud? This figure is expected to keep rising as more companies adopt the cloud. Why is there a massive rise in the adoption of cloud computing? Cloud solutions offer great speed, agility, and flexibility. Organizations use emerging cloud technologies to deliver cutting-edge products and services. That said, deploying your workload to the cloud has many inherent security risks. Cloud infrastructures have an increased attack surface. And companies significantly rely on cloud providers to secure their sensitive data and applications. The cloud is complex with many access points that malicious actors can exploit. In other words, data stored in the cloud is more exposed to cyber-attacks To reinforce security and mitigate risks, there are cloud compliance frameworks you are required to comply with. There are many regulatory requirements or standards, including cloud provider compliance requirements and industry-specific compliance standards (like Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard [PCI DSS]). In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about cloud compliance, including compliance challenges & tips and how AlgoSec can help you implement compliant data security policies and procedures. What is cloud security compliance? Even though cloud technologies give organizations the speed and agility they need to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-changing business world, maintaining compliance with security standards is difficult. Here are some key compliance challenges cloud users are generally dealing with: Visibility into Hybrid Networks Complying with standards is difficult for organizations that operate hybrid networks due to visibility issues. A hybrid network uses more than one type of connection technology or topology. Managing a range of technologies makes gaining visibility into each network component more difficult. Meeting compliance requirements demand having good oversight over your network components. This is a big challenge for companies that run on hybrid cloud technologies. Keeping tabs on hybrid environments is time-consuming and requires advanced capabilities due to the complexity of these emerging cloud solutions. That said, you can solve the visibility issues by integrating a dedicated cloud security management solution to provide complete visibility into your hybrid and multi-cloud network environment. Multi-Cloud Workflows Most companies use multi-cloud solutions. As the technologies get more complex, so do the workflows. In other words, multi-cloud workflows are sophisticated and multi-faceted. Consequently, it’s harder for compliance officers to ensure the workflows meet relevant requirements. Dealing with multiple cloud services and having employees accessing data from various devices makes keeping up with information security and cloud governance standards very difficult. The multi-cloud architecture enables the distribution of roles in the company for better flexibility and agility. This impacts compliance as there are many people making decisions and applying changes. Monitoring who did what and how the changes affect your security posture is a labor-intensive process that can cause non-compliance. Automation Noncompliance can result from the inability of security officers to use automation solutions to comply with the metrics. Some security laws or regulations require manual monitoring of cloud infrastructures. This approach is time-consuming. Security standards are a lot easier to meet when the compliance check processes can be automated. Data Security The primary objective of cloud security regulations is to ensure the safety and confidentiality of sensitive data. Today, security data has become more challenging than ever. Deploying workloads and data to the cloud has worsened this problem. Cloud data security is challenging for two reasons: cloud storage or infrastructures have a wide attack surface area and ever-growing cyber threats. There is an increase in cyber-attacks, and cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated than before. This trend is expected to worsen, with cyber criminality becoming a lucrative business. With cloud environments having multiple access points that can be compromised, malicious cyber actors are motivated to attack cloud systems. In addition, having data stored across multiple cloud services make data security a major threat to compliance. Maintaining Compliance Standards Each time CloudOps or a regulation evolve, organizations find it challenging to follow the rules or comply with new standards. When a compliance standard is updated, companies invest massive resources to understand the requirements and implement changes accordingly – while ensuring their optimal performance. Depending on the size of an organization, maintaining compliance is mentally tasking, time-consuming, and capital-intensive. Cloud compliance challenges Having discussed the major cloud compliance challenges, here are some tips you can leverage to meet relevant requirements and remain compliant. Conduct a Network Security Audit Data security is a major compliance problem companies are facing. You can significantly improve your network security by instituting a security audit policy. An audit helps you to know the state of your security framework. It helps you understand how effective or reliable your security solutions are and uncover security policies you need to optimize. In addition, regular inspection enables you to avoid breaches by spotting vulnerabilities promptly. Conduct Periodic