Understanding CSPM and the Threat Landscape

Remediation workflows refer to the automated processes that help organizations identify and fix security vulnerabilities in their cloud environment. These workflows can be customized based on the specific needs of the organization, and they typically involve a series of steps:

1. Identification: The CSPM tool identifies security vulnerabilities in the cloud environment by scanning the environment for known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
2. Prioritization: The tool prioritizes the vulnerabilities based on their severity and the potential impact on the organization.
3. Remediation plan: The tool develops a remediation plan that outlines the steps needed to fix the vulnerabilities, including any configuration changes or updates required.
4. Execution: The tool executes the remediation plan by applying the necessary configuration changes or updates to the cloud environment.
5. Verification: The tool verifies that the remediation actions were successful and that the vulnerabilities have been resolved.

Remediation workflows are an important feature of a CSPM tool because they help organizations automate the process of identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities in their cloud environment, which can help improve their overall security posture and reduce the risk of data breaches and other security incidents.

Integration with existing security tools

Seamlessly integrating a CSPM tool with other security tools used by an organization, such as SIEM, vulnerability scanners, and other security products is very important. This integration helps centralize security monitoring and management, streamline security workflows, and avoid duplication of effort across multiple security tools. This enables security teams to identify and respond to security threats quickly and effectively. Integration with existing security tools also allows for better collaboration between security and other teams, such as IT and DevOps, who may be responsible for managing different aspects of the organization’s cloud infrastructure.

The CSPM solution should integrate with various other tools, but this will depend on the needs of the organization. However, some common security tools that a CSPM solution might integrate with are as follows:

• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools: SIEM tools aggregate and analyze security data from across an organization’s network and security systems. Integration with a CSPM tool can help provide additional context and visibility into cloud-based threats and incidents.
• IAM tools: IAM tools are used to manage user access to an organization’s cloud resources. Integration with a CSPM tool can help identify any misconfigurations or policy violations related to IAM, which can help prevent unauthorized access to cloud resources. For example, integrating your identity provider tool, such as AWS IAM or Microsoft Entra, with the CSPM tool will help you identify potential risks such as overly permissive access policies, unused credentials, or insecure configurations. The tool can also help in implementing automated remediation actions. For example, if an IAM policy violation is detected, Prisma Cloud can trigger remediation actions, such as removing excess permissions or disabling compromised credentials.
• DevOps tools: DevOps tools are used to manage the deployment of applications and infrastructure. Integration with a CSPM tool can help ensure that security is integrated into the DevOps process by providing security-related feedback and alerts during the development and deployment process.

Note

CSPM integration with other tools will be discussed in detail in Chapter 8.