Mastering Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) : Secure Multi-Cloud Infrastructure Across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Using Proven Techniques.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nomani, Qamar.

Contributor:

Davila, Julie.

Khan, Rehman.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cloud computing--Security measures.

Cloud computing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (472 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Birmingham : Packt Publishing, Limited, 2024.

Biography/History:

Nomani Qamar: Qamar Nomani is a cybersecurity expert and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). He is currently working as a cloud security architect for one of the world's leading mobility companies from their Paris office. With over 10 years of experience as an IT professional in various domains, his expertise lies in security architecting and design for multi-cloud infrastructure. With his passion for solving complex problems, Qamar has worked for security product companies, financial institutions, and automotive companies with their security teams, helping to achieve top-notch industry-standard security practices for multi-cloud environments. Along with his master's degree in computer applications from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Qamar also holds several cloud security certifications. Being an avid learner and a passionate technology trainer, he has trained thousands of professionals across the globe on cloud security topics. Qamar is an active member of various cybersecurity communities and forums and often gets invited to universities and NGOs to speak about cybersecurity awareness and career guidance topics. In his free time, Qamar writes articles on Infortified, his personal tech blog, and a bi-weekly LinkedIn newsletter.

Summary:

Strengthen your security posture in all aspects of CSPM technology, from security infrastructure design to implementation strategies, automation, and remedial actions using operational best practices across your cloud environment Key Features Choose the right CSPM tool to rectify cloud security misconfigurations based on organizational requirements Optimize your security posture with expert techniques for in-depth cloud security insights Improve your security compliance score by adopting a secure-by-design approach and implementing security automation Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Book Description This book will help you secure your cloud infrastructure confidently with cloud security posture management (CSPM) through expert guidance that'll enable you to implement CSPM effectively, ensuring an optimal security posture across multi-cloud infrastructures. The book begins by unraveling the fundamentals of cloud security, debunking myths about the shared responsibility model, and introducing key concepts such as defense-in-depth, the Zero Trust model, and compliance. Next, you'll explore CSPM's core components, tools, selection criteria, deployment strategies, and environment settings, which will be followed by chapters on onboarding cloud accounts, dashboard customization, cloud assets inventory, configuration risks, and cyber threat hunting. As you progress, you'll get to grips with operational practices, vulnerability and patch management, compliance benchmarks, and security alerts. You'll also gain insights into cloud workload protection platforms (CWPPs). The concluding chapters focus on Infrastructure as Code (IaC) scanning, DevSecOps, and workflow automation, providing a thorough understanding of securing multi-cloud environments. By the end of this book, you'll have honed the skills to make informed decisions and contribute effectively at every level, from strategic planning to day-to-day operations. What you will learn Find out how to deploy and onboard cloud accounts using CSPM tools Understand security posture aspects such as the dashboard, asset inventory, and risks Explore the Kusto Query Language (KQL) and write threat hunting queries Explore security recommendations and operational best practices Get to grips with vulnerability, patch, and compliance management, and governance Familiarize yourself with security alerts, monitoring, and workload protection best practices Manage IaC scan policies and learn how to handle exceptions Who this book is for If you're a cloud security administrator, security engineer, or DevSecOps engineer, you'll find this book useful every step of the way--from proof of concept to the secured, automated implementation of CSPM with proper auto-remediation configuration. This book will also help cybersecurity managers, security leads, and cloud security architects looking to explore the decision matrix and key requirements for choosing the right product. Cloud security enthusiasts who want to enhance their knowledge to bolster the security posture of multi-cloud infrastructure will also benefit from this book.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright and credits

Dedication

Foreword

Contributors

Table of contents

Preface

Part 1: CSPM Fundamentals

Chapter 1: Cloud Security Fundamentals

Technical requirements

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing service model

What is cloud security?

Security concerns with the public cloud

The shared responsibility model

Division of responsibility

Defense in depth

Defense in depth guiding principle

The CIA triad

Confidentiality

Integrity

Availability

Why is it important to maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability?

How do organizations ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability?

The three pillars of cybersecurity - people, process, and technology

The Zero Trust model

Zero Trust guiding principles

The six foundational pillars

Compliance concepts

Cryptography

Encryption

The Cloud Adoption Framework

Landing zone concepts

Summary

Further reading

Chapter 2: Understanding CSPM and the Threat Landscape

What is CSPM?

Threat landscape and the importance of CSPM tools

Key capabilities and core components of CSPM

How do CSPM tools work?

Common cloud misconfigurations and their causes

Why do misconfigurations occur?

Best practices to safeguard from misconfiguration

Are CSPM tools enough to protect the cloud environment?

What are other cloud security technologies and tools?

Chapter 3: CSPM Tools and Features

Understanding CSPM tools

Cloud provider native CSPM tool

Third-party CSPM tool

Agent-based versus agentless CSPM solutions

Open source CSPM tools

Understanding the Gartner Magic Quadrant

Gartner Peer Insights

Gartner Review

Examples of CSPM tools

Cloud provider-native CSPM tools.

Third-party CSPM tools

Chapter 4: CSPM Tool Selection

Structured thought to choose the right CSPM tool

1. Understand your organization's cloud security needs

2. Identify the CSPM features you need

3. Evaluate the CSPM vendor

4. Consider the ease of use

5. Look for automation capabilities

6. Evaluate pricing and licensing

Vendor selection process checklists for CSPM

POC for CSPM tools

What is the key outcome of the CSPM tool's POC?

