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

Performing changes

Beyond using policies and tags to control compliant management of resources, these same features, along with others, may be used to restrict changes. Each of the cloud providers offers a way of grouping resources together for ease of classification. Both at a group and individual level, settings can be applied to lock the resource against changes or to restrict the level of changes that can be made (as shown in Figure 5.7), in addition to role assignments and access policies, as covered in Chapter 3, Identity and Access Management Controls:

Figure 5.7 – Example Microsoft Azure read-only lock applied

Figure 5.7 – Example Microsoft Azure read-only lock applied

This level of restriction may not be readily apparent when discussing access controls, which is why organizations must document their system architecture. As auditors, we must understand that cloud providers offer a complex mix of controls that can be applied.

Now that we have looked at additional options for controlling changes...