Cloud Compliance

 Cloud technology has expanded business capabilities across all industries. However, taking full advantage of the cloud means paying attention to compliance issues that can vary according to your industry and other factors. Without a stringent cloud compliance system in place, you could be making both your business and your customers vulnerable to data breaches and other security-related problems. That is why it is important to have a general understanding of cloud compliance along with a deeper understanding of what it means to your business in particular.

Essentially, cloud compliance means that any cloud-delivered system must be compliant with standards that are specific to each customer. For example, healthcare facilities have to comply with HIPAA standards which are designed to protect the patient’s privacy. HIPAA has strict guidelines concerning how patient data is stored and shared. As a result, any cloud system will need to enact security protocols that will allow cloud systems to effectively comply with HIPAA standards.

It is important to note that compliance is often an ongoing challenge. Security threats are not static and new vulnerabilities can become exposed as technology changes and hackers look for new ways to infiltrate systems. In addition, emerging industry standards and new government regulations can require a constant reassessment of compliance issues in order to stay up-to-date.

Many companies are dealing with the challenges of cloud compliance by creating new positions or outsourcing their compliance issues to specialized companies. Chief Compliance Officers are being assigned to oversee compliance-related challenges and prevent any mistakes. At the same time, companies are looking to free up their IT team and allow them to focus on other areas of the business by hiring outside companies to deal with cloud compliance. These companies are tasked with understanding the industry and all relevant compliance standards. For industries with more complex compliance issues that are subject to change, outsourcing can be an invaluable tool.

Security Compliance

Prancer Enterprise is announcing that its entire cloud compliance policies repository is now open source. The repository is available on GitHub at

https://github.com/prancer-io/prancer-compliance-test

This move reflects Prancer’s commitment to open source technology and harness the power of community collaboration to move great ideas through the pipeline faster.

These compliance policies that focused on IaC Security and live cloud resources are based on CIS, NIST 800, PCI, HIPPA, HITRUST, CSA CCM and ISO 27001 compliance standards. These policies are all in REGO Open Policy Agent (OPA) language.

Prancer Enterprise platform helps companies achieve end-to-end security in the cloud by shifting security to the left and apply it early in the development process. Cloud DevOps engineers could have an early feedback on the security of the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) templates with every commit they are making to the code.

Prancer Enterprise Cloud Compliance repository has more than 1000 policies both on the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Security and post-deployment resources. This unique Cloud compliance policy repository is the most significant contribution to the open-source community based on the de facto Rego policy language.

IaC Security policies cover Azure, AWS and Google Clouds. Kubernetes Objects are also supported in the IaC Security. Post-deployment security scans based on these cloud providers help businesses to increase cloud security posture and maintaining security in the cloud.

As more companies begin to rely on cloud technologies, they are also looking for ways to apply compliance to their cloud environment easily and make it a secure place for their workloads. Prancer Platform helps companies to leverage security throughout the lifecycle of their cloud deployment. Prancer Platform integrates into DevOps pipelines and provides IaC Security scan.

About Prancer

Prancer Enterprise (https://www.prancer.io/) provides a pre-deployment and post-deployment multi-cloud security platform for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and live cloud environments. It shifts the security to the left and provides end-to-end security scanning based on the Policy as Code concept. DevOps engineers can use it for static code analysis on IaC to find security drifts and maintain their cloud security posture with continuous compliance features.

Continuous Compliance

Continuous compliance is tied in with building up a culture and procedure inside your association that ceaselessly surveys your consistent position to guarantee you meet your industry and administrative requests while keeping up secure frameworks.

Why does every Organization need Continuous Compliance?

ControlCase gathers and screens important information takes care of from client IT foundation like SIEM, Vulnerability Scanners, Data disclosure, Identity, and access the board, and so forth ControlCase Continuous Compliance Solution utilizes creative and profoundly successful information examination innovation and furnishes you with significant experiences dependent on holes, dangers, and resources in scope. ControlCase gives a brought together dashboard to Continuous Compliance utilizing leader online comfort called SkyCAM, which offers a moment look to consistency and rebelliousness status. This is critical for associations that need to rapidly accomplish consistency across their IT, for example, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2 consistency/guidelines. Continuous compliance helps CISOs, CSOs, Chief Compliance Officers, and different partners guarantee administrative consistency inside their associations.

Continuous Compliance & Assurance ought to ease these problem areas by expanding inner straightforwardness and control while at the same time diminishing everyday obligations and overhead.

Building Continuous Compliance into DevOps

Constant affirmation gives genuine feelings of serenity that the condition of consistency is continuous as opposed to simply a lapsed preview. By executing continuous compliance and assurance, associations can have confidence that their data resources are secured consistently.

Continuous Compliance Monitoring has a compliance-driven DevOps culture that helps decrease operational expenses, improve efficiencies, and diminish hazards impressively. Consistence-related exercises should be remembered ahead of schedule for the product lifecycle by the DevOps groups a similar path as in the testing method. How everybody is looking at moving left for testing the equivalent applies to compliances. Robotization will help in this somewhat. You can't leave the security and consistency-related worries for later stages in the delivery cycle.

