Another inherently “annoying” feature of security monitoring (apart from its “ongoing, need-to-do-it-forever” nature) is that somebody must actually do it. Yes, the dreaded “who will do the monitoring on a day to day basis?” question, who would be the “the human in the loop”, who will be ever-vigilant about security-relevant events, who will actually use the monitoring tools, etc?
Let me break this bit of news to you: cloud does NOT change it. Somebody still must do it. Now, that somebody might be spread across two or more organizations (your CSP, your MSSP, your own organization, the consultants you hired, etc), but they have to be there. When planning your cloud deployment – public, internal private, external private, whatever – you should always keep this in mind. Here is brief example from my upcoming research report on cloud security monitoring.
Table 4. Comparison by Monitoring Entity
|
Where the monitoring data is obtained (see the row to the right) |
From inside CSP environment |
From inside enterprise environment |
From between the environments |
|
Who looks at the data (see the column below) |
|||
|
CSP |
Yes, for their layers of the stack and their management tools |
No (CSP does not see the inside of your organization) |
No |
|
MSSP (if retained by the customer) |
Yes, for cloud user layers using sensors deployed at CSP |
Yes, using sensors deployed at the enterprise environment |
Yes, using sensors deployed getting data from gateways/intermediaries |
|
CSP-MSSP (if CSP offers MSSP service) |
Yes, for all layers (!) |
Yes, using sensors deployed at the enterprise environment |
Yes, using sensors deployed getting data from gateways/intermediaries |
|
Enterprise |
Yes, using data feeds from cloud layers they control and using data shared by the CSP |
Yes, using either endpoint or network sensors |
Yes, using sensors deployed getting data from gateways/intermediaries |
Note that these distinctions apply across all cloud models, but the scope of what constitutes “their layers” changes from SaaS to IaaS. The comparison also highlights some advantages of CSP-MSSP combination as they can monitor the entire stack, from physical to data and user activities. However, such approach of combined monitoring+hosting makes some people think of Separation of Duty (SoD) issues. So, will YOU trust the MSSP arm to monitor the activities of the same organization cloud arm? There are definitely big advantages here (see table), but also potential risks…
Previous cloud security posts are:
- Is Cloud Secure? WTFC!
- Cloud Security Monitoring: IaaS Conundrum
- Cloud Security Monitoring for IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
- More On Security Monitoring of Public Cloud Assets
- Cloud Security Monitoring!
- Many Faces of Application Security Monitoring (briefly touches on cloud applications)
- Cloud IS Different: So Monitoring Must Be Different?
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