Introduction
The global epidemic has changed company operations over the last 2 years. Organizations have been forced to speed digital transformation programs, introduce new work practices, and battle to raise infrastructure resources to secure remote access to employees’ homes, all while attempting to protect their data.
As a result, employees’ personal networks have become part of the corporate network perimeter, albeit a fragile one, at a time when cybercriminals have become more active.
What is Data Perimeter?
Migration to the cloud is one part of the fast digital changes. Organizations are attempting to transition from local storage to cloud storage in order to improve the security of dispersed information. Third-party cloud storage services like Dropbox and OneDrive, private clouds like VMware, and public clouds like Azure, Google Cloud and AWS all play a role in this transformation. Industries are hurrying to implement these changes, but they are unaware that they are accountable for cloud security.
When first establishing a presence on AWS, maintaining workload security may appear simple. There are few people that require access, and the amount of data on AWS may appear to be manageable. However, the difficulties of handling security at scale on AWS can rapidly become apparent. Workloads increase, more people require access, and the thought of safeguarding your environment becomes intimidating. We can save a lot of headaches in the future if we anticipate for this expansion and implement security measures properly.
This is when creating a data perimeter might come in handy. A data perimeter is defined by AWS as a collection of preventative safeguards in your AWS environment that you employ to guarantee that only your trusted identities access trusted resources from anticipated networks.
How to establish a Data Perimeter?
During the Data Perimeter design phase, a company may clearly state which compliance frameworks it is subject to and which policies apply to their cloud environment. After that, a mapping exercise may be carried out to map these essential controls to specific cloud storage technologies, which can subsequently be installed as part of that endeavor. While this may require a large amount of work initially, the effort will be considerably reduced as the environment scales, since compliance controls are now at the root of the environment.
You should install security measures for your sensitive data on the cloud, such as identity and access management, infrastructure security, and data protection. As your workloads develop, cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) suggest creating numerous accounts to segregate applications and data with unique security needs. AWS solutions can assist you in establishing a data barrier between your different accounts while also preventing unauthorized access from outside your business.
A data perimeter encompasses a wide range of features and capabilities. You should select which capabilities are acceptable for your firm based on your security requirements.
A data perimeter is a collection of preventative safeguards that assist guarantee that only trusted identities access trusted resources from anticipated networks. This section discusses the whole perimeter solution by assessing each perimeter authorization requirement and how the various policy types are utilized to accomplish it.
- Trusted Identities: The aims for this condition ensure that only “my principals” may access “my resources” and only “my principals” are authorized from “my networks”. To limit which principals have access, resource-based policies and VPC endpoint policies will be used.
- Trusted Resources: The goals of this condition are to guarantee that “my principals” can only access “my resources” and that access from “my networks” only targets “my resources” (regardless of the principal involved). SCPs and VPC endpoint policies will be used to limit which resources may be accessed. Because SCPs do not apply to SLRs or AWS service principals, VPC endpoint policies will be the main control for those entities while they operate in your VPCs.
- Expected Networks: This last condition’s aims ensures that only “my networks” can be the source of requests from “my principals” and/or to “my resources”. SCPs and resource-based restrictions will be used to limit which networks may be accessed. Because SCPs do not apply to SLRs or AWS service principals, resource-based rules are the primary control for these entities.
Benefits of Data Perimeter
- Avoid exposing your network to the Internet
One important risk with the cloud is exposing critical data resources to the internet. Setting up a Data Perimeter can assist in this case. Guardrails can offer required functionality while still keeping resources within private networks. Using solutions like VPC endpoints to restrict the amount of data transiting the public internet may dramatically reduce risk and provide security teams that are still adjusting to a cloud-first environment better peace of mind.
- Following the Least Privilege Principle
One of the primary advantages of building a Data Perimeter is that you may configure permissions granularly and adhere to the principle of least privilege to a large extent. This restricts the explosion radius for your environment while also giving you piece of mind that excessive permissions are not given owing to a misconfiguration. Furthermore, developer productivity can be increased since broader IAM permissions can be given because resource-specific safeguards are in place.
- Simplify Meeting Compliance Obligations
Many firms are still adapting to cloud compliance. The technology and practices they used ten years ago may or may not be appropriate in the cloud environment, and having sensitive data may cause them anxiety. Furthermore, additional compliance standards may apply if the data contains PHI, credit card data, or other sensitive data categories. With these compliance requirements in mind, security teams may be tempted to limit their usage of cloud platforms like AWS, lowering the value derived from being in the cloud and limiting corporate cloud adoption.
Final Thoughts
Creating a Data Perimeter is a substantial undertaking, especially if your firm already has a significant footprint on the cloud platform. The benefits of constructing a Data Perimeter on a cloud platform , on the other hand, can well surpass the financial and time-related expenses of this effort. The benefits of a Data Perimeter outweigh the initial effort and cost expenditure, particularly as your cloud presence grows.