Which three practices support Continuous Compliance?

• Constant checking is the interaction and innovation used to distinguish consistency and hazard issues related to an association's economic and operational security.
• The economic and operational security comprises individuals, cycles, and frameworks cooperating to help productive and viable activities. Controls are set up to address hazards inside these segments.
• By consistently observing the activities and controls, powerless or ineffectively planned or executed rules can be revised or supplanted – subsequently improving the association's operational danger profile.

Financial backers, governments, the general population, and different partners keep on expanding their requests for more effective corporate administration and business straightforwardness.

 

Cloud Computing

Every cloud computing service relies on the same remote infrastructure for a conceptual framework. Servers located in the data center power this framework. As there are a lot of similarities between them, we can consider this computing system as a pyramid with three layers. Every layer has its own specialty. However, the basic infrastructure is the same. Lower layers of the cloud computing system are broader, representing their customizability, versatility, and have a wide application range. The upper layers have a specific purpose to follow, so they are narrower. Below, you will find three cloud computing types and their difference to understand all the layers individually:

1.    IaaS

This cloud computing system is the foundation of the pyramid. Infrastructure as a Service is very flexible and compressive among all other cloud services that are available. With this computing system, you receive a virtualized infrastructure of cloud computing you can manage and provision through the cloud provider endpoints. The IaaS provider manages and controls all the physical infrastructures such as data storage space, servers, etc. This way, the customer can customize their virtualized resources according to their requirements. With Infrastructure as a service, you can buy virtual machines and install, organize, and manage any software you want to use. This includes applications such as development tools, business analytics, applications, middleware, and operating systems. Furthermore, you only have to pay for the virtual machine you are using. This will facilitate you in scaling your computing requirements as you need without building any additional capacity. Examples of IaaS are GCE (Google Compute Engine), AWS (Amazon Web Services), EC2, and Microsoft Azure virtual machines.

2.    PaaS

This computing system comes above IaaS in the cloud computing pyramid. Not like IaaS, Platform as a Service more specialized. Instead of providing a virtual machine to you, you get a specific purpose resource in the cloud, which you can put your workload on / or automate your cloud process. In the IaaS model, the customer is responsible for OS-level patching and maintenance. But in the PaaS model, those layers are hidden from the customer, and they can just focus on specific use cases. Microsoft Azure App Services, Apache Stratos, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and Google App Engine are examples of Platform as a Service.

3.    SaaS

Many people are familiar with this type of cloud computing. SaaS is located at the highest level of the pyramid. Software as a Service is a completely developed software solution that you can instantly use through the internet after purchasing the subscription. Software as a service is responsible for managing data, operating systems, infrastructure, and middleware that is really important for delivering the program and to make sure that wherever and whenever a customer needs access, they always find it available. There is numerous software as service applications that you can directly run on your web browsers without the need for downloading and installing the application. This way, companies can reduce their software management problems for IT teams, and the company can streamline and simplify their operations with multi-cloud and hybrid deployments. The examples of Software as a Service are Google Apps, Salesforce, Cisco WebEx, and Microsoft Office 365.

Conclusion

Cloud computing has changed how companies all over the world operate, something that most people are unable to realize yet. It is essential to understand the types of cloud computing and choose the right one for your business to grow. Cloud computing is increasingly growing, which is opening many new opportunities for businesses looking forward to driving the results of their business and innovating.

PCI & Cloud Compliance in the Modern Age

Today, many of us rely on the convenience of online shopping to quickly purchase items we couldn’t find in neighborhood stores or to simply avoid having to go to the store altogether. Online payments also make it possible to secure plane tickets, make hotel reservations, and even pay bills. However, the payment landscape that we know now developed over time. The real boom in online shopping can be traced back to the emergence of the internet. From then on, payment card data continued to be used more widely and transmitted on a global level. In response, individual card providers began their own programs to ensure certain levels of protection, but it wasn’t until 2004 that the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) created global standards. Today, the Council is tasked with the additional challenge of creating regulations in the age of cloud computing. At the same time, businesses must comply with and validate these requirements.

This post will take a closer look at current PCI regulations and different ways that businesses are meeting compliance standards.

PCI Data Security Requirements

The PCI has created a total of twelve different compliance requirements that are organized into six groups known as “control objectives”:

Build and Maintain a Secure Network and Systems

Protect Cardholder Data

Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program

Implement Strong Access Control Measures

Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

Maintain an Information Security Policy

While some of the details and sub-categories pertaining to control objectives have changed over time, these core values have been in place since the inception of the PCI SSC.

Validating PCI Compliance

Validation of compliance can be conducted on several different levels according to how many transactions they handle on a yearly basis. More transactions require increased levels of scrutiny and compliance validation.

Level 1 companies that process over 6 million transactions in the course of a year will need to be evaluated by a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) who is an independent evaluator who has been certified by the PCI SSC. They are responsible for evaluating compliance according to certain criteria.

