Book Image

Cloud Auditing Best Practices

By : Shinesa Cambric, Michael Ratemo
5 (1)
Book Image

Cloud Auditing Best Practices

5 (1)
By: Shinesa Cambric, Michael Ratemo

Overview of this book

As more and more companies are moving to cloud and multi-cloud environments, being able to assess the compliance of these environments properly is becoming more important. But in this fast-moving domain, getting the most up-to-date information is a challenge—so where do you turn? Cloud Auditing Best Practices has all the information you’ll need. With an explanation of the fundamental concepts and hands-on walk-throughs of the three big cloud players, this book will get you up to speed with cloud auditing before you know it. After a quick introduction to cloud architecture and an understanding of the importance of performing cloud control assessments, you’ll quickly get to grips with navigating AWS, Azure, and GCP cloud environments. As you explore the vital role an IT auditor plays in any company’s network, you'll learn how to successfully build cloud IT auditing programs, including using standard tools such as Terraform, Azure Automation, AWS Policy Sentry, and many more. You’ll also get plenty of tips and tricks for preparing an effective and advanced audit and understanding how to monitor and assess cloud environments using standard tools. By the end of this book, you will be able to confidently apply and assess security controls for AWS, Azure, and GCP, allowing you to independently and effectively confirm compliance in the cloud.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Part 1: The Basics of Cloud Architecture and Navigating – Understanding Enterprise Cloud Auditing Essentials
4
Part 2: Cloud Security and IT Controls
8
Part 3: Executing an Effective Enterprise Cloud Audit Plan

Walk-Through – Assessing IAM Controls

From Chapter 1, Cloud Architecture and Navigation, to Chapter 6, Tips and Techniques for Advanced Auditing, we built foundational knowledge of cloud structure, navigation, and security controls, and in Chapter 7, Tools for Monitoring and Assessing, we learned about tools available for auditing. Now, it’s time to put our learning into practice by performing some example audit walk-throughs of basic controls within the major cloud providers.

In this chapter, we’ll cover the following main topics:

  • Preparing to assess cloud IAM controls
  • Assessing authentication and authorization
  • Assessing access assignment controls
  • Assessing privileged access controls
  • Assessing device controls

We will pose an assessment question for each of the topic areas and execute a basic test procedure. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to perform a basic audit walk-through of a few IAM controls across the three...