Cloud Security Posture Management: silver bullet or another piece in the cloud puzzle?
Summary
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tools continuously monitor cloud environments to collect inventory and configuration data, assess those against policies and best practice, and raise findings with remediation advice. The NCSC explains how CSPM helps address four common cloud security challenges: resource visibility, misconfiguration detection, risk prioritisation and remediation.
CSPM is distinct from but complementary to DSPM, CWPP and CNAPP: each focuses on different parts of cloud security. The blog stresses that good CSPM tools provide comprehensive inventories, clear findings with context, prioritisation that factors in business impact, and remediation advice or automation where appropriate. Crucially, CSPM must be integrated into existing processes (for example, IaC pipelines and change management) and configured with least-privilege access to be effective. The NCSC concludes CSPM is a foundational piece of cloud security — useful, but not a silver bullet.
Key Points
- CSPM tools collect inventory and configuration data across workspaces, regions and platforms to give visibility over deployed resources.
- They detect misconfigurations by comparing platform state to baseline security rules; findings should be presented with clear explanations and context.
- Effective prioritisation requires contextual factors (resource criticality, data sensitivity, exploitability and remediation complexity) to reduce alert fatigue and focus effort.
- Remediation can be advisory (step-by-step fixes intended to flow through IaC) or automated for lower‑risk/development workspaces; IaC remediation is preferred for production.
- CSPM must be integrated with business processes and security workflows to deliver lasting improvements; deployed alone it won’t solve everything.
- Be cautious with tools that perform remediation: they need narrowly scoped, least‑privilege credentials and careful governance.
- Severity ratings differ between tools — standardise or adapt them to your own risk model if you combine sources.
- For some organisations, CNAPP, CWPP or DSPM capabilities may better meet specific data-collection or risk-evaluation needs; CSPM is one part of a broader ecosystem.
Why should I read this?
Short and blunt: if you run or secure cloud services, this is worth five minutes. It tells you what CSPM actually does (and doesn’t), where it helps most, and the traps to avoid — like expecting automatic fixes or granting overly broad permissions. The NCSC cuts through vendor noise: use CSPM for visibility, sensible prioritisation and tidy remediation (via IaC), but weave it into your processes. We’ve read it so you don’t have to — but you should follow the practical bits.
Source
Source: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/cspm-silver-bullet-or-another-piece-in-the-cloud-puzzle