Have you ever heard about large corporate based organizations that use cookies and other tracking technologies to enhance the experience of the customers. Whenever you start looking for a particular product on the internet and then move towards an online store where that product can be present. Now what do you experience there is that the product which you were searching earlier is already present and hoisted over at the center of screen under the suggested or recommended items.
This is the power of cookies and tracking technologies which evolve and redecorate the experience of the customers not only over at the retail based websites but also over normal/casual websites.
This is not a secret anymore that whichever business goes with the optimization of data do capture success these days. The personalization can be provided to the customers at extended volume and that is why the large corporates make more money and can drive more and more traffic over to their websites. PaaS or platform as a service is a cloud based integration which helps the companies and large corporates to deliver, implement or deploy the applications from the cloud and even provide high scaling apps to the customers in a direct fashion.
Although PaaS is used worldwide by large corporates and business websites to manage their inventory and provide the customers with engaging and personalized content but there are some general flaws in this system which are hardly ever talked off. Again the flaws themselves are not much of a problem and can be reverted but still if there are flaws then one should steer clear of the service becoming the origin of it. Although there are a number of scenarios where PaaS service solutions were graded as secure but were in fact filled with flaws knee deep and this is what caused a lot of problems for the registered online as well as cloud based businesses. A few of these scenarios are mentioned below;
Various scenarios where PaaS is a culprit
We can find the examples of a variety of scenarios where PaaS was a culprit and couldn’t control the security metrics which were asked of it. The first scenario is a healthcare organization which holds the serious record of all the patients they have provided health related services to and have insured on health parameters. What happens is at some point in the near future all the extensive health records of the customers get leaked having their personal, financial as well as private information such as what kind of treatment they had along with the current status of their health insurance etc. On a more pressing note the information was leaked within the customers of the same health organization about other profound customers, how ironic it is.
Often times in case of the health insurance companies whenever they launch their intern programs and encompass internees from around different locations, something similar as described earlier happens. Miraculously the internes have all the nitty gritty details of the high-end customers of the organization down to their social security numbers and other pressing information which they wouldn’t want looming around here and there.
Pertaining to all of the scenarios mentioned here there is some kind of correction that needs to be applied here. Such as internees, health care as well as IT professionals may create these vulnerabilities unintentionally opting to do some good for the organization but then afterwards someone else playing the dirty game got ahold of the scenario and started playing it out as they wanted to. This is where the PaaS security model interface is to blame. In the professional terms the PaaS security metrics are good as next to nothing as one can turn them on but they don’t do much.
Only turning the security feature on doesn’t mask you from all the bad that is howling on the internet nor can it save you from the ill intentions of the cyber attackers/hackers. Therefore, instead of simply turning on the security parameters is not going to be enough as you would also have to understand various policies and scenarios around which you are willing to use these security features and or services.
How to gain proper security from PaaS?
Cloud computing can be a real pain for someone who doesn’t know what they are dealing with and especially with the PaaS systems this scenario is highly likely. So, what do you think can be done in your opinion to regain the proper control in terms of security. Craving for the answer do you? Here is a proper explanation;
- Determine who has control
The first thing that you need to do is to determine who in your organization has control of the PaaS systems and then find about what they have changed over the course of time and how far you are lingering on security and other vulnerabilities. If you can’t find out the people/users who have the control then your problem is far more complicated then you are willing to give it credit for.
- Start somewhere
At first you need to sort out the type of data that you have secured over your systems and what does it mean. It can be really frustrating and there is no easy way to get over it but to go around the data that you have and start sorting it out. Only when you have isolated the data can you start to organize and categorize it and hinder any more vulnerabilities that can arise.
- Authorizing the users
The next and final step that can help you in putting proper security metrics in place is to authorize the users and investigate them such as what they have access to and what they can’t access through their current authorization credentials.
Cloud computing can be extremely difficult and irrelevant at times but it is best suited to the professionals and organizations who have the required certifications to work with it. That is why it is recommended that you complete your AWS for beginners course to be able to better manage these assets and PaaS systems accordingly.