Compliance Checks Companies used to meet compliance standards through a well-regulated annual audit. Today, you are required to demonstrate to customers and regulators that your company is constantly compliant. As a result, you need to run periodic compliance check-ups in real-time. This doesn’t only help you avoid fines & penalties but also enables you to avoid security breaches and loss of data. Consider Micro-Segmentation This cloud security approach involves dividing cloud environments or data centers into unique segments and applying custom access and security controls to each segment. Micro-segmentation boosts security and gives better control over data and risk management . With security policies applied separately to each segment, a company-wide breach is unlikely. And when something goes wrong, restoring compliance is easier since security controls are not lumped together. In other words, micro-segmentation minimizes attack surface. It creates many “small networks” with independent security controls. So, when a malicious actor breaches your firewall, they don’t have access to your entire data centers and cloud environments – reducing the scope of damage of a single breach. In addition, micro-segmentation prevents east-west movement in your network. This security posture helps prevent east-west attacks by bringing granular segmentation down to the virtual machine level Periodically Audit Your Firewall Rules Firewall rules define what traffic your firewall allows and what is rejected. As the threat landscape keeps changing, there is a need to audit and update your firewall rules. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving and finding new ways to compromise networks. To be a thousand steps ahead of them, implement a security policy that mandates periodic auditing of your firewall rules. Cloud compliance tips If you are looking to learn more about cloud solutions and security compliance, this section covers some common questions you might have: What are the Main Security Benefits of a Hybrid Cloud Solution? A hybrid cloud solution enhances data security and helps you comply with regulations. It improves data security by giving organizations better flexibility with data storage options. With the hybrid model, you can store the most sensitive data in on-premise data centers and use public cloud services like Google Cloud for less sensitive data. On-premise data centers are more difficult to compromise, while data stored in a public cloud is easy to access and process by your team members. If your company operates in places with data localization laws, you don’t need to build data centers in each country. Customer data collected locally can be stored in public cloud infrastructures that comply with the data localization requirements. What are Some Hybrid Cloud Security Best Practices? Hybrid cloud security best practices include automation & visibility, regular audits, access control, consistent data encryption, secure endpoints, and secure backups. What About Public Cloud Security? How Do You Ensure AWS and Azure Compliance To ensure compliance, employ Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure cloud engineers to help you configure and set up your cloud network. Public clouds are super complex. Not having experts configure and manage your cloud assets can lead to misconfigurations, waste of resources, and non-compliance. In addition to hiring experienced public cloud engineers, you should have a dedicated compliance specialist. The person will be responsible for monitoring compliance status to ensure your company is never found wanting. And when things go wrong, your compliance officer will be there to proffer solutions. What are the Top Cybersecurity Threats in the Public Cloud? Top cybersecurity threats in the public cloud include unauthorized access to data, distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks, cloud misconfiguration, data leaks & data breaches, insecure API, insecure third-party resources, and system vulnerabilities. What are Some Common Regulatory Compliance Requirements? There are many global regulatory frameworks that set requirements organizations must meet when collecting and managing customer data. These regulations include HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, ISO/IEC 27001, NIST, NERC, and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Some of these regulatory frameworks are industry specific, while some apply to every company that operates where they are effective. For instance, HIPAA applies to the healthcare industry, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to any organization that processes the personal data of EU citizens. Not all compliance standards apply to both on-premises data centers and cloud environments. Some regulations relate specifically to your cloud controls. What is the Shared Responsibility Model? The shared responsibility model stipulates that cloud service providers and their customers are responsible for ensuring the security of cloud networks. While cloud providers maintain basic compliance standards and provide security tools, your organization has a part to play in protecting its cloud networks. Use the security capabilities and tools offered by the cloud providers and third-party cloud security services to ensure your company has full visibility and management of its SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS assets. What are the Main Types of Network Security Policies? A network security policy defines a company’s security framework. It