S5E2: Scott Piper - Modern Cloud Security and Resilience

Chris: First off, you've been knee deep in CloudSec for several years now, watching trends, incidents and the industry evolve. Where do you think we've made the most headway, and where do you think we still have the largest gaps to close?

Nikki: I'm really interested in multi-cloud environments and security - because of the connectivity potential between separate cloud providers. What do you think organizations should be most concerned with when looking at using multiple cloud providers? 

Chris: You recently contributed to a report with the Atlantic Council about the systemic risks of Cloud and Critical Infrastructure. Can you speak on that a bit? What are your thoughts about systemic risks are more and more of our critical infrastructure and national security systems now become reliant on cloud?

Chris: While we know most cloud security incidents are due to customer misconfigurations, we've recently seen some major hyperscaler CSP's experience some very damaging incidents that impacted many. Do you think these incidents are causing some organizations and industries to second guess their plans for cloud adoption or lead to trust issues in Cloud?

Nikki:  One of my biggest concerns in cloud environments is Identity and Access Management (IAM) - especially in complex development environments. What are some of the major configuration challenges around IAM in cloud? 

 Nikki: What is your favorite cloud security statistic?

Nikki:  I have to bring in the people angle - do you think that current tech teams have the skills and tools they need to manage cloud environments? Do you have any references or skills you recommend as teams build bigger cloud environments?

Chris: On the people front, we know misconfigurations reign supreme for cloud security incidents. Do you think organizations are waking up the reality that they have to invest in their workforce when it comes to adopting technologies such as Cloud?

Chris: We know you have your fwd:cloudsec event which has become an industry staple for learning and information sharing on cloud security. How did the event come about and what does the future look like for it?