Defending the Cloud: Role of XDR-led SOC in Eliminating Blind Spots

In today's digital landscape, businesses are increasingly adopting cloud infrastructure to enhance their agility, scalability and efficiency. Trend Micro says that global companies are set to spend $600 billion on public cloud services this year and recent estimates suggest 87% of enterprises have already embraced multi-cloud and 72% are running hybrid cloud environments. As businesses increasingly embrace cloud computing to drive agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency, the paramount concern remains ensuring the security of their cloud infrastructure. Cloud security has come a long way, yet the ever-evolving threat landscape constantly introduces new challenges.

One of the most critical aspects of cloud security is identifying and addressing blind spots – vulnerabilities and risks that may go unnoticed until they are exploited. Many organizations are turning to Security Operations Centers (SOCs) to proactively detect, mitigate, and prevent security incidents to address this issue. Trend Micro predicts that the security operation center (SOC) within organizations will absorb cloud security by 2026.

Cloud Security Blind Spots:

Cloud security blind spots are the vulnerabilities, risks, or weaknesses within an organization's cloud environment that go undetected, allowing malicious actors to exploit them. They can emerge due to a combination of factors, including complex and rapidly changing cloud environments, misconfigurations, inadequate visibility, and a lack of proper security measures.

Key Cloud Security challenges:

• Misconfigured Security Settings: Incorrectly configured cloud resources are among the leading causes of security breaches. Misconfigurations can expose sensitive data, leaving it accessible to unauthorized users. These might involve improperly set permissions, overly permissive access controls, or open network ports.
• Unpatched or Outdated Components: Cloud infrastructure relies on various components, including virtual machines, databases and operating systems. Failing to promptly patch these components leaves the cloud environment susceptible to known exploits. These components are usually 3rd party libraries or frameworks used in web applications that have vulnerabilities or are not supported by their developers anymore.
• Inadequate Access Controls: Poor access management puts cloud networks at risk. Access controls are considered inadequate when a system does not properly restrict or enforce access to resources, such as files, directories, network resources, or application functions. When the access controls are strong in cloud security users are restricted from accessing corporate data from unknown, public, or unauthorized devices. This ensures no business data is copied, transferred, virus-infected, or so to and from a personal or public device.
• Limited Visibility: In complex cloud environments, the lack of comprehensive monitoring and visibility tools can lead to blind spots, making it difficult to detect and respond to security incidents. It affects the organization’s ability to enact incident response plans, verify the efficacy of their security controls, and properly assess information about their data, services and users.
• Credential Management: Improper management of access credentials can create blind spots, enabling unauthorized users to gain entry into the cloud environment. The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system and this is one of the major reasons for cloud security breaches.
• Supply Chain Vulnerability: Cloud migration leads to an increase in reliance on 3rd parties and partners, which in turn increases the risk of threats through the supply chain. A vendor or partner whose infrastructure is vulnerable to attacks passes on the same to the cloud through the supply chain affecting organizations and their cloud security.
• Incident Response Challenges: Incident response is the process of identifying, containing, analyzing, and remediating cyberattacks. Log management and analysis, including correlation with security information and event management (SIEM) tools, can be a major challenge.

Cloud security blind spot mitigation with XDR-led SOC approach in 5 steps:

Solving cloud security challenges would require detection and response capability to be enabled in cloud infrastructure. Security operations platform powered by detection and response capability involves leveraging advanced technologies and strategies to enhance your cloud environment's threat detection, response, and overall security posture. Here are a few steps to achieve that:

Step 1: Assess Cloud Security Needs, Implement XDR Solution & Integrate Data

• Begin by conducting a thorough assessment of your cloud security needs. Gain a deep understanding of your cloud architecture, data flows, and identify potential vulnerabilities and attack vectors.
• Deploy a Detection and Response (XDR) solution tailored to your cloud environment. XDR combines various security tools, including Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Network Detection and Response (NDR), and Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), to deliver comprehensive visibility and threat detection.
• Following the implementation of your customised XDR Solution, ensure seamless integration with your cloud platform and existing security tools. This integration should facilitate the aggregation and correlation of security data from multiple sources, enhancing overall threat detection capabilities.

Step 2: IR Automation & Threat Intelligence Integration

• Implement automated incident response workflows within your SOC. This can help in rapidly responding to threats and minimizing the impact of security incidents.
• Integrate threat intelligence feeds into your XDR solution to stay updated on emerging threats and vulnerabilities relevant to your cloud environment.

Step 3: Real-time Monitoring & Behavioural Analytics with XDR

• Harness the power of XDR for real-time cloud activity monitoring. This includes monitoring network traffic, user access, and application behaviour for signs of malicious activity.
• Utilize the capabilities of behavioral analytics and machine learning embedded in your XDR solution, enabling the identification of both anomalous activities and potential threats. These technologies play a crucial role in uncovering zero-day attacks and sophisticated threats.

Step 4: Tailoring Cloud-Specific Threat Detection and Cloud-Native Monitoring

• Tailor your security operation platform to effectively identify cloud-specific threats by employing the capabilities of XDR and CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management), such as misconfigurations, data exposure, and API-related vulnerabilities.
• Further, leverage the power of cloud-native monitoring and logging tools offered by your Cloud Service Provider and seamlessly integrate these logs into your XDR solution to gain a holistic perspective of your cloud environment.

Step 5: Compliance and Reporting & Incident Documentation and Post-Incident Analysis

• Leverage XDR to assist in compliance management by monitoring adherence to regulatory requirements and generating compliance reports.
• Thoroughly document security incidents and perform post-incident analysis to gain insights into the incident’s origins and develop strategies to avert similar occurrences in the future.

The evolution of SOC tools, which now encompass a wide range of capabilities including continuous monitoring, threat detection, incident response, vulnerability management, and cloud protection, represents a significant transformation in the cybersecurity landscape. The adoption of detection and response through an XDR-powered SOC can significantly enhance your cloud security posture. This approach enables more effective threat detection and response, enhances visibility, and ultimately reduces the overall risk within your cloud environment. It's essential to regularly update and adapt your security strategies to effectively counter evolving cloud security challenges. Recognizing that every organization's cloud needs are unique, it becomes imperative to conduct a thorough assessment and implement tailored solutions to address blind spots. In summary, an XDR-led SOC approach stands out as the most effective strategy for mitigating risks within cloud environments.