The Benefits of Cloud Penetration Testing for Business Security

What is Cloud Penetration Testing?

Cloud services are now a critical part of many organisation’s digital infrastructure. Considering how rapidly the global cyber threat landscape is evolving, it’s never been more important to protect your cloud infrastructure, and cloud penetration is one of the best methods to do this.

Cloud penetration testing, to put it simply, is a way to simulate real-world cyberattacks on a company’s cloud infrastructure to identify any potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited. It’s a key component of any modern business’ security suite, and is one of the core components to keeping your cloud-based infrastructure safe from attack and compliant with regulations.

As cloud-based systems continue to grow in popularity, attacks on them will only grow more sophisticated, so it’s vitally important that your infrastructure is constantly ready to deal with the evolving threat.

Why Cloud Penetration Testing Is Crucial for Your Business

Cloud-based solutions have continued to grow in popularity as businesses see the merits in a cost-effective, scalable, and efficient digital tool that can span their entire network infrastructure. The global cloud computing market is expected to surpass a value of $1 trillion by 2028, with many experts believing it will only continue to expand.

However, this outsized growth also leads to the emergence of problems, particularly as businesses migrate from older systems to newer, cloud-based ones. This migration has a very unique set of security risks that standard tools may fail to identify or address. For example, something as simple as improperly configured storage buckets — something which could easily be overlooked in a large-scale system migration — could lead to hugely impactful data leaks that could damage the reputation of a business beyond repair. These specific issues, coupled with the ongoing evolution of cloud-based cyber threats, mean that businesses now need to take extreme care in how they protect their cloud services.

One way to begin to address this is through the shared responsibility model, where both service providers and clients themselves are responsible and accountable for securing data, applications, and user access. Testing has to be rigorous on both sides to provide a robust security posture that can keep up with emerging threats.

Key Benefits of Cloud Penetration Testing

One of the main benefits of cloud penetration testing is its ability to detect potential vulnerabilities before they have a chance to be exploited. Cloud penetration testing mimics real world attacks, using similar techniques as genuine attackers might use to expose any gaps within your security posture. A combination of automated and human-centric tools are used to explore every possible avenue, and to ensure that every facet of your cloud network is thoroughly tested against the most relevant and up-to-date attacks.

Another benefit to this is that by exposing these vulnerabilities and working to proactively improve your businesses security posture, you’re able to better work towards complying with regulatory bodies and their standards: GDPR and HIPAA for example.

Cloud penetration testing also has the advantage of mitigating the risk of costly data breaches occurring. Data breaches can lead to significant financial loss, time intensive legal proceedings, and reputational damage that can set your organisation back years — sometimes even beyond recovery. A proactive approach to cloud security minimises these risks by finding security flaws before data can be breached.

All of these benefits combine to create a massively improved security posture. There’s also a subtle, but not insignificant effect, often seen with an increase in proactive measures such as cloud penetration testing. A clear focus on proactively securing your networks can help create a culture that’s focused on protecting your business. Regular penetration testing sends a message that your organisation takes security seriously, and this can filter through the entire business to further fortify your overall security posture.

How Cloud Penetration Testing Can Benefit Your Organisation

For many larger companies, your cloud operations might already be quite complex. This complexity likely means that you’ll require quite specialised penetration testing in order to ensure that the larger range of vulnerabilities that you’re potentially exposed to are accounted for within the testing. Fortunately, cloud penetration testing offers quite a scalable approach, allowing you to work across multi-cloud environments or hybrid cloud setups — including Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud — letting you maintain a strong security posture across your entire cloud architecture.

For large businesses with cloud environments such as this, cloud penetration testing is absolutely vital to ensure you aren’t subject to a security breach. For modern businesses, a high-profile data breach can be a death knell that’s extremely difficult to recover from, and can have you tied up in costly litigation for years. The ability to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities can save you from this kind of trouble, and keep you onside with the various regulators within your respective jurisdiction.

Cloud penetration testing also helps you future-proof your business operations. As you scale, your testing can scale with you, ensuring you remain not only safe, but also compliant with any regulations. With each new jurisdiction you expand into for business, you may be subjected to new or different regulations. Regular penetration testing will help you develop a security posture that will exist regardless of how quickly your underlying cloud infrastructure grows.

Choosing a Cloud Penetration Testing Provider

When it comes to selecting a cloud penetration testing provider, the main things you should look to prioritise in your search are the relevant certifications, high levels of expertise, and a proven methodology that has strong results to back it up.

Recognised certifications such as CREST or CISSP — DigitalXRAID is CREST certified, putting us in the top 1% of security providers worldwide — will allow you to quickly tell if an organisation has the relevant qualifications to carry out the work you need.

In terms of experience and methodology, you want to find a provider that has worked extensively in the field for years, with a list of strong testimonials and social proof, and that has a clear and systematic methodology that’s applied to each customer. At DigitalXRAID, we’ve been doing this since 2015 and have an extensive client portfolio that crosses multiple vertical sectors.

We tailor each and every one of our plans to the specific organisation in question, providing 24/7 support and cyber solutions to help keep your business secure.

Strengthen Your Cloud Security with Penetration Testing

In an increasingly cloud-based world, the need for cloud penetration testing is growing stronger every day. In order to keep your business secure and to remain competitive,you need to ensure your systems are secure and ready for the threats of tomorrow, today.

Get in touch with one of our many experts here at DigitalXRAID, and find out exactly how we can help provide the security you need, so that you can focus on growing your business.