Auditing Cloud and SaaS Security: How ThreatNG Provides Essential External Visibility, Including Exposed Cloud Buckets
The modern enterprise increasingly relies on cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to drive innovation, enhance agility, and reduce costs. While these technologies offer numerous benefits, they also introduce new complexities for cybersecurity audits. Auditors are now tasked with navigating the intricacies of cloud configurations, data storage responsibilities, and SaaS application security settings to ensure adequate protection of sensitive information and compliance with relevant regulations.
The Evolving Landscape of Security Audits
Traditional audit approaches often fall short in addressing the unique challenges posed by cloud and SaaS environments. Auditors require a distinct set of tools and techniques to effectively assess the security of these dynamic and distributed systems. Key challenges include:
Lack of Visibility: Cloud and SaaS environments can obscure traditional security perimeters, making it difficult for auditors to gain a comprehensive view of data flows and security controls.
Shared Responsibility Model: Cloud security is often a shared responsibility between the provider and the customer, requiring auditors to understand the division of duties and assess the effectiveness of the customer's controls.
SaaS Application Security: Auditors must evaluate the security configurations and access controls of various SaaS applications, which can vary significantly in their security features and capabilities.
Shadow IT: The ease with which employees can adopt unsanctioned cloud and SaaS applications creates a "shadow IT" problem, making it difficult for auditors to ensure that all applications are within the scope of the audit.
ThreatNG: Addressing the Cloud and SaaS Audit Challenge with External Assessment and Exposed Cloud Bucket Discovery
ThreatNG provides a powerful solution for auditors seeking to gain essential visibility into cloud and SaaS security. By offering comprehensive external attack surface management and digital risk protection, ThreatNG enables auditors to effectively assess the security posture of these critical environments. A key advantage of ThreatNG is its purely external approach; it does not require any connectors or authentication into the cloud or SaaS targets being assessed. This simplifies deployment and minimizes potential disruption to the organization's operations. Furthermore, ThreatNG is specifically designed to uncover exposed open cloud buckets, a critical security risk often missed by traditional audit methods.
Key ThreatNG Capabilities for Cloud and SaaS Audits
Cloud and SaaS Exposure Assessment: ThreatNG evaluates cloud services from providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, as well as SaaS implementations across various business functions. This gives auditors a centralized view of the organization's cloud and SaaS footprint, achieved through external discovery.
Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Cloud Service Identification: ThreatNG helps auditors identify both sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services. This capability is crucial for addressing shadow IT concerns and ensuring that all cloud-based activities are within the scope of the security audit, all without requiring direct access to the cloud environments.
SaaS Implementation Coverage: ThreatNG provides visibility into a wide range of SaaS applications, including those for business intelligence, collaboration, CRM, and other key business functions. This allows auditors to assess the security of critical business processes that rely on SaaS solutions, using its external, connectorless approach.
Technology Stack Analysis: ThreatNG's technology stack analysis helps auditors understand the technologies used within cloud and SaaS environments, providing valuable context for security assessments, and this is done externally.
Exposed Cloud Bucket Discovery: ThreatNG goes beyond typical cloud security assessments by actively identifying exposed open cloud buckets in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. This capability helps auditors uncover a significant source of data leakage risk.
Benefits of Using ThreatNG for Cloud and SaaS Audits
ThreatNG empowers auditors to conduct more thorough and efficient assessments of cloud and SaaS security, resulting in several key benefits:
Enhanced Visibility (Without Intrusive Access): ThreatNG provides auditors with the necessary visibility into cloud and SaaS environments, enabling them to identify potential security risks, including exposed cloud buckets, and assess the effectiveness of security controls, all while operating externally and avoiding the need for authentication.
Improved Risk Assessment: By identifying cloud misconfigurations, SaaS vulnerabilities, shadow IT through external observation, and exposed cloud buckets, ThreatNG helps auditors gain a more accurate understanding of the organization's overall risk posture.
Streamlined Audit Processes: ThreatNG's automated external discovery and assessment capabilities save auditors time and effort, allowing them to focus on higher-level analysis and recommendations.
Stronger Cloud Security: By facilitating more effective audits, ThreatNG contributes to enhanced cloud security practices and a reduced risk of cloud-related security incidents, particularly those involving data exposure through misconfigured cloud storage.
Enhanced Cloud and SaaS Audits: ThreatNG's Connectorless Visibility and Exposed Bucket Discovery for Security Assurance
ThreatNG is an invaluable solution for cybersecurity auditors navigating the complexities of cloud and SaaS security. Its ability to provide comprehensive visibility and automated assessment capabilities, without requiring connectors or authentication, and its unique ability to uncover exposed open cloud buckets, enables auditors to ensure that organizations can use cloud technologies securely and confidently.