On this page
Cloud misconfigurations are a leading cause of data exposure. Most are preventable with policy guardrails, least-privilege access, and infrastructure-as-code discipline.
Key takeaways
Takeaway 1
Default settings are rarely secure for production.
Takeaway 2
Policy-as-code prevents risky deployments before they happen.
Takeaway 3
Continuous monitoring is essential for drift detection.
The most common misconfigurations
The same issues appear across AWS, GCP, and Azure: public storage, permissive IAM, open security groups, and missing logging.
These are often introduced during fast growth or manual changes outside IaC workflows.
- Public storage buckets and open blob containers
- IAM roles with wildcard permissions
- Unrestricted inbound access on critical ports
- Missing audit logs and alerting
How to fix and prevent them
Start by defining baseline security policies and apply them across accounts. Then enforce with automated checks so misconfigurations cannot ship.
- Adopt least-privilege IAM policies
- Encrypt data at rest by default
- Use IaC with policy checks
- Monitor continuously for drift
Build guardrails with IaC
Infrastructure-as-code makes security repeatable. Pair it with policy-as-code tools to block risky changes before they reach production.
FAQs
- Do we need security tools for every cloud?
- Start with the provider native tools, then expand with unified policy and monitoring as your footprint grows.
- How often should we review cloud configs?
- Continuously. Schedule formal reviews quarterly and rely on automated drift detection between reviews.
- What is the fastest win?
- Lock down IAM and public storage first. Those changes reduce the largest exposure quickly.