Tag Management | 4 Min Read

Tagging and Security

According to Flexera, security is one of the top three challenges for organizations that compute in the cloud. However, many organizations do not realize how critically important resource tags are to their security. Excellent tag management strengthens cloud security. Without healthy tag hygiene, gaps in security create opportunities for security breaches.

Security Maturity

A mature tag environment successfully addresses the four core tagging challenges.

Tag Coverage – tag every resource
Tag Compliance – separately tag every distinct attribute of a resource
Tag Completeness – tag each subcomponent of a resource. EC2s have up to 19 subcomponents
Tag Clarity – eliminate duplicate or misspelled tag keys.

A strong commitment is required to achieve this level of maturity, coupled with robust tagging policies. Equally important is the utilization of software that can execute and enforce the policies. CloudSaver’s Tag Manager address your tag challenges with its powerful features including a robust query engine for granular searches, batch processing to speed up tagging and remediation of incorrectly tagged resources, actionable dashboards and reporting, and real time synchronization. Comprehensive tag management is foundational to providing protection from the security threats that continue to increase in number and complexity.

Mean and clean

Excellent tag hygiene will clean up your cloud and enhance security in multiple ways. By tagging resources you can easily track where your data resides. User defined tags can be specifically created for security purposes. Sensitive data should be tagged to indicate a higher priority for protection, giving notice that the resource requires additional attention. Resources tagged for sensitive data can be scheduled for more frequent patching and updating. Compliance tags give notice that the resource is required to adhere to compliance standards and to make the resource more easily accessible during an audit. Prioritizing resources focuses attention and reduces security risks.

Maturity and Automation

A mature tag environment enables the implementation of security automations. Automations are critical in the cloud with its rapid changes in scale and fast-moving resource deployments. Tags augment security by triggering the detection and reporting of concerns in a timely and organized fashion. Alerts should be configured so that alert fatigue does not occur, where so many alerts are triggered that those receiving the alerts become complacent.

Effective Investigation

Investigation of a security incident is made much simpler by effective tagging. Identification of the resource owner is immediate. The context of the incident is made apparent by the resource’s other tags, such as department, project, and environment tags. Tags can be used to enforce retention policies so that logs, snapshots and other relevant data are preserved for future investigation purposes. When an incident occurs, resources related to the affected service or department can be tagged to detect trends which suggest other issues that require solutions.

Need for Speed

When it comes to security the mean time to remediate a threat (MTTR) is crucial. A rapid incidence response to security vulnerabilities significantly reduces the likelihood of a security breach and effectively compresses the organization’s MTTR, thus reducing risk exposure. Tags provide a trove of relevant data with respect to a threat, enabling a much faster analysis without spending countless hours searching for needed information.

Tags for IAM

In a study published by Radiant Logic in August 2022, it was found that 60% of organizations have over 21 separate identities per user. An incredible 67% of the study participants knew they had identity sprawl but did not know how to address it. Tags facilitate IAM so that access to resources is not granted where it is not needed. They help guard against the failure to remove an employee when they switch teams or leave the company. The proliferation of zombie accounts, identities that have no active users, or an excessive number of administrative accounts where users are granted the highest level of access even if not needed are reduced by utilizing tags. In short, robust tagging is foundational to creating a tag environment possessing these strong defenses.

Conclusion

Constant vigilance is required for effective cloud security. The ethereal perimeter of an organization’s cloud infrastructure presents a tempting target for incursion and sophisticated security threats are more pervasive than ever. Manual oversight is not an option as the scale of the resources is so great. CloudSaver’s innovative SaaS solution, Tag Manager, provides the features you need to achieve the highest levels of cloud security. Its Tag Intelligence provides you with valuable information the moment you connect. Your tag health is displayed in real time along with intuitive tools to remediate tag deficiencies. Tag Explorer enables batch processing for efficient and rapid performance of once tedious and time-consuming tasks. Tag Consolidation provides the means to identify and correct tag syntax errors, misspellings and omissions. Easily assign roles and permissions with the Tag Identity and Access Control Management features. Your cloud security will be better than ever.

To achieve peace of mind in the cloud check out Tag Manager today and enjoy a 30-day free trial. As one client stated, “the power of Tag Manager is going to my head!”

Learn more about boosting your security with tagging in these resources:

FEATURE	BENEFIT
Tag Automation & Batch Tag Processing	Employ powerful automation to quickly and accurately tag cloud resources minimizing manual tasks and saving valuable time and effort. Reduce security vulnerabilities and human errors with accurate and swift tagging.
Real-time, Native Cloud Sync	Tag changes are reflected in real-time in native cloud service provider environments. Data is timely and accurate and can be leveraged with additional CloudSaver and third-party tools.
Tag Explorer Query Engine	Utilize our patented filtering and search technology for rapid and efficient location of client data across resources, zones, accounts, and service providers. This capability drastically reduces mean-time-to-resolution by quickly identifying key cloud data. Its deep dive, robust exploration enables you to “find anything.”
Tag Intelligence Dashboards & Tools	Benefit from a guided tag health experience that automatically delivers valuable insights without the need for customized reports or dashboards. These insights cover both your entire tag environment and also specific categories.
Customizable Dashboards	Create customized dashboards to display data according to your specific needs, offering real-time visibility into cloud resources, tags and spend. Obtain timely, accurate, and relevant data for insightful analysis and to identify tagging gaps.
Efficient Tag Remediation	Benefit from suggested, spell-checked tag keys and values – detect and batch merge tag variations.
Legacy Tagging Solutions	Retroactively tag or modify tags on existing legacy resources during cloud migration, either individually or in bulk and eliminate time-consuming manual efforts for smooth integration into your cloud environment.
Multi-Tenant & Multi-Cloud	Manage every cloud data set from a single screen across resources, zones, accounts, and cloud service providers (AWS and Azure).
Tag Policy Compliance Monitoring	Ingest tag policies from native cloud environments to ensure consistent tag syntax and taxonomy.
User Role & Permission Console	Enhance security with Identity and Access Management features contained in the permissions assigned through tagging.
Configuration Management Database (CMDB) Integration	The CloudSaver platform seamlessly incorporates CMDB data related to known cloud infrastructure, offering precise control, efficient tagging, and enhanced visibility by viewing, filtering, and sorting cloud resources based on CMDB data.