As many organizations feel overwhelmed by increasing cloud complexity, Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPPs) have emerged as a resource to ensure comprehensive and streamlined security. However, a robust CNAPP solution like Check Point CloudGuard offers so many features and security options that some organizations underutilize its full potential, and miss opportunities to enhance security and operational efficiency.

This article aims to bridge this knowledge gap by helping both existing and potential users understand the breadth of CNAPP features and fully leverage CNAPP solutions to achieve robust and cohesive cloud security.

The 8 Services that Make Up a Prevention-First CNAPP Solution

CNAPP solutions have a variety of options to secure your cloud environments. For instance, Check Point CloudGuard is the first in-market preventative CNAPP solution, and features eight core services:

  • Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM): Continuous monitoring and enforcement of compliance frameworks and best practices across all clouds and assets.
  • Data Security Posture Management (DSPM): Similar to CSPM, but for data assets with data-centric features.
  • Cloud Workload Protection (CWPP): Responsible for finding malware, anomalous behavior, hard-coded secrets, CVEs, and catching drift in workload images.
  • Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM): Functions as access control for the cloud with a focus on least privilege enforcement.
  • Cloud Detection and Response (CDR): Provides threat hunting, real-time alerts, and forensic capabilities.
  • Code Security: Similar to workload scanning but primarily focused on code, IAC templates, etc. Traditionally used by developers, but now also utilized by security practitioners.
  • Web Application & API Firewall (WAF): A web application firewall with an additional API-centric component, handling communication between apps, data, containers, and CSPs.
  • Cloud Network Security (CNS): A full-fledged next-gen firewall with comprehensive features that seamlessly integrate with your cloud networks and extend firewall rules from on-premises to the public cloud.

Your organization may currently be happy with its primary CNAPP use case – but it’s worth thinking about the additional benefits you could gain if the platform is fully utilized. CloudGuard customer Prateek Agarwal noted on PeerSpot, “Almost all the features are valuable, but the most important is proactive threat detection. The overall administration, seamless integration, and being able to have one platform for monitoring our applications for suspicious activities and any potential security threats are also valuable.” 

In a G2 review, Check Point customer Deepak S. explained, “[CloudGuard] comes with various modules such as posture management, network security, and workload protection as one bundle, which is a great package for anyone who is focused on [the] security of the digital environment.”

Each module of CloudGuard is valuable on its own. But the power of the solution really kicks in when you start to enable more modules to have them work cohesively and effectively.

ERM: Lowering Risk by Increasing Visibility

Companies get so many daily security events and alerts that it results in security confusion. Effective Risk Management (ERM) is a critical component of any comprehensive CNAPP, as it helps reduce security complexity. At its core, ERM involves prioritizing the highest risks across your cloud environments. This prioritization is essential to ensure that resources and efforts are directed toward mitigating the most significant threats, thereby enhancing overall security posture.

A major advantage of a CNAPP in ERM is its ability to provide a holistic, 360-degree view of your cloud assets. Traditional siloed approaches often fail to reveal the true risk profile of an asset, leading to gaps in security. However, a fully implemented CNAPP integrates data and insights from various sources within the cloud environment — offering a unified perspective that enables more accurate risk assessment and management. This comprehensive visibility ensures that security teams can effectively identify, prioritize, and address potential vulnerabilities to protect cloud-native applications.

Comprehensive Risk Detection in Action

When facing complex security threats, a company must first gain visibility into its findings. Prioritizing all issues by severity, particularly for publicly exposed systems, is crucial. Here’s how a company can use CNAPP to address these challenges.

Imagine a company deploying its applications in the cloud. They face multiple threats: malware in their virtual machines, misconfigurations in code, and non-compliance with industry standards. Using their CNAPP’s Network Security module, they identify exposure points and detect malware and viruses. Concurrently, Workload Protection scans images, revealing hidden vulnerabilities.

The CIEM module ensures applications run with minimal privileges, reducing unauthorized access risks. Meanwhile, developers use Code Security to catch and fix issues like misconfigurations and secret leaks during the development process. The company also leverages Posture Management to comply with PCI, HIPAA, and GDPR standards, avoiding regulatory penalties. Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) intelligently correlates activities across these modules, offering a unified threat view.

By utilizing a multitude of CNAPP modules with a solution like CloudGuard —which offers real-time threat hunting, alerts, and forensics — you can detect and prevent anomalies, align security efforts with actual risks, eliminate security confusion, and ensure a robust and secure cloud environment through proactive and continuous monitoring. PeerSpot reviewer and CloudGuard customer Fabian Miranda attested to the solution’s strength by saying, “Check Point CloudGuard Intelligence Security is one of the most robust tools on the market. That’s why we decided to implement it in our company when all our operations were migrated to the Azure cloud area.”

Maximize Your CNAPP with Check Point

If your company isn’t using your CNAPP to its fullest, now may be the time. Current Check Point CloudGuard users can unlock additional CNAPP features and benefits by enabling more integrated services. By harnessing the full features of Check Point CNAPP, your organization can manage risks more effectively and ensure continuous protection through automation and integration.

CloudGuard can bring enhanced visibility and security to your applications just like it did for Matt Comstock, VP Service Delivery at Atlantic Data Security. As he pointed out on PeerSpot,

“[CloudGuard] is able to bring visibility into that cloudy space where the security departments do not really see what is happening on the DevOps side. It brings visibility, security control, and standardization.”

Check Point created an in-depth webinar discussing strategies for maximizing CNAPP. Click below to view it now:

[View Webinar]

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