Keeping Data Secure During Cloud Migration: 7 Steps

Data has never been more valuable. Data breaches have never been more frequent. The number of data breaches nearly tripled between 2020 and 2023 in the United States. 

During cloud migration, data vulnerability is a persistent risk. Consider this case study of Keepnet Lab’s Data Breach: the contractor turned off the firewall for ten minutes while migrating to ElasticSearch. This move exposed the database to attackers who breached over 5 billion data records. 

What’s At Risk During Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration presents numerous security challenges and potential risks that organizations must carefully consider and address. During the transition period, both data and systems are particularly vulnerable as they move between on-premises and cloud environments. This process often involves exposing sensitive information to new network paths and security configurations, creating multiple points where security could be compromised.

Misconfigurations and unauthorized access: During cloud migration, there's an increased risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data and systems which could lead to data breaches and leaks. This can occur due to misconfigured access controls, weak authentication mechanisms, or temporary security gaps created during the transition. Unauthorized users might include both external threat actors and internal employees who gain access to resources beyond their authorized scope. This risk is particularly significant during migration because security policies and access controls may not be immediately synchronized between the old and new environments.

Data Interception: As data moves between on-premises systems and cloud environments, it becomes vulnerable to interception by malicious actors. Without proper encryption and secure transfer protocols, sensitive information could be captured in transit. This risk is especially concerning when dealing with sensitive customer data, financial information, or proprietary business data. Man-in-the-middle attacks and network sniffing become more likely during migration when data is actively moving across networks.

Services disruption: During the migration, if target environments are not meticulously configured with security as a priority, this could result into increased vulnerability to future attacks like Ransomware of DDoS (denial-of-service) attacks leading to service disruptions and significant downtime. 

Penalties or Fines Due to Non-Compliance: Organizations face significant financial and legal risks if they fail to maintain compliance with relevant regulations during cloud migration. This includes potential violations of data protection laws like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS. Non-compliance can result in substantial fines, legal actions, and damage to the organization's reputation. Companies must ensure that their cloud migration strategy includes maintaining compliance standards throughout the transition process.

Reputational damage: Public disclosure of a security breach can severely damage an organization's reputation and erode customer trust.

Overspending on Unnecessary Tools: During cloud migration, organizations often risk overinvesting in redundant or unnecessary tools and services. This can happen due to poor planning, lack of understanding of cloud service offerings, or attempts to replicate on-premises setups exactly in the cloud. Without proper assessment and optimization, companies might purchase excessive storage, computing resources, or security tools that don't align with their actual needs, leading to significant unnecessary expenses.

Abandoned Data: One often overlooked risk during cloud migration is the possibility of data being left behind or forgotten in the original environment. This abandoned data can become a security liability if not properly secured or dispose

To prevent hacking attempts during your own business-critical migration processes, follow these seven steps and tips to improve data security during your own cloud migration.

#1: Assess Current Data Situation

Unless an issue calls for the occasion, it’s possible to go years without assessing the data you have, which may be stored across multiple databases. It may be that there are no differentiations in place for critical and useless data that has been stored for years. 

This is why assessing your data is the first step during the migration process to align the data you have with any retention policies in your data governance frameworks. Data migration is a sensitive process, and it can pose some potential risks to your company’s data if it’s not addressed properly. 

Migration is the right time to make these assessments by using a variety of assessment tools often provided by cloud vendors. Use the AWS Schema Conversion Tool (AWS SCT) to create a database migration assessment report. The AWS Schema Conversion Tool is designed to help you convert your existing database schema from one database engine to another. 

Case study: Migrating from legacy infrastructure to AWS

#2: Understand Your Compliance Regime

Compliance requirements vary from industry to industry. Industries like Healthcare, Finance and eCommerce are highly regulated. Align your data controls according to the appropriate regulatory bodies for your business-critical operations. Check these applied regulations to prevent any penalties or fines due to any compliance issues especially during the planned migration process. There may be certain data transit regulations you may need to follow. For instance, if your company operates in the healthcare vertical, then you will need to conform to the HIPAA compliance regulations surrounding data transits. 

