10 Cloud Security Tools Compared
Migrating to the cloud appears to be inevitable for most UK businesses. Understandably, there are some reservations about security. Knowing which tools you need is a good starting point to alleviate these concerns.
Cloud security tools provide your business network with extra layers of protection. In many cases, these tools are your first line of defence against cybercriminals.
To help point you in the right direction, we’ve listed 10 cloud security tools we recommend as top picks. You don’t all ten, but they do serve different functions so you will need to prioritise your cyber defences.
If you’re still not sure which cloud security tools are the best fit for your business by the time you reach the end of this article, feel free to contact our experts at Micro Pro for advice.
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon has been designed to tackle the sophisticated attacks of new-generation hackers that go “beyond malware” to breach systems. The latest techniques include credential theft, which allows hackers to operate within pre-existing systems.
CrowdStrike Falcon’s Endpoint Detection and Response monitors devices, collecting analytics that can be used to unearth suspicious and malicious activity before human operators would notice it.
Endpoint Detection and Response is part of Crowdstrike Falcon’s proactive mission to hunt for threats lurking within your business’s systems covertly.
“Threat hunters” can tackle potential threats that are almost invisible. The threats can be completely removed once discovered through conducting investigations and leveraging machine-learning technology.
The system also benefits from being run by a team of skilled “cyber threat intelligence operatives” who can engage with specific attackers. This gives the Crowdstrike Falcon team impressive capabilities to recognise the signature moves of specific cybercriminals and respond effectively based on that knowledge.
Next-Generation Antivirus completes the CrowdStrike Falcon armoury, a holistic and lightweight cloud security tool that starts at an affordable £45 a year.
Barracuda Cloudgen Firewall
Barracuda Cloudgen Firewall is a comprehensive security tool for your business’ cloud and hybrid systems, targeting zero-day attacks aimed at undiscovered exploits in your systems.
This tool features a multi-layered approach, including threat detection software, user behaviour analysis, and “sandboxing” of any discovered threats.
The latter allows your Barracuda protection to create a signature response to specific threats so that if the threat is detected again, it can automatically be tackled.
As a Cloudgen Firewall user, your business will join Barracuda’s global intelligence network. This network collects the data from its clients who have faced cyber attacks all over the world, allowing Barracuda to improve its system continuously.
One of the most impressive aspects of Barracuda’s Cloudgen Firewall is how easy it is to roll out across all of your systems. Deployment is aided by templates and API systems that make up Barracuda’s deep integration systems.
Once deployed, management and configuration are fully automated through Barracuda’s “Zero-Touch” system, allowing businesses without IT personnel to bring Barracuda Cloudgen Firewall into their systems.
Barracuda Cloudgen Firewall is a more expensive system, costing £555 with an extra £100 if your business wishes to benefit from yearly updates and usage support.
Splunk Enterprise Security
Splunk Enterprise Security is a machine data analysis tool that aims to create operational intelligence assessments for your enterprise in real-time. The system can be divided into two sub-systems: Splunk User Behaviour Analytics and Splunk SOAR.
The former is a tool to detect threats as they emerge in your systems using advanced machine learning technology. Splunk User Behaviour Analytics stands out on the market because it automatically stitches all related user anomalies into a single thread. This will allow security analysts to access the full scope of a threat without spending hours bringing anomalies together.
Splunk User Behaviour Analytics is supplemented by Splunk SOAR, an automated cybersecurity tool that aims to reduce the workload for your IT team. It comes with 100 pre-made playbooks for the most significant contemporary cyber threats, ready to be executed immediately when they are required.
Splunk SOAR can also help you to manage your pre-existing security measures. The main dashboard provides you with an overview of the interactions between your security tools, the playbooks they are utilising, and the notable events that have occurred in your system.
Your business has the choice of buying the full Splunk Enterprise Security license or licensing for just one of them. You will need to contact Splunk to get pricing information, who will create a quote based on your business’s computation capacity. They will measure this in SVC (Splunk Virtual Compute) units.
Topia SHERPA
Topia Technologies SHERPA system is the ideal solution for exchanging valuable data via the cloud across multiple businesses. The system aims to facilitate maximum data transfers while ensuring that all parties are correctly following agreements.
The SHERPA system generates smart contracts for all parties involved in the exchange where agreements and leverages blockchain technology to monitor data use and flag any breaches of the contract.
Topia Technology boasts some high-profile clients within the US government to display trust for its systems. These include the US military and the TSA security agency.
Cloudflare
A system with an even bigger global client and data network is Cloudflare, whose cloud systems power roughly 10% of internet activity worldwide.
Cloudflare can leverage more security measures than the average cloud security tool. For example, their Advanced Rate Limiting system is an effective defence against DDoS attacks, a brute force technique that exposes vulnerabilities in systems by overloading them.
