Addressing Cloud Identity Risks With TotalCloud CIEM

As organizations continue to embrace multi-cloud environments, leveraging platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), the complexity of cloud security has increased exponentially. In cloud environments, machines are highly transient; they are provisioned and de-provisioned frequently, with their own temporary permissions. As the cloud infrastructure scales dynamically, so do identity and permission management challenges. With thousands or tens of thousands, potentially even millions of machine identities to manage, ensuring each has the right level of access becomes increasingly complex.

The 2024 Gartner CNAPP Market Guide validates the importance of addressing the risk presented by this plethora of identities and permissions:

“Most cloud-native application risk is caused by misconfiguration, mismanagement or excessive permissions.”

So, how does one tackle these risks? While Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) has become a standard solution for identifying misconfigurations and security risks, another critical layer has emerged for permissions: Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM).

What Is Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM)?

Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) is designed to address the security risks associated with cloud identities and permissions. It helps organizations gain visibility into their cloud identities and ensures that these identities adhere to the principle of least privilege, granting the minimum level of access necessary to perform a task.

CIEM focuses on managing cloud identities, permissions, and entitlements, making it an essential component in the modern security landscape. Identity-related risks are among the leading causes of cloud security breaches. Mismanaged cloud identities, excessive permissions, and poor privilege hygiene have led to high-profile incidents, emphasizing the importance of robust identity management practices. In simple words, it helps determine and manage “who can access what.”

Qualys TotalCloud: CIEM Is Included With CSPM

Qualys TotalCloud is introducing CIEM into its CNAPP offering, enabling organizations to monitor and manage identity risks in tandem with configuration security. The CIEM functionality in TotalCloud enhances the existing CSPM capabilities by extending visibility into cloud identities and entitlements, helping organizations optimize cloud permissions and reduce their attack surface.

While CSPM identifies misconfigurations in cloud environments, CIEM goes further by examining who has access to what and why, enabling a more detailed and granular analysis of security risks.

Key capabilities include:

• Inventory of Cloud Identities: CIEM provides visibility into all identities across cloud environments. This inventory helps organizations monitor and manage cloud permissions effectively. The inventory includes resources such as:
  • IAM User
  • IAM Role
  • IAM Policy
  • IAM Group
• Detecting Misconfigured Identities: Identify misconfigured identities, whether they have excessive permissions or are missing critical security measures such as:
  • Administrative permissions such as full admin
  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
  • Roles with cross-account access
  • Permissive trust policies

This can also help enforce least-privilege principles, ensuring that identities only have the necessary access to perform their functions.

• Monitoring Identity Usage: Track identity usage patterns to identify and flag inactive or unused identities that might become a security liability, such as:
  • Unused user passwords or access keys
  • Unused or inactive roles

Through these capabilities, CIEM strengthens cloud security by ensuring that identity-related risks are identified and mitigated before they can be exploited. This integrated approach allows for a more comprehensive understanding of cloud security risks, ensuring that both configuration issues and identity risks are addressed holistically.

Leveraging TruRisk Insights for Identity Risk Management

Suppose your organization has multiple cloud identities with unused, excessive permissions, some lacking multi-factor authentication (MFA). Using these excessive permissions, the attacker can potentially access sensitive cloud resources, leading to unauthorized data extraction and service disruptions. A threat actor may compromise a low-privilege identity and escalate the privileges due to unmonitored permissions and lack of MFA enforcement.

Such risks can go undetected without proper identity hygiene and management, making your cloud infrastructure vulnerable to significant security incidents across its cloud environments.

TotalCloud CIEM’s detections also integrate with TruRisk Insights, a powerful tool that provides deeper visibility into cloud security risks. By combining CIEM with TruRisk Insights, organizations can assess the impact of identity risks within their broader cloud security strategy.

TotalCloud TruRisk Insights aggregates data from various sources, including CSPM, Cloud Workload Protection (CWP), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR), and now CIEM, to provide a holistic view of the cloud security posture. This integration offers several key capabilities:

• Prioritization of Risks: TruRisk Insights helps security teams prioritize the most critical identity-related risks, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to address high-impact vulnerabilities first.
• Actionable Insights: By correlating identity risks with broader security concerns, TruRisk Insights provides actionable recommendations for mitigating threats and improving overall cloud security.
• Enhanced Reporting: A TruRisk Insights Report enables organizations to view comprehensive findings that include identity-related risks, helping to drive informed decision-making at both the operational and executive levels.

This integration provides a complete picture of cloud security risks, from misconfigurations to identity management issues, helping organizations maintain a strong security posture across their cloud environments.

Real-World Benefits of CIEM and TruRisk Insights

The combination of CIEM and TruRisk Insights offers several real-world benefits to organizations looking to secure their multi-cloud environments:

• Improved Identity Hygiene: CIEM helps organizations maintain proper identity hygiene by identifying unused or misconfigured identities that could pose security risks. By enforcing least-privilege principles, organizations can reduce their attack surface and minimize the potential for unauthorized access.
• Reduced Insider Threats: By continuously monitoring identity usage and permissions, CIEM helps detect and mitigate insider threats, ensuring that suspicious activities are flagged and investigated promptly.
• Streamlined Compliance: CIEM can assist organizations in meeting compliance requirements related to cloud identity management, such as ensuring that all identities have MFA enabled or that privileged access is properly managed.
• Faster Response to Threats: Integrating CIEM with TruRisk Insights enables organizations to respond more quickly to identity-related threats, reducing the time it takes to identify and remediate potential issues.

Comprehensive Security With Qualys TotalCloud

By integrating CIEM into your existing cloud security strategy, you can reduce your attack surface, enhance compliance, and improve overall cloud security. With Qualys TotalCloud, you can take control of your cloud identities and ensure that your cloud environment remains secure, no matter how complex it becomes.

If you want to dive deeper into CNAPP, download the 2024 Gartner CNAPP Market Guide, explore more about the Qualys TotalCloud Platform, get a customized and complimentary TotalCloud TruRisk Insights report, read our FAQ, or speak to a Qualys TotalCloud CNAPP Expert.

Resources

• Learn more about TotalCloud
• Online Help for TotalCloud, Connectors, Azure Snapshot-Based Scan Deployment
• How-to Training Videos
• If you have questions, please contact your TAM or Qualys Technical Support.

Gartner, Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms, Dale Koeppen, Charlie Winckless, Neil MacDonald, Esraa ElTahawy, 22 July 2024.

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