Cloud Computing Security

Cloud Computing:
Finding the Silver Lining
Steve Hanna, Juniper Networks

Copyright © 2009 Juniper Networks, Inc. 1

Agenda
  What is Cloud Computing?
  Security Analysis of Cloud Computing
  Conclusions


Agenda
  Conclusions


Cloud Computing Defined
  Dynamically scalable shared resources
accessed over a network
•  Only pay for what you use
•  Shared internally or with other customers
•  Resources = storage, computing, services, etc.
•  Internal network or Internet

  Notes
•  Similar to Timesharing
•  Rent IT resources vs. buy
•  New term – definition still being developed


Conventional Data Center

Data
Center
Data
Applications

Enterprise
LAN

Office User
Internet

Remote User


Cloud Computing Model Enterprise 2

Cloud
Provider
Enterprise 1 Enterprise
LAN

Data
Applications
Enterprise
LAN

Office User
Internet

Remote User


Many Flavors of Cloud Computing
  SaaS – Software as a Service
•  Network-hosted application

  DaaS – Data as a Service
•  Customer queries against provider’s database

  PaaS– Platform as a Service
•  Network-hosted software development platform

  IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
•  Provider hosts customer VMs or provides network storage

  IPMaaS – Identity and Policy Management as a Service
•  Provider manages identity and/or access control policy for customer

  NaaS – Network as a Service
•  Provider offers virtualized networks (e.g. VPNs)


Cloud Computing Providers
DaaS SaaS PaaS
IPM Software & Data

IPMaaS
Infrastructure

NaaS IaaS (DC/server)

Cloud Computing Pros and Cons

Compliance/regulatory
laws mandate on-site
Pros ownership of data
Reduced costs

Resource sharing is more Security and privacy
efficient Latency & bandwidth
guarantees
Management moves to Absence of robust SLAs
cloud provider
Uncertainty around
Consumption based cost interoperability,
portability & lock in
Faster time to roll
out new services Availability & reliability
Dynamic resource
availability for crunch Inhibitors
periods


Who’s using Clouds today?


Example: Mogulus
  Mogulus is a live broadcast platform on the internet.
(cloud customer)
•  Producers can use the Mogulus browser-based Studio application
to create LIVE, scheduled and on-demand internet television to
broadcast anywhere on the web through a single player widget.

  Mogulus is entirely hosted on cloud (cloud provider)

  On Election night Mogulus ramped to:
•  87000 videos @500kbps = 43.5 Gbps
•  http://www.mogulus.com


Example: Animoto
  Animoto is a video rendering & production house with
service available over the Internet
(cloud customer)
•  With their patent-pending technology and high-end motion design,
each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected
images and music in several formats, including DVD.
  Animoto is entirely hosted on cloud
(cloud provider)

  Released Facebook App: users were able to easily render
their photos into MTV like videos
•  Ramped from 25,000 users to 250,000 users in three days
•  Signing up 20,000 new users per hour at peak
•  Went from 50 to 3500 servers in 5 days
•  Two weeks later scaled back to 100 servers
•  http://www.animoto.com


Example: New York Times
  Timesmachine is a news archive of the
NY Times available in pdf over the
Internet to newspaper subscribers
(cloud customer)

  Timesmachine is entirely hosted on
cloud (cloud provider)

  Timesmachine needed infrastructure
to host several terabits of data
•  Internal IT rejected due to cost
•  Business owners got the data up on
cloud for $50 over one weekend
•  http://timesmachine.nytimes.com


Example: Eli Lilly
  Eli Lilly is the 10th largest pharmaceutical
company in the world
(cloud customer)

  Moved entire R&D environment to
cloud (cloud provider)

  Results:
•  Reduced costs
•  Global access to R&D applications
•  Rapid transition due to VM hosting

•  Time to deliver new services greatly reduced:
•  New server: 7.5 weeks down to 3 minutes
•  New collaboration: 8 weeks down to 5
minutes
•  64 node linux cluster: 12 weeks down to 5
minutes


Who’s using Clouds today?
  Startups & Small businesses
•  Can use clouds for everything
•  SaaS, IaaS, collaboration services, online presence

  Mid-Size Enterprises
•  Can use clouds for many things
•  Compute cycles for R&D projects, online collaboration, partner
integration, social networking, new business tools

  Large Enterprises
•  More likely to have hybrid models where they keep some things in
house
•  On premises data for legal and risk management reasons


Agenda
  Conclusions


Information Security Risk Management
Process (ISO 27005)
  Establish Context
  Risk Assessment
•  Identify Risks
•  Identify Assets
•  Identify Threats
•  Identify Existing Controls
•  Identify Vulnerabilities
•  Identify Consequences
•  Estimate Risks
•  Evaluate Risks
  Develop Risk Treatment Plan
•  Reduce, Retain, Avoid, or Transfer Risks
  Risk Acceptance
  Implement Risk Treatment Plan
  Monitor and Review Risks


Streamlined Security Analysis Process
  Identify Assets
•  Which assets are we trying to protect?
•  What properties of these assets must be maintained?