provides guidelines for computer network access, determines policy enforcement, and lays out the architecture of your organization’s network security environment. Network security policies determine how security best practices are implemented throughout the network estate. That being said, the main types of security policies include access management, email security, log management, BYOD, Password, patch management, server security, systems monitoring & auditing, vulnerability assessment, firewall management, and cloud configuration policies. Cloud security FAQs AlgoSec is a leader in cloud security management. It helps the world’s largest and most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk, and maintain security & compliance across hybrid networks. Here is how AlgoSec can help your company with cloud compliance: End-to-End Network Visibility Get visibility of the underlying security policies implemented on firewalls and other security devices across your cloud-only or hybrid network, including multiple cloud vendors. Have a detailed insight into your network’s traffic flows and the state of your applications and data in real-time. Complete end-to-end visibility gives you the insights you need to implement suitable security policies to ensure compliance. Ensure Continuous Compliance Major regulations, like PCI DSS, ISO 27001 , HIPAA, SOX, NERC, and GDPR require you to conduct an audit to show compliance. This is time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially for organizations that run super complex cloud systems. Simplify and reduce audit preparation efforts and costs with out-of-the-box audit reports. Multi-Cloud Management You don’t have to spend more resources implementing multiple management consoles. With AlgoSec, you can handle multiple cloud management portals using a single solution. Secure Change Management Implement changes and configurations securely with zero-touch provisioning (ZTP). Manage security policies across single-cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments via automation with zero-touch. Deploy changes automatically and eliminate most of the error-prone manual labor. Cloud Security Training AlgoSec offers comprehensive training for cloud security professionals. Cloud technologies are complex. And they keep evolving. Keeping tabs on new technologies and best practices requires regular cloud security training. Optimal training of your security personnel helps you stay compliant and proactively avert a crisis. Hybrid Cloud Environment Management Automatically migrates application connectivity and provides a unified security policy through easy-to-use workflows, risk assessment, and security policy management . How does AlgoSec help with cloud compliance? Select a size What is cloud security compliance? Cloud compliance challenges Cloud compliance tips Cloud security FAQs How does AlgoSec help with cloud compliance? Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk White paper Choose a better way to manage your network

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Find the best firewall audit tools to ensure PCI DSS compliance. Streamline your audits, identify vulnerabilities, and maintain a secure network environment. Best firewall audit tools for PCI security compliance Today, every organization operates in a challenging business landscape where success is not guaranteed by the quality of its products or services. It is equally important for the company to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and standards, including the regulations related to IT security and data privacy. However, maintaining compliance is not easy because many regulations are extremely strict and are constantly changing. One example of such a regulation is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Even organizations with a robust IT security ecosystem struggle to achieve compliance, more so if they have implemented multiple firewalls, each with its own ruleset and policy base. They must regularly audit these rulesets to ensure that every firewall is working as expected to strengthen the organization’s security posture. A detailed and regular firewall audit enables businesses to monitor firewall configurations and rule changes, validate access controls, and ultimately, ensure that firewalls comply with internal and external security standards. That said, when organizations manage thousands of firewall rules, they often struggle to conduct audits using manual processes. Fortunately, implementing a firewall audit and compliance tool can simplify the audit effort. It can also ease compliance with internal security policies and external regulatory standards such as PCI-DSS. Let’s explore. What is firewall audit tools for PCI security compliance? All organizations face firewall management issues, especially when there are many firewalls and associated rules to manage. An automated firewall audit tool simplifies the effort to analyze firewall configurations and identify compliance gaps. The tool automatically analyzes firewalls and their rulesets, replacing the need for manual processes and human intervention. It audits every rule and configuration that controls network traffic, including access control lists (ACLs), interfaces, and address translations. In addition, it continuously monitors firewall rule changes, and automatically runs audits on a pre-defined schedule. Finally, it flags the status of each compliance requirement and generates real-time reports about policy misconfigurations and compliance