"Cloud Security Team Plays World's Longest Game of Whack-A-Mole, Moles Still Winning Since 2017"

The issue of cloud security policy non-compliance is a persistent problem, with many resources violating established policies, as evidenced by the author's experience with their detection platform, where new violations continually appear, similar to a game of "whack-a-mole". The public access block feature in AWS S3, introduced 6 years ago to prevent public bucket leaks, is often found to be turned off, leaving buckets one step away from being publicly accessible, with the author citing examples of major companies experiencing S3 bucket leaks on a monthly basis around the time of its introduction. To address this, tools like AWS Config can be used, but setting up auto-remediation can be difficult and require custom Lambda functions, which can be maintenance-intensive, whereas Preventive Security Posture Management (PSPM) tools, such as Turbot, can enforce policy continuously and automatically, preventing drift from policy as it happens. By using a PSPM, organizations can complement their Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) and ensure cloud policies are always enforced, preventing misconfigurations and reducing the need for manual cleanup, which can take weeks or months, with Turbot offering a solution that automates prevention without requiring custom code, as highlighted in the sponsored post. The importance of automated policy enforcement is underscored by the fact that relying on people and processes can lead to violations, making it essential for organizations to implement tools like PSPM to close security gaps and reduce alert fatigue.