Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

CSPM is the process of continuously monitoring cloud-based systems and infrastructures to identify risks and misconfigurations. It ensures that cloud environments remain secure, compliant, and aligned with industry best practices.

Why Should We Care?

Cloud services offer flexibility in how we configure resources. When starting a project or working on proof of concepts, the focus is often on delivering visible features quickly, often leaving security as an afterthought. In the rush to meet deadlines, secure configuration can be overlooked or postponed. Sometimes, we may forget to revisit security or simply lack knowledge of the proper configurations needed to secure cloud resources.

As Milton Friedman aptly said, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”

This reflects how temporary, insecure configurations can become a permanent risk.

Security Incidents

Improperly configured resources can pose significant security risks. For example, consider an IAM user account with Administrator privileges. In the haste to get things working, one might grant broad permissions, such as Administrator access, to an application needing to interact with other services like an S3 bucket. If these credentials or the application itself are compromised, an attacker could exploit this access, creating resources like large EC2 instances for malicious purposes.

Security Audits

As a product matures, achieving security compliance becomes crucial. Certifications like SOC 2 are often required to gain customer trust. However, third-party audits usually occur annually, and there’s a risk of treating them as a one-time checkbox exercise. Security best practices should be continuously evaluated and applied to protect the products we care about.

GuardKite vs. Other Solutions

AWS Config

AWS Config is AWS's native service for security compliance monitoring. While it provides robust monitoring capabilities, enabling and managing it across multiple AWS accounts and regions can be complex. Additionally, the cost of AWS Config can add up as it tracks dynamic resource changes. GuardKite offers a simpler integration process and delivers comprehensive insights, without the concern of escalating costs.

Other Tools

Most tools in the marketplace target enterprise customers, often coming with high costs and lengthy commitments. GuardKite aims to democratize configuration monitoring by making it affordable and accessible to everyone, regardless of organization size, without requiring expensive commitments.