violations. By acting on these insights, your organization can update its firewall rules, which can then help improve network performance, reduce downtime, and improve overall security. What does a firewall audit tool do? A manual firewall audit is often time-consuming and error-prone. Moreover, manual processes may not help you maintain continuous compliance – which most regulatory regimes require – if you have thousands of rulesets across many firewalls and routers, or if these rules change often. A firewall compliance tool simplifies firewall audits and compliance-related tasks. It continuously monitors all firewalls, and their rules and rule changes. Using sophisticated algorithms, the tool evaluates all firewall rules against internal corporate policies and external regulations such as PCI-DSS. It then identifies compliance vulnerabilities and generates audit reports so you can see where these gaps exist and initiate appropriate remediation measures. An advanced, feature-rich audit tool like AlgoSec checks all firewall policy changes for compliance violations before they are implemented so you can avoid the costs and efforts of after-the-fact remediations. Moreover, the entire change approval process is automatically documented, thus facilitating continuous, uninterrupted compliance across all firewalls throughout the organization. All in all, a firewall auditing solution incorporates automation, continuous monitoring, event correlation rules, and real-time reporting that will save you countless man-hours and funds that you normally spend on configuration cleanup and firewall optimization. Additionally, it will enable your organization to: Keep track of all firewalls and firewall activity logs in a central location Discover outdated, unused, or misconfigured rules that weaken network security, lead to downtime, or affect business continuity Identify where changes are needed to optimize performance and security Track and analyze suspicious or potentially malicious network events Automatically document all configuration changes to avoid security blind spots Demonstrate compliance to internal and external auditors The best tools support multiple firewall platforms and are well-suited for consolidating firewalls and streamlining their configurations. What are the benefits of firewall audit tools? A detailed and regular firewall audit is critical for managing firewall rules and maintaining the right firewall configurations. A single misconfigured or outdated rule can leave the entire network – and the organization – vulnerable to a cyberattack. A typical manual audit includes all these steps: Collect information about the network and its various elements, including hardware network devices, software applications, VPNs, and ISPs Collect firewall logs Collect information related to operating systems, default configurations, and latest patches Assess the existing rule-base change-management process to confirm whether changes and validations are done reliably, transparently, and with proper documentation Audit every firewall’s physical and software security posture by evaluating:Device administration, security management, and configuration management procedures Whether operating systems are sufficiently hardened Whether firewall activities are recorded and logged Whether an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is in place Whether patches and updates are implemented by firewall vendors Whether access controls are in place for firewall and management servers Who is allowed to access the firewall server rooms and make device configuration changes Remove unused and expired rules to optimize the rule-base Evaluate policy usage against firewall logs to identify (overly) permissive rules Analyze VPN parameters to identify and remove unused connections, irrelevant routes, and expired/unused users/user groups Perform a detailed risk assessment to discover risky and non-compliant rules based on internal policies and industry standards and best practices (e.g., PCI-DSS) Prioritize rules in terms of severity and the organization’s criteria for “acceptable” risk Implement appropriate remediations Review firewall backup, encryption, and restore-processes for recovery from disasters, and maintain business continuity All these steps – not to mention a robust risk management process – are essential to ensure reliable and insightful firewall audits. But the effort can quickly become overwhelming if there are a large number of firewalls and each firewall has a vast rule-base. Here’s where automated compliance audits with a tool like AlgoSec are very valuable. For a more detailed checklist that will help you simplify firewall auditing, and reduce cybersecurity risks in your IT environment, click here . Firewall audit checklist AlgoSec’s security policy management solution simplifies and streamlines firewall security audits. All you need to do is follow four easy steps: Ensure that your network is fully integrated with the AlgoSec platform In AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer, click “Devices” and then “All Firewalls” Click “All Reports” and then the listed report Click “Regulatory Compliance” This simple process is all you need to conduct an effective and comprehensive firewall audit and to maintain compliance with PCI-DSS and other regulations. Make your firewalls audit-ready and compliant using AlgoSec AlgoSec’s solution does all the heavy lifting with regard to the auditing of firewall rulesets and configurations. It is designed to ensure that your