5 cloud server security tips for 2013
January 15, 2013
Grazed from CloudTech. Author: Editorial Staff.
If you’re like most, cloud is going to be a big part of your life in 2013. So to help you start the year off right, we’ve prepared the following tips for securing your cloud servers. Here are your 5 cloud security tips for 2013 (in no particular order):
Tip #1: Lock down the server firewall
Big surprise – a firewall management service provider telling you to lockdown the firewall, but putting aside the brand of our soap box, the firewall is the front-line defence for all security. In fact, 73% of IT professionals agree, according to the Ponemon Research study on cloud security. But while there’s a general consensus to use the firewall, few know how to do it properly. So here’s one little tip from the experts: Make sure you only open admin and other service ports when, for whom/what, and for as long as you need. Don’t, for example, leave SSH open to 0.0.0.0/0 or every bad guy out there will be brute force attack your servers. The same is true for RDP (which is often vulnerable to zero-day attacks (see Morto worm) and other protocols…
Tip #2: Log, log, log, log, log
It’s really hard to defend against attacks that you don’t see and/or record. And it’s impossible to demonstrate compliance with regulations if you don’t log. The cloud is especially difficult to log because: a) it operates outside your traditional infrastructure, where many of your monitoring solutions/services don’t operate, and b) logs stored on your cloud server are vaporised when you tear down machines. So make sure you’re using a third party logging service, either built within your security tool and/or as an additive service, to log who’s accessing your servers, when, from where, for what, and for how long, as well as applications, attacks, and anything and everything else possible so that you can audit and report on policies, activities, compliance, and events…
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