What is CSPM?
Cloud Security Posture Management
A tool that continuously monitors cloud infrastructure (IaaS, PaaS) for misconfigurations, compliance violations, and security risks by comparing resource configurations against security benchmarks and best practices.
CSPM scans cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) to identify security misconfigurations: publicly exposed storage buckets, overly permissive IAM policies, unencrypted databases, security groups that allow unrestricted inbound access, and logging that is disabled. These misconfigurations are the most common cause of cloud data breaches, not sophisticated exploits, but simple oversights in cloud resource configuration.
CSPM tools connect to cloud provider APIs and continuously evaluate resource configurations against frameworks like CIS Benchmarks, NIST 800-53, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and provider-specific best practices. Findings are prioritized by severity and often include automated remediation options (closing an open security group, enabling encryption on a storage bucket).
CSPM is adjacent to SASE rather than a component of it. While SASE secures the access path between users and applications, CSPM secures the cloud infrastructure where those applications run. However, the markets are converging: some SASE vendors now offer CSPM as part of a broader cloud security platform. The integration value is in combining SASE access telemetry with CSPM posture data, enabling policies like 'restrict access to cloud workloads that fail critical posture checks.'
An integrated security platform that combines CSPM, cloud workload protection (CWPP), and application security capabilities to protect cloud-native applications across their full lifecycle from build to runtime.
A software architecture built from the ground up for cloud environments using microservices, containerization, and elastic scaling, as opposed to legacy appliances virtualized and hosted in the cloud.
The framework of policies, processes, and technologies that manages digital identities and controls what resources each identity can access across an organization's systems.
A security model that eliminates implicit trust based on network location, requiring continuous verification of identity, device posture, and context for every access request.
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