Week 9: Securing the Cloud - Data Flashcards
Requirements for data security vary depending on the __, the ___, as well as on your tolerance for __
service model, deployment model, risk
Entrusting data to an external custodian may result in better and more cost effective___
security
Two examples that emphasize the importance of entrusting data to an external provider are the commercial offerings to
- store highly sensitive data for disaster recovery
- assure the destruction of magnetic media
In both cases, many highly concerned organizations tightly control how they use these services
- However, they often end up using external services
Some data may be so sensitive that the consequence of data exposure is too great for a customer to consider a public cloud
- It is not the case that security needs for such data can’t be met in a public cloud, rather the ___is incompatible with its ___
cost
cost model
We might also expect that future higher-assurance clouds would reduce risk by limiting access by ___
selective screening of customers
When data is stored with a CSP, the CSP assumes at least partial responsibility (____) if not full responsibility (____) in the role of data custodian
PaaS
SaaS
By the nature of the service offerings, a data owning organization can benefit from their CSP having control and responsibility for___ in the ___model
customer data
SaaS
The data owning organization is progressively responsible beginning with ___and expanding with ___
PaaS laaS
Data at rest refers to any data in ___
computer storage
Protecting___ in a cloud is not radically different than protecting it outside a cloud, except for the partial lack of owner’s control
data at rest
A data owning organization has several opportunities in proactively ensuring data assurance by a CSP
- Selecting a CSP should be based on verifiable attestation that the CSP follows industry best practices and implements security that is appropriate for the kinds of data they are entrusted with
- Higher assurance cloud services may come with indemnification (compensation for loss) as a means of monetary backing of assurance for a declared level of security
___ refers to data as it is moved from a stored state – a file or database entry – to another form in the same or a different location
Data in motion
Because data in motion only exists as it is in transition between points, securing this data focuses on __ and __
integrity
confidentiality
There is no better protection strategy for data in motion than ___
encryption
Phishing
Tricking end users into providing their credentials for access
Some cloud providers have implemented safeguards to help address cloud-targeted phishing attacks
Salesforce.com Login Filtering
- A subscriber can instruct Salesforce not to accept logins, even if valid credentials are provided, unless the login is coming from a whitelisted IP address range
Google Apps & other Google services
- These services may randomly prompt users for their passwords, especially in response to suspicious events
- A login from China shortly after a login from the US
for the same account
Amazon Web Services Authentication
- When a subscriber uses EC2 to provision a cloud hosted virtual server, Amazon creates PKI keys and requires them to be used for authentication
- If you provision a new LINUX VM and want to SSH
to it, you have to use SSH with key-based
authentication and not a static password
Phishing is a threat largely because most cloud services currently rely on __
simple username/password authentication
Some issues related to protection from phishing attacks
Referring URL Monitoring: Does the CSP actively monitor the referring URLs for authenticated sessions?
Behavioral Policies: Does the CSP employ policies that prohibit weak security activities that could be exploited?
- E-mails with links that users can click to automatically
access data
- Password resets to occur without actively proving
user identity
Outsourced services – be they cloud-based or not – can bypass the typical ___controls enforced by IT organizations
physical and logical
CSP Privileged Access risk is a function of two primary factors
The potential for exposure with unencrypted data
Privileged cloud provider personnel access to both data and keying materials
The ___of data can be a primary concern in cloud computing
origin
For compliance purposes, it may be necessary to have exact records as to
what data was placed in a public cloud
when it occurred
what VMs and storage it resided on
where it was processed
Reporting on data lineage may be difficult with a public cloud
This is largely due to the___
degree of abstraction that exists between physical and virtualized resources
According to Bruce Schneier, the practice of encrypting data at rest deviates from the historical use of cryptography for ___
protecting data in transit
For data in motion, encryption keys can be ___, whereas for data at rest, keys must be ___
ephemeral
retained
“Much of the data stored on the Internet is … primarily intended for use by other computers. And therein lies the problem. Keys can no longer be stored in people’s brains. They need to be stored on ___, that the data resides on. And that is much riskier”
the same computer, or at least the network
___has been recognized as a critical enabling technology for security in cloud computing
Cryptography
Cryptography has expanded from protecting ___to techniques for assuring ___, ___, and ___
confidentiality
integrity
authentication
digital signatures
To ensure ___, plaintext is converted into ___using mathematical functions meeting several requirements
confidentiality
cyphertext
Cryptographic Requirements
The algorithm and implementation must be computationally efficient
The algorithm must be open to analysis by the cryptography community
The resulting output must withstand the use of brute force attacks even by vast numbers of computers
Plaintext is encrypted into cyphertext using an___ and the resulting cyphertext is ___using a decryption key
encryption key
decrypted
In ___cryptography, encryption / decryption keys are the same
symmetric