To develop further specific measures, Cloudflare has looked to OWASP’s “Top 10” techniques used by attackers to break into systems. They have created standard rulesets shared across all Cloud users, preventing usage matching cybercriminals’ techniques. Customers can also leverage Cloudflare’s security systems to tailor their usage rulesets to tackle attacks targeted at their sector.
Zero spam
One of the most valuable features of the Cloud is its ability to assist your team’s communication, but these communication logs are rich data for cybercriminals to steal.
Furthermore, cybercriminals that exist undercover within your systems can use trusted communications networks to post malicious links, spam, and phishing attacks that can cripple your business.
Zero spam can protect against these attacks through AI-assisted message scanning, spam filtering, and automatic message encryption. Their systems will prevent spam from reaching your teams and make it near impossible for cybercriminals to access your team’s communications.
Zero spam has recently been acquired by Hornetsecurity, which has allowed them to add new measures. These are beyond the messaging niche and adds Microsoft 365 integration and quarantining of breached users.
Exact pricing is only available for businesses who contact Zero spam directly for a quotation. However, Zero spam has been well-rated for value for money by software rating websites.
Orca Security
Orca Security is your lens into your cloud computing systems, aiming to condense the overwhelming amount of activity on your Cloud into the 1% of alerts that matter.
The software provides you with a dashboard that highlights exactly what data is at risk, what malware may be in your systems, what resources are unpatched, what vulnerabilities are emerging, and finally, real-time activity by unauthenticated users.
Orca delivers the alerts that matter by taking into account the full context of your Cloud. Understanding this can flag the activity that is most likely to be suspicious so that your IT staff does not have to wade through thousands of alterations to find the one that matters.
IT professionals don’t even have to enter the Orca dashboard to find the most pressing alerts. These will be automatically be sent to whichever platform your team communicates on.
Orca Security is already used by Fiverr, Duolingo, and Sisense, amongst other influential companies. However, there is a fairly sizeable investment of £5,300 a month for small enterprises. The system can be purchased directly on the AWS marketplace.
Trend Micro Cloud One – Workload Security
Trend Micro Cloud One – Workload Security is the new name for Deep Security. It is a comprehensive cloud security system that protects your business against a host of contemporary cyber threats.
Whatever Cloud you use, Workload Security will work well for your business. It offers optimised services for AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, VMware, and Docker users.
Workload Security is ideal for businesses that continue to use legacy software. The danger with end-of-life products is that software companies do not release security updates so your data is at risk.
The role of Workload Security is to step in and plug the gap, offering comprehensive protection for under-updated systems.
The software also aims to bring utility to customers by generating data and incident response strategies based on the attacks aimed at your business and intuitively displaying these.
By providing you with a dashboard of Workload Security’s latest analytics from your systems, you will be provided with actionable insights to protect your business further.
Trend Micro Cloud One offers slightly unusual pay-as-you-go pricing, ranging from 1p to 4p per instance based on the usage type. This option is only available to AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud users. All other users must access Workload Security services through an annual subscription, which comes with a 30-day free trial.
Zscaler Security Cloud
Protecting your business data is not enough. To remain compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), businesses are obligated to protect sensitive data belonging to your customers and users.
Zscaler aims to protect all users by building a DMZ buffer that hackers must break into to access users. This is constructed through an advanced firewall, sandboxing of attacks, and advanced threat protection.
The security tool also rigorously blocks certain user activities. URL filtering, for instance, stops users from accessing suspect websites and SSL inspection monitors how users navigate your system.
When suspicious activity is detected – as you would expect from malware – the progress is stopped.
The cost for this tool is by quote only. The good news is that Zscaler claims their services cost most small businesses “the price of a cup of coffee per user per month.”
Rubrik
Even if your business used every cloud security tool detailed in this article, your network could still be at risk of a cyber-attack. With that in mind, you should have a safety net that will enable you to swerve a ransomware attack.
Rubrik is a cloud data backup solution that is scalable and designed for usability. Having a small amount of data stolen no longer means that your business will have to painstakingly redownload the entire database.
In the unlikely event that your network is breached and cannot be recovered, Rubrik says they will pay ransomware attackers demands up to $5 million.
Rubrik is available through three-year-long subscriptions across three payment plans: Foundation Edition, Business Edition, and Enterprise Edition.
Cloud Security in 2022
The rise in cybersecurity attacks means it’s more important than ever that you protect your Cloud. If cybercrime were a nation, it would have the 3rd largest economy in the world.
Needless to say, there is an overwhelming array of cloud security tools, covering data protection, backup, and attack detection. Whilst it’s a good idea to cover all the potential gateways hackers use to get into your system, some cybersecurity solutions can place a financial burden on small businesses.
Moreover, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The cybersecurity strategy you put in place should satisfy the guys over at the Information Commissioner’s Office that enforce GDPR penalties.
For expert advice, speak to our IT professionals. We have a wealth of knowledge and experience with providing cybersecurity defences and provide cost-effective solutions that don’t overstretch your budget.
