Security misconfigurations continue pose to a threat to organizations, and remote work hasn’t helped. However, how you configure cloud security is just as critical as end user behaviour.  

The shift to remote work not surprisingly has led to a spike in cyber attacks just as organizations were spurred by the pandemic to accelerate adoption of the cloud. These conditions mean security misconfigurations can have an even bigger impact on overall security posture.

Threat actors are drawn to security misconfigurations

As remote work continues and endpoints flourish for other reasons, such as IoT and edge computing deployments, it’s essential to have a full inventory of all your internet-connected digital assets, whether it’s the laptops of your remote workforce or the cloud applications they’re accessing. Threat actors are working hard to compromise all your digital assets, and security misconfigurations for a single cloud application can give them an opening to gain broader access to your infrastructure.

Security misconfigurations are ultimately a form of human error, which are generally a bigger threat to your organization than technology flaws and failures. Among the ones to be mindful of are forgetting to remove unused access permissions, setting up incorrect access, or creating overly permissive rules. Even before the massive shift to remote work, network infrastructure even small and medium businesses have become increasingly dynamic with the adoption of the cloud and mobile technologies.

Having strong policies as a baseline combined with automation can help you avoid security misconfigurations that lead to costly data breaches.

Automation requires visibility

Automation is essential if you want to stay ahead of threat actors, but you to have visibility into the devices, assets, and processes before you do it.

One thing you must watch out for is shadow IT, whether it’s software or hardware. Employees or even lines of business sometimes find their own solutions out of expediency without understanding their impact and the doors that are open to hackers due to security misconfigurations. These either need to be excised from your organization or made officially part of your digital asset inventory. You need to fully understand what your inventory is and conduct regular updates, especially as remote work continues, and employees come and go.

Having the right people in place can also help you avoid security misconfigurations, whether it’s cybersecurity specialists or making sure all employees have a solid understanding of good security hygiene. However, there’s only so much internal talent development can do given all the pressures faced by an IT team today, and good security people are in high demand.

Given these challenges, you should consider tapping into the expertise of a managed security services provider that can help you evaluate your infrastructure, develop strong policies, and implement automation so you can mitigate the impact of security misconfigurations.