AWS Verified Access (AVA), a feature of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networking, delivers secure, zero-trust access to private applications without a VPN by continuously evaluating each request in real time based on contextual security signals like identity, device security status and location. The service grants access based on the security policy configured for each application and then connects the users, thereby improving the security posture of the organization.
There’s a scene in the original “Matrix” movie when Neo is sitting in the grimy kitchen with the rest of the crew and eating gray, runny slop. No matter what new version of gray slop they eat, they always seem to think that it tastes like chicken. When confronted with something new, it’s a natural human trait to relate it back to something we already know.
The use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in organizations around the world is prolific. The platform accounted for 31% of total cloud infrastructure services spend in Q2 2022, growing by 33% annually. Despite its widespread use, many organizations still fail to consider the nuances of incident response in AWS.
Digital transformation isn’t only for the good guys. Adversaries are undergoing their own digital transformation to exploit modern IT infrastructures — a trend we’re seeing play out in real time as they increasingly adapt their knowledge and tradecraft to exploit cloud environments. According to the CrowdStrike 2023 Global Threat Report, observed cloud exploitation cases grew by 95% over the previous year.
Editor’s note: This is the final part of a five-part cloud security series that covers protecting an organization’s network perimeter, endpoints, application code, sensitive data, and service and user accounts from threats. So far in this series, we’ve looked at the importance of securing an organization’s network, its application components, the endpoints that support those components, and its application data.
The cloud has revolutionized the way we do business. It has made it possible for us to store and access data from anywhere in the world, and it has also made it possible for us to scale our businesses up or down as needed. However, the cloud also brings with it new challenges. One of the biggest challenges is just keeping track of all of the data that is stored in the cloud. This can make it difficult to identify and respond to security incidents.
In the past year, we’ve shifted our infrastructure from a single Amazon Web Services (AWS) account owned by our Platform team to multiple domain-specific accounts. For each product domain and environment, we have created AWS accounts, which has allowed us to improve stability and security by reducing the blast radius. This setup also provides excellent scalability with good cost observability across the organization.