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act works for the financial industry with sensitive data of customers. Similarly, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) deals with the companies holding data of individuals. 

#3: Choose the Right Data Security Tools

The right data security tools are necessary during the migration process. Explore your cloud vendor’s resources to find the necessary tools that could potentially help in carrying out a secure migration. Moreover, regulatory requirements are extremely helpful to inform the tools for data security that you may require during migration. For example, AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is included in AWS’ HIPAA compliance program. So, you can safely use AWS Database Migration Service to move data between your HIPAA-compliant applications, including protected health information (PHI) under your executed Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with AWS.

Above all, always choose the right tool to get the job done. Do not overspend on unnecessary tools for accomplishing a small task. There are a variety of solutions available to get the same job done using different tools. Therefore, always look for a measurable solution that has the potential to serve your needs correctly.

Case study: Implementing AWS native security tools like AWS Security Hub and Amazon Guard Duty.

#4: Manage Authorized Personnel For Data Access

The principle of the least privilege stands tall in data migration processes. Companies should follow even more strict access protocols during a cloud migration. Only specific personnel should have access to any critical data. 

This step is necessary to prevent any unauthorized users by limiting the access to only trusted personnel inside the organization who are well-aware of all security measures. Above all, companies should incorporate two-factor authentication along with limiting access to ensure complete data security.

Once your migration is complete, you can restore all access privileges safely while ensuring all security protocols. Limiting authorization during the migration process is a significant step to keeping malicious actors away from temporarily exposed data.

#5: Encrypt Data During Transit

Disabling firewalls (as we saw in Keepnet Lab’s case) and other such risky steps while transiting data from one location to the other can open your data up to major vulnerabilities. Even for a short amount of time. These transits might take a few minutes, but any company that unknowingly exposes their databases are ripe for attack from those who are waiting for such an opportunity

There are ways to transit data securely, such as using network security controls and encrypted network protocols. These methodologies do not allow any third-party to intercept and steal your sensitive data.

In a cloud environment, many cloud vendors offer concierge-style solutions to ensure fast and secure migration of data by following strict security protocols.

#6: Plan Decommissioning Activities for Remaining Data Center

Many organizations can leave their physical or on-premise media abundant after migrating to the cloud through a lack of a decommissioning plan for any stored media. Have a clear mindset about whether you plan to reuse or re-market any current hardware equipment. A decommissioning plan is useful for all organizations who are shifting onto cloud, this plan includes a variety of steps such as itemizing, planning, removing equipment, data sanitization etc. Organizations can also collaborate with IT asset disposition (ITAD) vendors to outsource their decommissioning processes for their physical equipment.

Also, if you plan to rely on physical storage as part of a hybrid cloud infrastructure then ensure you implement a complete security plan for both your on-premise and cloud architecture. 

#7: Strategically Wipe Remaining Data Drives

Wiping remaining data drives falls under your planned decommissioning activities, but it’s worth paying particular attention to the process. Your IT asset disposition can help in this phase to wipe all your remaining data drives. Decide whether your remaining data needs to be transported offsite for sanitization, or ask whether your ITAD firms can propose a plan for data sanitization.

Check the workflows of your partner ITAD firms to ensure that they use safe protocols for data sanitization and other decommissioning processes. If your ITAD firm handles its data wiping processes carefully, then you do not have to worry about any of your decommissioning activities. 

Next steps

Cloud migration is a complex process and can open you up to vulnerability without a Secure Cloud migration strategy in place. The unknowing company can expose their data during migration with poor data security protocols leaving their services vulnerable during the whole migration process or even after the migration concludes. This allows hackers to easily penetrate and breach all valuable data, leading to company financial penalties or reputational damage.

Stay vigilant and follow the best practices to improve data security and ensure your company’s top asset is not unprotected at any stage of the cloud migration process.  

The Caylent approach to cloud migration security

Caylent provides deep expertise in cloud migrations, carefully evaluating every path to migrate and modernize your applications securely, cost-effectively, and with minimal downtime. Our approach always aligns closely with your business objectives, ensuring you achieve the outcomes you’re aiming for. Ready to evolve your cloud journey? Get in touch to find out how we can help!