configurations satisfy the criteria for both external regulatory standards such as PCI-DSS and internal security policies. AlgoSec’s solution also helps you reduce overall risk factors and improve firewall performance by: Instantly generating audit-ready reports for all major regulations, including PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOX, and NERC Generating detailed and customizable reports for internal compliance requirements Proactively checking every rule change for compliance violations Flagging non-compliant rules and devices Providing a detailed audit trail of all firewall changes, approval processes, and violations All in all, AlgoSec gives you all the information you need to remediate problems in your firewall devices and rules and to ensure continuous compliance across the network. Maintaining continuous PCI-DSS compliance with AlgoSec PCI-DSS compliance is mandatory for any business that processes customers’ credit cards. Its guidelines are intended to enhance the security of card data, and protect cardholders from security events such as data breaches and identity theft. The standard specifies 12 requirements that organizations must meet. One of these requirements is to install and maintain a firewall to prevent unauthorized system access and protect cardholder data. Businesses must also implement controls to properly configure firewalls, and create configurations that restrict connections between the cardholder data environment and untrusted networks. In addition, they must document all security policies and operational procedures for managing firewalls. Firewall audits can help organizations maintain the correct firewall rules, strengthen network security, and meet PCI-DSS requirements. AlgoSec’s solution simplifies the effort with automation, continuous monitoring, and out-of-the-box templates. It also provides change audit trails and audit-ready compliance reports to satisfy both external regulatory requirements and internal regulations. Furthermore, it provides custom analyses, reports, and notifications that help you to periodically review all firewall configurations, identify security issues and compliance gaps, and take action to maintain compliance with PCI-DSS. Other industry standards supported by AlgoSec PCI-DSS is not the only set of standards supported by solution. In fact, it supports a wide range of many leading industry standards and regulations, including: HIPAA SOX ISO 27001 NERC Basel II FISMA GLVA NIST 800-41 GDPR The solution automatically generates pre-populated, audit-ready compliance reports for all these regulations and customized reports for your internal corporate policies to help you maintain compliance with all relevant laws and standards. Additionally, it helps you to reduce firewall audit preparation efforts and costs by as much as 80%— making life much easier for you as well as your auditors. How AlgoSec simplifies firewall audits Most modern-day organizations are grappling with an ever-expanding cyber threat landscape. Clever attackers armed with sophisticated tools make businesses vulnerable to many kinds of undesirable events, such as data breaches and malware attacks. External laws and regulations as well as internal security controls are meant to prevent such events and enable firms to protect their IT assets and sensitive data. One of the most important controls is the network firewall, which is often the first line of defense between the enterprise network and the public Internet. Since the firewall is so important for strengthening enterprise security and for maintaining a strong regulatory compliance posture, all its configurations and rules must be properly set up and optimized. Here is where regular firewall audits play an important role. In the previous section, we covered a step-by-step firewall audit checklist. This section covers some best practices for configuring your firewall rules, and a checklist for reviewing and optimizing them. Optimizing your rule-base will enable you to improve firewall performance, reduce security risk, and maintain compliance with PCI-DSS and other standards. Checklist for conducting firewall rule-base reviews It is useful to follow this checklist to review and optimize your firewall rule-base and improve firewall performance: Does the tool understand the network topology, VLAN architecture, and IP address scheme? Is there a cleanup rule to block malicious traffic that doesn’t follow any rule? Do you have rules for firewall management? Are logs enabled for each rule? Are limited ports defined for access to management? Are large subnets blocked from accessing the firewall? If a particular subnet is given access, is there an appropriate business rationale behind the decision? Are there duplicate objects, services, or host networks in the rule-base? Are the best or business-critical services correctly positioned within the rule-base? And are out-of-use services removed from the rule-base? Are there outdated, legacy, excess, shadow, or expired rules in the rule-base? Do any rules allow risky services, which are outbound to or inbound from the Internet? Are any rules overly permissive? Are the rules consistently named? Do they contain recognizable headers and comments to make them easier to understand? Is two-way access configured in the network infrastructure? Is it used for legitimate reasons? Are rules configured to ensure that vulnerable ports and services are not allowed? Are there similar rules that could be combined into a single rule? In addition to using this