IaaS: Security Considerations

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Discover four areas where IaaS security is a priority. Take note of how to avoid the main threats to this type of cloud platform.
IaaS , the acronym for infrastructure as a service, is the traditional cloud model provided by providers such as VMware, Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS , among others. Under this approach, virtual machines or serverless computing services are offered.


One of the advantages of IaaS is that there are very few limitations on what applications can be run on the infrastructure or what tools can be used to run the applications. In addition, many service providers also offer cloud storage or databases as an add-on to the infrastructure.

However, security services are one of the necessary brazil number dataset to the IaaS equation since, in this type of platform, various problems can arise that require a good solution.







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IaaS: Security in Cloud Services
The security of any service running in the cloud depends on the level of protection that the cloud infrastructure can guarantee, as well as the vision of the user company to avoid the threat by making the best choices. In general, risks of this type that affect the infrastructure represent a significant security concern, which goes beyond those that affect traditional servers.

Among the most notable are the following:

Insider threats . Employees of the cloud service provider have direct access to the hardware and networks, and many have access to hypervisors, provisioning systems, and authentication infrastructure. They therefore pose a potential threat due to their privileges. The way to prevent such situations is to focus on choosing trustworthy IaaS providers.


Breaking out of virtual machines, containers, or sandboxes . If a customer is able to break out of a virtual machine, container, or serverless sandbox, they could potentially gain access to the hypervisor or operating system that runs other customers’ workloads. Once inside a hypervisor, the attacker would have the ability to modify code, steal secrets, and install malware on any instance of the same hardware. The risk of such breaches can be reduced by minimizing the number of virtualization drivers and other features supported by the hypervisor, strict use of SELinux in enforcement mode, and intrusion detection tools.


Unauthorized authentications . Access to the accounts used to provision virtual machines and other cloud services allows an attacker to simply use the cloud service's API or user interface to disrupt the services or grant additional access as desired. Credentials to access the cloud service can be obtained, for example, by installing a keylogger on an administrator's desktop as part of a broader internal network breach. Training and educating business users is one of the most effective ways to extend the protection of an enterprise using IaaS.