The complete guide to cloud security posture management for multi-cloud environments
The complete guide to cloud security posture management for multi-cloud environments
According to Gartner, more than 90% of cloud breaches are caused by misconfigurations, not vulnerabilities or exploits. And while securing a single cloud environment is already a challenge, most modern businesses now operate in multi-cloud setups, combining AWS, Azure, GCP, and others.
Each platform comes with its own tools, policies, and visibility gaps. This creates blind spots and introduces risk, especially for growing teams without a centralised view of their cloud security posture.
What is cloud security posture management?
Definition and core principles
Cloud security posture management (CSPM) is the practice of continuously monitoring, evaluating, and remediating risks in your cloud infrastructure. It helps identify misconfigurations, enforce policies, and ensure compliance with standards like GDPR, ISO 27001, or SOC 2.
Why CSPM matters in shared responsibility models
Cloud providers secure the underlying infrastructure — but customers are responsible for securing their data, configurations, access controls, and usage. CSPM helps fulfil that shared responsibility.
Benefits for growing teams
- Gain real-time visibility into cloud assets
- Identify and fix security gaps before attackers do
- Simplify audits and compliance reporting
- Avoid cloud drift with policy enforcement
Why multi-cloud makes CSPM harder
Inconsistent IAM models and policies
Each cloud provider handles identity and access management (IAM) differently. Managing roles and permissions across platforms becomes complex — and mistakes often go unnoticed.
Fragmented visibility across providers
Without a unified view, teams rely on separate dashboards, logs, and alerting systems. It's easy to miss misconfigured assets or unmanaged services.
Audit and compliance complexity
Each platform generates different data, formats, and reports. Preparing for GDPR or ISO audits across multi-cloud stacks can be time-consuming and error-prone.
Key components of effective CSPM
Asset inventory and tagging
Start with a real-time inventory of all your cloud resources:
- Compute instances, databases, storage, networks
- Tag by environment (prod, dev, staging), owner, and risk level
Misconfiguration detection
Continuously scan for:
- Public storage or exposed endpoints
- Unused open ports
- Improperly set IAM roles
- Missing encryption or backups
Policy enforcement and remediation
Define baseline policies and auto-remediate when violations occur. For example:
- Disable public S3 buckets
- Remove inactive users
- Enforce TLS/HTTPS for all services
Continuous monitoring and alerting
Get notified when:
- New risky assets are deployed
- A change violates security policy
- A resource goes out of compliance
Implementing CSPM across AWS, Azure, and GCP
Step-by-step setup checklist
- Integrate each cloud provider via API
- Build or import asset inventory
- Run baseline posture scans
- Map risks to business impact
- Create custom policies
- Set up alerting and reporting
- Remediate or delegate issues
Open source and commercial tools
- Open source: Prowler (AWS), ScoutSuite, Steampipe
- Commercial: Tresal, cloud-native security platforms
Automation via IaC and APIs
Integrate CSPM with Infrastructure-as-Code tools like Terraform or Pulumi. Automate checks during CI/CD to catch misconfigs before production.
Common cloud misconfigurations to watch for
Public buckets and storage
S3 buckets, Azure blobs, and GCP storage objects are often left publicly readable. Even metadata leaks can be dangerous.
Over-permissive IAM roles
Users or apps with "admin:*" or wildcard permissions increase lateral movement risk in case of compromise.
Unencrypted services
Databases, volumes, and message queues should use encryption at rest and in transit, but this is often misconfigured.
Shadow resources and zombie assets
Forgotten test environments, unattached IPs, or idle VMs still cost money and increase your attack surface.
How Tresal simplifies multi-cloud CSPM
Unified dashboards and alerts
Tresal connects to your AWS, Azure, and GCP accounts to give you a single view of misconfigurations, risks, and compliance gaps — no context switching.
EU data protection and compliance
Tresal stores and processes your scan data in full alignment with GDPR and other European regulations, so you remain compliant by default.
Designed for speed and simplicity
No complex setup. No enterprise license required. Tresal helps growing tech teams get started with CSPM in minutes, not months.
Conclusion
Misconfigurations remain one of the top causes of cloud breaches — and they are preventable. But in multi-cloud environments, visibility gaps and inconsistent tooling make prevention harder.
Cloud security posture management offers a scalable way to monitor, detect, and fix issues across cloud platforms. With the right tools and processes in place, security becomes proactive instead of reactive.
Struggling with cloud misconfigurations?
Tresal gives you a clear view of your cloud risks across all major providers, with European data standards by default.
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Matthias
CPO & Cyber Security Enthusiast
CPO bridging product strategy and cybersecurity—sharing insights on secure product design, attack surface awareness, and platform risk management.
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