  Identify Threats
•  What attacks can be mounted?
•  What other threats are there (natural disasters, etc.)?

  Identify Countermeasures
•  How can we counter those attacks?

  Appropriate for Organization-Independent Analysis
•  We have no organizational context or policies


Identify Assets


Conventional Data Center

Data
Center
Data
Applications

Enterprise
LAN

Office User
Internet

Remote User



Cloud
Provider
LAN

Data
Applications
Enterprise
LAN

Office User
Internet

Remote User


Identify Assets
  Customer Data

  Customer Applications

  Client Computing Devices


Information Security Principles (Triad)
  C I A

•  Confidentiality
•  Prevent unauthorized disclosure

•  Integrity
•  Preserve information integrity

•  Availability
•  Ensure information is available when needed


Identify Assets & Principles
  Customer Data
•  Confidentiality, integrity, and availability

  Customer Applications

  Client Computing Devices


Identify Threats



Cloud
Provider
LAN

Data
Applications
Enterprise
LAN

Office User
Internet

Remote User


Identify Threats
  Failures in Provider Security

  Attacks by Other Customers

  Availability and Reliability Issues

  Legal and Regulatory Issues

  Perimeter Security Model Broken

  Integrating Provider and Customer Security Systems


Failures in Provider Security
  Explanation
•  Provider controls servers, network, etc.
•  Customer must trust provider’s security
•  Failures may violate CIA principles

  Countermeasures
•  Verify and monitor provider’s security

  Notes
•  Outside verification may suffice
•  For SMB, provider security may exceed customer
security

Attacks by Other Customers
  Threats
•  Provider resources shared with untrusted parties
•  CPU, storage, network
•  Customer data and applications must be separated
•  Failures will violate CIA principles

•  Hypervisors for compute separation
•  MPLS, VPNs, VLANs, firewalls for network separation
•  Cryptography (strong)
•  Application-layer separation (less strong)

Availability and Reliability Issues
  Threats
•  Clouds may be less available than in-house IT
•  Complexity increases chance of failure
•  Clouds are prominent attack targets
•  Internet reliability is spotty
•  Shared resources may provide attack vectors
•  BUT cloud providers focus on availability

•  Evaluate provider measures to ensure availability
•  Monitor availability carefully
•  Plan for downtime
•  Use public clouds for less essential applications

Legal and Regulatory Issues
  Threats
•  Laws and regulations may prevent cloud computing
•  Requirements to retain control
•  Certification requirements not met by provider
•  Geographical limitations – EU Data Privacy
•  New locations may trigger new laws and regulations

•  Evaluate legal issues
•  Require provider compliance with laws and regulations
•  Restrict geography as needed


Perimeter Security Model Broken


Perimeter Security Model

Data
Center
Data
Applications
Safe Zone
Enterprise
LAN

Office User
Internet

Remote User


Perimeter Security with Cloud Computing?
Enterprise 2

Cloud
Provider
LAN

Data
Applications
Enterprise
LAN

Office User
Internet

Remote User


Perimeter Security Model Broken
  Threats
•  Including the cloud in your perimeter
•  Lets attackers inside the perimeter
•  Prevents mobile users from accessing the cloud directly
•  Not including the cloud in your perimeter
•  Essential services aren’t trusted
•  No access controls on cloud

•  Drop the perimeter model!


Integrating Provider and Customer Security
  Threat
•  Disconnected provider and customer security systems
•  Fired employee retains access to cloud
•  Misbehavior in cloud not reported to customer

•  At least, integrate identity management
•  Consistent access controls
•  Better, integrate monitoring and notifications

  Notes
•  Can use SAML, LDAP, RADIUS, XACML, IF-MAP, etc.


Agenda
  Conclusions


Bottom Line on Cloud Computing Security
  Engage in full risk management process for each case

  For small and medium organizations
•  Cloud security may be a big improvement!
•  Cost savings may be large (economies of scale)

  For large organizations
•  Already have large, secure data centers
•  Main sweet spots:
•  Elastic services
•  Internet-facing services

  Employ countermeasures listed above


Security Analysis Skills Reviewed Today
  Information Security Risk Management Process
•  Variations used throughout IT industry
•  ISO 27005, NIST SP 800-30, etc.
•  Requires thorough knowledge of threats and controls
•  Bread and butter of InfoSec – Learn it!
•  Time-consuming but not difficult

  Streamlined Security Analysis Process
•  Many variations
•  RFC 3552, etc.
•  Requires thorough knowledge of threats and controls
•  Useful for organization-independent analysis
•  Practice this on any RFC or other standard
•  Become able to do it in 10 minutes


Discussion


Cloud Computing Security

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