In addition, all Level 1 companies are required to fill out a Report on Compliance (ROC) when they undergo an audit. This document is used to outline in detail all the policies and strategies that are being used to prevent cardholders from becoming the victims of fraud.

Businesses that fall in the Level 2 category and process between 1 and 6 million transactions will be required to use an Internal Security Assessor (ISA). This individual is a member of the company who has earned a PCI SSC certification. This allows them to conduct self-assessments. They may be asked to work closely with QSAs to ensure compliance.

PCI SSC also requires that all companies fill out a self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) every year. If the assessment reveals that the company is not fully compliant in certain areas, they must provide a plan for full implementation and show that they are able and willing to address the problem.

Benefits of PCI SSC Compliance and Validation

The goal of PCI SSC is to protect both consumers and merchants. When a consumer is subject to a scam or fraud, the consequences can be far-reaching. Their personal information can be compromised, their credit scores can be affected, and much more. Merchants who experience a breach can face financial liabilities and the loss of consumer trust, which can significantly hurt business. Compliance is a vital aspect of maintaining healthy global markets where both merchants and shoppers can operate confidently.

How to Improve Your PCI SSC Compliance

Prancer is one tool that allows companies with a cloud validation framework that can test for compliance along the entire development and implementation pipeline. This allows for both pre and post-deployment validation so that you can create a strong foundation and continue to test and make changes as needed. Not only does this improve security and compliance, it allows DevOps teams to avoid delays and continue to safely deploy new applications.

If you handle card payments and need help with your PCI SSC compliance strategies, contact prancer today. We can help you improve security, meet global regulations and earn the trust of consumers.

Understanding Cloud Compliance and Why it Matters

Cloud technology has expanded business capabilities across all industries. However, taking full advantage of the cloud means paying attention to compliance issues that can vary according to your industry and other factors. Without a stringent cloud compliance system in place, you could be making both your business and your customers vulnerable to data breaches and other security-related problems. That is why it is important to have a general understanding of cloud compliance along with a deeper understanding of what it means to your business in particular.

Essentially, cloud compliance means that any cloud-delivered system must be compliant with standards that are specific to each customer. For example, healthcare facilities have to comply with HIPAA standards, which are designed to protect the patient’s privacy. HIPAA has strict guidelines concerning how patient data is stored and shared. As a result, any cloud system will need to enact security protocols that will allow cloud systems to effectively comply with HIPAA standards.

It is important to note that compliance is often an ongoing challenge. Security threats are not static and new vulnerabilities can become exposed as technology changes and hackers look for new ways to infiltrate systems. In addition, emerging industry standards and new government regulations can require a constant reassessment of compliance issues in order to stay up-to-date.

Many companies are dealing with the challenges of cloud compliance by creating new positions or outsourcing their compliance issues to specialized companies. Chief Compliance Officers are being assigned to oversee compliance-related challenges and prevent any mistakes. At the same time, companies are looking to free up their IT team and allow them to focus on other areas of the business by hiring outside companies to deal with cloud compliance. These companies are tasked with understanding the industry and all relevant compliance standards. For industries with more complex compliance issues that are subject to change, outsourcing can be an invaluable tool.

Basics of Cloud Compliance

While the exact details of cloud compliance will vary, there are some essential keys to success that should help form any basic approach.

1. Be aware of the guidelines. First and foremost, any cloud compliance plan should be addressing the latest regulations on a local, national, and international level.
2. Implement access control policies. It is important to designate who has control over what information and put in certain protections to make sure that unauthorized users can’t access certain areas of the system. Typically, this means a multi-factor authentication process. While a single-sign-on system can be faster and more convenient, it creates unnecessary vulnerabilities.
3. Understand data storage. Data should be properly classified and stored in different areas according to the level of protection needed to adhere to cloud compliance standards.
4. Encryption. Encrypting data is an essential tool that adds another layer of protection to your most sensitive data. Even if there is a breach and an unauthorized user gains access to data, they won’t be able to do anything with the information if it is encrypted.

Common Compliance Standards

While there are a variety of compliance standards, here are some of the most common regulations that may affect your business and how you approach cloud security:

Center for Internet Security (CIS) – develops a global standards for IT system best practices.

Defense Information Systems Agence (DISA) – supports the Department of Defense organizations.

Payment Card Industry (PCI) – works to ensure businesses and customers can enjoy safe and secure credit card transactions.

Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) – regulates corporate financial disclosure regulations and requires that all financial records are reported once a year.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – oversees compliance in an effort to drive innovation and economic growth in the US.

Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) – develops standards for automated technology.

No matter what industry you are a part of or how big your business is, cloud compliance is an important issue that requires vigilance. Fortunately, there are options when it comes to ongoing compliance support. Prancer provides a cloud validation framework that can effectively test for compliance and offer solutions in an ever-changing environment. Instead of a one-time solution, you can establish a partnership with cloud validation experts who will keep you up-to-date as laws and regulations change and so that you can take full advantage of cloud technology while ensuring optimal security and compliance. Contact us today to learn more and get started.