Part 2: CSPM Deployment Aspects

Chapter 5: Deploying the CSPM Tool

Deployment model overview

Key considerations for effective deployment

The SaaS/cloud-based deployment model

On-premises deployments

Hybrid deployment

Leveraging managed service provider (MSP) support

Different deployment methodologies

Agent-based deployment

API-based deployment

Proxy-based deployment

Tool deployment best practices

Chapter 6: Onboarding Cloud Accounts

Key considerations and steps involved

Account onboarding key considerations

Steps for successful onboarding

Best practices for onboarding of cloud accounts

Account onboarding steps

Onboarding AWS accounts

Onboarding Azure accounts

Onboarding GCP accounts

Onboarding other clouds

Onboarding roadblocks and mitigation best practices

Roadblock #1 - Lack of necessary permissions

Roadblock #2 - Complex cloud environments

Roadblock #3 - Resistance to change

Roadblock #4 - Policy complexity

Roadblock #5 - Alert fatigue

Roadblock #6 - Integration complexity

Roadblock #7 - Monitoring and alerting configuration

Roadblock #8 - Data privacy and security

Roadblock #9 - Compliance variability

Roadblock #10 - Scalability

Offboarding cloud accounts.

Importance of offboarding cloud accounts from CSPM

Process for offboarding cloud accounts from CSPM

Chapter 7: Onboarding Containers

Containerization overview and its benefits

Benefits of containerization

Understanding container security challenges

How does CSPM address these unique security challenges?

Onboarding containers to CSPM tools

Understanding Microsoft Defender for Containers features

Defender for Containers architecture diagram

Enabling Microsoft Defender for Containers for Kubernetes clusters

Onboarding roadblocks and mitigation tips

Latest trends and advancements in container security

Chapter 8: Exploring Environment Settings

Environment settings overview

Managing users and permissions

User management

User group management

Built-in user roles

Managing API tokens

Key challenges in permission management

Best practices to overcome permission-related challenges

CSPM integrations with other tools

SSO integration

Ticketing system integration

Collaboration and communication (notifications) integrations

Reporting and analytics integration

Monitoring (SIEM/SOAR) tool integration

Storage integrations

Key integration challenges

Best practices to overcome integration challenges

Setting up an effective reporting environment

Activity logging

User activities

System activities

Security events

Challenges in activity logging

Best practices for activity logging

Part 3: Security Posture Enhancement

Chapter 9: Exploring Cloud Asset Inventory

Understanding the cloud asset inventory landscape

Cloud assets overview

Cloud asset classification

Tagging concepts and asset classification

Key challenges in asset inventory management.

Best practices for asset inventory management

Other tools and techniques for asset management

Chapter 10: Reviewing CSPM Dashboards

Reviewing general dashboard types

Risk dashboards

Compliance dashboards

Inventory dashboards

Identity dashboards

Network security dashboards

Vulnerability dashboards

Alerts and incident dashboards

Custom dashboards

Exporting dashboards

Best practices for effectively using CSPM dashboards

Chapter 11: Major Configuration Risks

Workload misconfigurations overview

Malware, misconfigurations, and vulnerabilities and their correlations

The risks associated with malware and its vulnerabilities

Identity misconfigurations

Network security misconfigurations

Lateral movement misconfigurations

Data protection misconfigurations

Suspicious and malicious activities

Best practices and lessons learned

Best practices to mitigate network security misconfigurations

Lesson learned and its implementation

Chapter 12: Investigating Threats with Query Explorers and KQL

Query explorer and attack paths overview

Understanding the security explorer mechanism

The importance of the security explorer in threat hunting

Building queries with Cloud Security Explorer

Exploring built-in query templates

KQL basics

KQL statement structure

KQL practice environment

Built-in KQL in the query explorer

Custom queries in the query explorer

Best practices for effective investigation

Lessons learned from threat investigation

Chapter 13: Vulnerability and Patch Management

Vulnerability and patch management overview

Important terminologies

Effective strategies to prioritize vulnerabilities.

Effective vulnerability management and CSPM tools

Cloud vulnerabilities and CSPM tool relevance in the hybrid cloud

Effective patch management and CSPM tools

The importance of timely and efficient patch management

Effective patch management process

How patch management and CSPM can work best together

CTI and vulnerability management

What is CTI and its key aspects?

The role of CTI in vulnerability and patch management

CTI integration/feeds into CSPM tools

Example use case

Case studies and real-world examples

Operational challenges

Chapter 14: Compliance Management and Governance

Compliance management and governance overview

Compliance management

Governance

Compliance versus governance - Distinctions and interconnections

Why are compliance and governance crucial in cloud security?

Regulatory frameworks and compliance standards

GDPR

HIPAA

SOC 2

Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program

California Consumer Privacy Act

California Privacy Rights Act

Personal Data Protection Act

Federal Information Security Management Act

ISO 27001

PCI DSS

NIST Cybersecurity Framework

Cloud Security Alliance Cloud Controls Matrix

Center for Internet Security benchmark controls

Cloud governance frameworks

AWS WAF

MCSB

Adapting cloud governance to the organization's need

Global versus regional compliance considerations

Use cases, scenarios, and examples

Use case #1 - Data protection and privacy

Use case #2 - Incident reporting and notification

Use case #3 - Compliance audits

Challenges, CSPM roles, and future trends

Challenges in compliance and governance

CSPM's role in effective compliance management and governance

Future trends in compliance and governance

Summary.

Chapter 15: Security Alerts and Monitoring.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781837630707

1837630704

OCLC:

1417450097