Examining the EO Mandate on Cloud Security

One clear impact of the Biden Executive Order on cybersecurity is that it pushes agencies to move faster to the cloud.  In that push, it also mandates that CISA shall offer guidance to agencies on cloud security and accelerated cloud migration in 60 and 90 days respectively.  While agencies may wait until that guidance is issued, there are certain governance and security measures that will certainly be required and agencies should start the process of evaluating options to be ready to move forward as soon as possible.  

There are two codified solution types in the cloud security industry that will be necessary:

• Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) 
• Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP)

In addition, a governance solution over both will complete the circle.  

While it may not be prudent to purchase any of those solutions before the 60 day guidance is issued, evaluating options is most certainly a good use of time now.   There are three different core approaches to cloud security.  

• Custom dashboards and tools built through leveraging inherent cloud host controls and monitoring
• SaaS cloud or software that provides controls and monitoring via cloud hosted API integrations
• SaaS cloud or software solutions that integrate with APIs, but also gather more governance information directly from sensors deployed with the systems being monitored and secured

Each approach has its positives and negatives. To learn which approach is right for your agency, contact GuidePoint Security.