Cloud cybersecurity is a joint responsibility
Atlanta moved more of its enterprise to the cloud after a major ransomware attack. But simply moving to the cloud isn’t a cybersecurity strategy in and of itself. Cloud security is based on shared responsibility.
Key takeawaysKey takeaways are generated with AI assistance. Because automated summaries can occasionally contain errors or miss important context, always refer to the full blog post for complete information.The article recounts Atlanta's March 2018 SamSam ransomware attack that disrupted municipal services and led the city to increase cloud adoption as part of its cybersecurity approach. It emphasizes that cloud migration alone is not sufficient because cloud security follows a shared responsibility model—providers secure the cloud infrastructure while customers must secure assets and data within it. The piece highlights DNS-based defense, specifically BlueCat Edge, as a way to detect, block, and remediate attacks across on-premises and cloud environments by providing DNS visibility, control, and asset tracking during migrations.
Why did Atlanta decide to move more enterprise services to the cloud after the SamSam ransomware incident?
After the SamSam ransomware incident disrupted court scheduling, bill payments and airport public Wi-Fi and led to potentially high recovery costs, Atlanta’s CIO promoted increasing cloud adoption as part of the city’s cybersecurity response. The move was framed as a way to leverage cloud services and their built-in security controls while employing a hybrid strategy. However, the article stresses that moving to the cloud was intended to be one component of a broader security posture, not a complete cybersecurity solution on its own.
What does the shared responsibility model mean for cloud security according to the article?
The article explains that cloud security follows a shared responsibility model in which the cloud provider secures the underlying infrastructure—what providers like AWS call the “security of the cloud”—while customers are responsible for “security in the cloud,” meaning their own assets and data. Consequently, organizations cannot assume migration to the cloud eliminates their cybersecurity duties; network administrators must still secure cloud-resident assets and manage configurations, access, and monitoring to meet their part of the security responsibilities.
How does DNS-based defense, and specifically BlueCat Edge, help protect hybrid and multi-cloud environments?
According to the article, DNS-based defense provides a distinct protection mechanism because malware uses DNS in roughly 91% of attacks and often seeks sensitive data across locations. BlueCat Edge detects, blocks and remediates cyberattacks across both cloud and on-premises environments, offering visibility and control over every DNS request and response. As enterprises migrate assets between data centers and clouds, DNS Edge tracks asset locations, logs source IP addresses for rapid analysis, and helps detect malicious patterns—enabling organizations like Atlanta to fulfill their portion of cloud security responsibilities.
In March 2018, Atlanta city agencies were infected with the SamSam ransomware virus. The incident knocked out many operations across the city government for weeks, including municipal court scheduling, online bill payments, and the public Wi-Fi network at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest. The recovery potentially cost taxpayers as much as $17 million.
Cloud-as-cybersecurity?
In response to this major attack , the city’s chief information officer recently touted the movement of even more of their enterprise to the cloud as an important component of their cybersecurity strategy.
“We’ve also made some transition to a lot of cloud services. Even before this happened, we had cloud services—a hybrid strategy,” Atlanta CIO Gary Brantley said in the city’s cybersecurity video update. “But we wanted to, kind of, move that percentage a little bit higher. And so, we’re in the process of doing that as well.”
Shared Cloud Cybersecurity Responsibilities
While public clouds certainly incorporate built-in security controls, it’s important to remember that simply moving to the cloud isn’t a cybersecurity strategy in and of itself. Cloud security is based on a shared responsibility model. AWS, for example, couches it as the “security of the cloud”—which is their responsibility—versus “security in the cloud,” which is the customer’s. Organizations can’t just expect to move to the cloud and then forget about cybersecurity.
Cloud service providers will protect the hardware and software infrastructure that runs all of its services, but network administrators are responsible for the security of their assets in the cloud.
The Role of DNS
DNS infrastructure offers a unique way to protect assets and compute wherever they may reside. Malware uses DNS 91% of the time, and is hunting for sensitive data wherever it may reside. BlueCat Edge detects, blocks, and quickly remediates cyberattacks across cloud and on-premises environments. When enterprises span multiple data centers and clouds or are being migrated from data centers into the cloud, DNS Edge can keep track of where assets reside and secure them in transit. Within any cloud environment, BlueCat Edge provides visibility and control over every DNS request and response, logging the source IP address for quick review and analysis to detect patterns of malicious behavior.
That cybersecurity model should include defense through DNS. The visibility Edge provides allows cities like Atlanta to keep their end of the cybersecurity bargain.
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Rebekah Taylor is a former journalist turned freelance writer and editor who has been translating technical speak into prose for more than two decades. Her first job in the early 2000s was at a small start-up called VMware. She holds degrees from Cornell University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
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