checklist, make sure that all firewall rules align with the organization’s policy matrix and corporate network security policy. The matrix specifies whether traffic should be allowed or blocked from every zone and VLAN in the network. An automated firewall rule audit tool or solution can find the answers to all these questions and ensure alignment with the policy matrix and security policy. With its built-in audit capabilities, it quickly completes rule-base reviews and generates detailed reports that will help you conduct (and pass) firewall audits. Best practices to configure firewall rules The right rules are crucial to maintaining firewall performance and network security. A below-par rule-base can create serious security loopholes that allow malicious traffic to sneak in and operational loopholes that block legitimate traffic. The best way to avoid these problems is to properly frame and configure robust firewall rules. To do so, it’s important to adhere to these best practices: Clearly document the purpose of each firewall rule and which services, users, and devices it affects Add an expiration date to temporary rules Group similar rules by categories or section titles to make rules easier to understand and to determine their best order Create a formal change process to govern and control all policy changes Monitor the change process to prevent poor firewall configurations and associated security risks As much as possible, implement least privileged security policies, which will help minimize the attack surface Use an automated management and monitoring tool to standardize firewall policies and rules in a scalable manner List and categorize all source IPs, destination IPs, and destination ports to simplify firewall rule creation Include as many parameters in the rules as possible Use address and service sets to simplify rule management and adjustments Use drop rules to capture unclassified traffic and ensure it doesn’t infiltrate a security policy Offer access only to known services and to specific traffic By following these best practices, you will get more control over your firewalls and protect the network from suspicious and malicious traffic. Make sure to also review all firewall rules regularly with the help of a regular maintenance schedule as well as firewall auditing and management tools. It is also good practice to regularly review firewall logs for any changes or indications that firewall settings, or rules, need to be adjusted. Checklist and best practices for configuring and reviewing firewall rules AlgoSec’s Firewall Analyzer (AFA) provides complete visibility into enterprise networks and firewall rulesets. Use AFA to see where traffic is blocked in your network and accordingly configure policies from a single, unified interface. If you have multiple firewalls, you probably have a hard time configuring the rules for each. And if you want to allow or deny something, you probably have to log into each firewall and make the requisite changes. All this hassle is eliminated with AFA’s automated security policy management capabilities. With this intuitive yet powerful security policy management solution , you can automatically create, update, clean up, and optimize all policies from a single administration panel and workflow. AFA will reduce your firewall and security audit preparation time and costs with audit-ready reports. It will also assist you with PCI-DSS compliance and firewall security optimization. Click here for a free demo of AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer. Ready for stress-free firewall audits with AlgoSec Select a size What is firewall audit tools for PCI security compliance? What does a firewall audit tool do? What are the benefits of firewall audit tools? Firewall audit checklist How AlgoSec simplifies firewall audits Checklist and best practices for configuring and reviewing firewall rules Ready for stress-free firewall audits with AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk White paper Learn how AlgoSec can help you pass PCI-DSS Audits and ensure Solution overview See how this customer improved compliance readiness and risk Case study Choose a better way to manage your network

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Learn the basics of managing multiple workloads in the cloud and how to create a successful enterprise level security management program Webinars Merging the Cloud with Application Connectivity Discover the hottest trends and best practices for application-based security management As more companies make the leap into distributed architecture, the smallest gaps in network security can quickly become targets for attack. While an application-based security strategy can help you protect your hybrid cloud estate better, this shift in focus comes with its own challenges. In this webinar, we discuss: How securing application connectivity plays a key role in hybrid cloud risk management Why application orchestration is critical to managing your network within the hybrid cloud environment How to achieve effective cloud security solutions and best practices To learn more, go to https://www.algosec.com/resources/hub/hybrid_cloud/ September 27, 2022 Hillary Baron Cloud Security Alliance Oren Amiram Director Product Management, Algosec Relevant resources Firewall Rule Recertification with Application Connectivity Keep Reading What is cloud network security? Keep Reading Cloud migration: How to move applications to the cloud Keep Reading Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue