Top 7 Cloud Security Frameworks and How to Choose

What Are Cloud Security Frameworks?

Cloud security frameworks are structured sets of guidelines aimed at ensuring the security of cloud environments. They provide methodologies to manage risks associated with cloud services, covering areas like data protection, user authentication, and compliance with industry standards. By implementing these frameworks, organizations can systematically safeguard their cloud infrastructure from threats such as unauthorized access, data breaches, and service disruptions.

These frameworks help organizations understand and manage security risks in the cloud. They facilitate the establishment of protocols and practices that align with legal, regulatory, and industry compliance standards. Through consistent application of these guidelines, businesses can achieve greater resilience against cyber threats.

What Elements Do Cloud Security Frameworks Cover? 

Data Security

Data security within cloud security frameworks encompasses strategies to protect data from unauthorized access, corruption, or theft. It involves implementing encryption, access controls, and regulatory compliance to ensure data integrity and confidentiality. Encryption ensures sensitive information is unreadable to unauthorized users. Access controls restrict and monitor who can view or manipulate data, significantly reducing the risk of breaches.

In addition to technical measures, data security under a framework also includes policy enforcement and user education. Organizations must ensure that their policies are up-to-date and address emerging threats. User education is crucial, as it minimizes the likelihood of inadvertent data leaks by ensuring staff understand and comply with security policies.

Application Security

Application security focuses on protecting cloud-based applications from threats by identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities. This includes measures such as secure coding practices, regular security testing, and vulnerability management. Frameworks provide guidelines that help developers create applications resistant to common exploits such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.

Consistent security testing and updates are vital, as they help identify and patch vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious actors. Another critical component is implementing access controls to restrict application interactions. Frameworks guide the configuration of these controls to ensure only authenticated users can perform authorized actions.

Network Security

Network security in the cloud involves safeguarding the connectivity and data exchange between devices and systems. It includes measures like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and virtual private clouds (VPCs) to protect cloud environments from unauthorized access and data interception. These frameworks provide a structured approach to configure and monitor security devices, ensuring network integrity.

Network segmentation and monitoring are also important components managed within cloud security frameworks. Segmentation controls traffic between different parts of the network, reducing the chance of lateral movement by attackers. Continuous monitoring enables the detection of anomalous activities that may indicate security breaches, facilitating rapid incident response.

Cloud Compliance

Cloud compliance involves adhering to regulatory requirements and industry standards within cloud environments. Frameworks help organizations understand and meet the necessary compliance provisions related to data protection, privacy, and operational security. This includes guidelines for GDPR, HIPAA, or any other relevant regulation impacting data handling in the cloud.

Compliance is not just about meeting legal obligations; it serves as a competitive advantage. Organizations that demonstrate adherence to compliance standards can build trust with clients and partners. Frameworks simplify this process by offering tools and processes that ensure continued regulatory alignment and risk mitigation.

Tips from the expert

Steve Moore is Vice President and Chief Security Strategist at Exabeam, helping drive solutions for threat detection and advising customers on security programs and breach response. He is the host of the “The New CISO Podcast,” a Forbes Tech Council member, and Co-founder of TEN18 at Exabeam.

In my experience, here are tips that can help you better adapt to cloud security frameworks:

Map cloud assets to threat models: Tailor your cloud security approach by first mapping cloud assets to specific threat models, such as those in MITRE ATT&CK, ensuring you prioritize controls against likely threats to your infrastructure.

Automate security compliance checks: Use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools to automate compliance with frameworks like CIS or NIST. Automating checks reduces human error and helps ensure that security policies are enforced continuously.

Perform continuous monitoring with adaptive analytics: Incorporate AI-driven anomaly detection into your cloud monitoring strategy. Use behavioral analytics to spot potential threats that traditional monitoring might miss, as cloud environments change rapidly.

Institute policy-driven access control: Enhance identity management by implementing Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) to dynamically enforce security policies based on user roles, locations, and device status, rather than relying solely on static role-based permissions.

Create cloud incident response playbooks: Develop tailored incident response plans that integrate with your cloud provider’s tools. Cloud-native environments offer unique capabilities, such as automated scaling and resource isolation, which traditional playbooks may not account for.

Notable Cloud Computing Security Frameworks 

1. Center for Internet Security (CIS)

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) provides a set of security controls designed to safeguard cloud systems. These controls are constantly updated to address emerging threats, offering actionable guidelines to strengthen cloud security posture. CIS frameworks are widely adopted due to their nature and adaptability to various cloud environments.

CIS controls focus on a range of security areas, including system hardening, network security, and data protection. By implementing these controls, organizations can significantly enhance their security defenses. The CIS framework provides detailed implementation instructions that facilitate integration into existing security processes.

2. MITRE ATT&CK

MITRE ATT&CK is a knowledge base used to improve cloud security through documentation of adversary tactics and techniques. It provides a framework for understanding common attacker behaviors and helps organizations develop defensive measures to counter these threats. By analyzing these tactics, security teams can anticipate and mitigate potential attacks on their cloud infrastructure.

The ATT&CK framework is particularly useful for threat detection and incident response. It enables the identification of potential attack vectors, enhancing the ability to detect, respond, and recover from security incidents. By applying its knowledge base, organizations can improve their security posture through targeted threat detection and informed incident management strategies.

3. NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) offers guidelines to manage cybersecurity risks in the cloud. It consists of five core functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. These functions provide a strategic approach to addressing cybersecurity challenges, helping organizations build a foundation for cloud security management.

NIST CSF is flexible and can be tailored to meet the specific needs of different organizations and cloud environments. It facilitates risk assessment and prioritization, enabling decision-makers to allocate resources efficiently and bolster security measures appropriately. As a widely respected framework, it supports ongoing improvements through a cycle of continuous evaluation and enhancement.

4. HITRUST CSF

HITRUST CSF provides a certifiable framework focused on unifying security controls applicable to multiple regulations and standards. It integrates aspects of HIPAA, GDPR, and other compliance mandates, offering an approach to managing cloud security and compliance. This makes it valuable for organizations handling sensitive health and personal data in the cloud.

By adopting HITRUST CSF, organizations can streamline their compliance processes and demonstrate a commitment to data security and privacy. The framework’s certifiable nature provides assurances to customers and partners that the organization has undergone rigorous security assessments.

5. Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) offers frameworks to assist organizations in securing cloud environments. The CSA Security, Trust, & Assurance Registry (STAR) provides assurance reports and the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) outlines specific control objectives and practices. These tools enable organizations to assess and improve their cloud security posture effectively.

CSA frameworks are valuable for evaluating the security measures of cloud providers, ensuring that they meet industry standards. By leveraging the CSA guidelines, organizations can gain better insights into service providers’ security practices and ensure alignment with their own security requirements.

6. ISO/IEC 27001

ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard for information security management, including cloud environments. It provides a systematic approach to managing sensitive company information, ensuring its confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The framework includes requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS).

Certification to ISO/IEC 27001 demonstrates an organization’s commitment to information security. It assures stakeholders that the organization has controls in place and is capable of managing cloud security risks. The structured nature of ISO/IEC 27001 helps organizations establish consistent and repeatable security processes.

7. Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)

FedRAMP standardizes security assessment and authorization for cloud products and services used by U.S. government agencies. It provides a standardized approach to security and risk assessment, facilitating the adoption of secure cloud technologies in the government sector. FedRAMP’s framework ensures that cloud services meet stringent security requirements.

By achieving FedRAMP authorization, cloud service providers demonstrate their compliance with high federal security standards. This significantly streamlines the procurement process for government agencies and provides confidence that the cloud services meet critical security requirements.

How to Choose a Cloud Security Framework 

When selecting a cloud security framework, organizations must consider various factors to ensure the chosen framework aligns with their operational needs, security goals, and regulatory obligations. The right framework not only addresses current security requirements but also supports future growth and adaptability in an evolving threat landscape.

Key considerations include:

Community and vendor support: Consider the availability of community or vendor resources for the framework. A well-supported framework often comes with extensive documentation, tools, and best practices, which can streamline implementation and maintenance.

Regulatory compliance requirements: Assess the regulatory obligations your organization must adhere to, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS. Choosing a framework that incorporates relevant compliance standards simplifies meeting legal requirements and audit processes.

Cloud environment: Different frameworks may cater to specific cloud deployment models (public, private, or hybrid). Ensure the framework addresses the security challenges specific to your cloud architecture.

Industry standards: Some frameworks are tailored for particular industries, such as healthcare or finance. Selecting one that aligns with your industry ensures coverage of sector-specific security concerns.

Flexibility and scalability: Opt for a framework that can adapt to changing business needs. As your organization scales or adopts new cloud technologies, the framework should remain applicable and easy to integrate with evolving cloud security solutions.

Risk management approach: Evaluate how the framework handles risk identification, assessment, and mitigation. Frameworks that provide risk management processes help prioritize threats and allocate resources more effectively.

Certifiability: Some frameworks, like ISO/IEC 27001 or HITRUST CSF, offer certification options. If proving compliance to customers or stakeholders is a priority, choosing a certifiable framework can enhance trust and transparency.

Exabeam: Enhancing Threat Detection with Advanced Security Analytics

The Exabeam Security Operations Platform delivers a powerful combination of SIEM, behavioral analytics, automation, and network visibility to transform how organizations detect, investigate, and respond to threats. By correlating firewall logs with data from endpoints, cloud environments, identity systems, and other security sources, Exabeam provides deeper insights into evolving threats that would otherwise go undetected.

Behavior-driven analytics enable Exabeam to go beyond static rules and signatures, identifying anomalous activity that indicates credential misuse, insider threats, or lateral movement across the network. By analyzing normal user and entity behavior over time, Exabeam surfaces high-risk activities that traditional security tools may overlook.

Automated investigations streamline security operations by linking disparate data points into comprehensive threat timelines, reducing the time analysts spend piecing together incidents manually. This allows teams to quickly identify the root cause of an attack and respond with precision.

Learn more about Exabeam SIEM