This blog is part three of a five-part series exploring the critical steps to building a secure cloud environment. This resource offers a snapshot of the key points from the corresponding webcast Cloud Security Strategy: First Principles and Future Opportunities (Part 3 of 5), Modernizing Identity: Navigating Challenges and Embracing Cloud Solutions. Register and watch the replay to reinforce your learning.
Build on your learning and check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.
What is Identity Management?
Identity management is the policies, processes, and technologies used to authenticate and authorize users accessing an organization’s resources. In cloud environments, identity management plays an especially important role as it determines who can access information and applications. As organizations increasingly move to the cloud, identity management has become fundamental in protecting digital assets against unauthorized access.
The Crucial Role of Identity in Cloud Security
Identity management has become essential to cloud security in today’s complex environments. This central role of identity is a specific focus of industry experts like Angelica Faber, a senior security architect at Microsoft, and Simon Vernon, Head of Research and Development for SANS EMEA and SEC488 and SEC549 instructor. In this session, Faber and Vernon reveal some of the challenges organizations face as they modernize legacy identity systems to align with cloud-first strategies.
As Vernon emphasizes, “everything that we do in the cloud comes back down to identity.” This interconnectedness is critical in cloud ecosystems due to the strong identity management to maintain security.
The Problem with Legacy Systems and Identity
Legacy systems pose significant challenges in today’s cloud landscape. Active Directory (AD), introduced over 25 years ago, remains central to many organizations’ identity management. However, outdated systems like AD often come with "baggage" that complicates cloud adoption and security. Faber shares that legacy systems like AD rely on older protocols and create modernization challenges, "It’s hard to imagine, but it has been 25 years.” Modernizing these systems can be a struggle for organizations, especially for inherited configurations from prior teams and lack the resources to overhaul them.
Technical debt also complicates these challenges by creating barriers to adopting modern security measures like zero trust. Vernon explains how technical debt can trap organizations in outdated processes which lead to security risks. He recalls working with companies with extensive legacy dependencies, where technical debt “accumulate[ed] additional technical debt,” preventing them from fully embracing modern, secure cloud-based solutions.
The Need for Identity Modernization
Modern identity solutions allow organizations to transition from legacy authentication methods to modern identity solutions including zero trust principles and advanced conditional access policies. Faber underscores the importance of moving toward modern authentication protocols, particularly in response to the challenges of legacy systems, stating, “Any opportunity to move to modern authentication should be taken.”
Zero trust has become a foundation for cloud security. For Faber, transitioning to zero trust means “making sure that you have the right people having the right access to the right stuff,” and integrating phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) for privileged users. Modern identity management involves applying conditional access policies that can adjust to different risk levels based on user identity, device, and location.
Faber says these controls are essential to ensuring that users only access what they need, which she notes is a significant upgrade from outdated, all-or-nothing legacy access models. She highlights that new capabilities expand conditional access to legacy applications, which allows companies with older systems to implement more granular security controls without a full system overhaul.
Tackling Misconfigurations and Cloud Identity Challenges
Misconfigurations in identity setups pose substantial security risks, often leading to vulnerabilities. Continuous monitoring and regular assessments are critical in identifying and addressing these misconfigurations. Without assessments, problems can go unnoticed, as Faber warns, “A tiny little misconfiguration can cause enormous problems.”
Effective identity management also requires skilled personnel. Many organizations lack the in-house resources required to secure identity systems in complex cloud environments. Faber points out that this lack of skilled personnel exacerbates misconfiguration issues, as organizations may not fully understand the complexities of their identity setups.
Conditional Access and Zero Trust Solutions
Conditional access policies are central to identity management, especially with their ability to make real-time decisions based on specific signals like user location, device, and role. Faber describes conditional access as “if-then-else logic” for security. With conditional access, legacy applications gain new security layers, allowing organizations to modernize incrementally.
Zero trust network access (ZTNA) represents an evolution beyond traditional virtual private networks (VPNs), granting specific permissions based on user identity instead of network location. As Vernon details, this shift allows organizations to reduce reliance on “legacy services” like VPNs and instead focus on identity-driven security controls.
Faber also highlights continuous access evaluation as a game-changing feature. This monitors signals in real-time and adjusts access mid-session if a user’s risk profile changes.
Moving Forward with Identity Modernization
As cloud environments continue to evolve, identity modernization remains critical. Legacy systems need updates or augmentations to support modern cloud security practices. Modern identity solutions help bring these systems into a zero trust framework, securing cloud workloads and future-proofing organizational security. Prioritizing identity modernization is a crucial component for keeping up with cloud security demands.
Complete Your Learning Experience
Register for the full five-part series, and for additional insights, check out Part 4 in this blog series. These sessions and corresponding blogs are essential for security leaders aiming to proactively secure their cloud environments and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving cloud security landscape.
