What Is CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management)?

What Is CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management)?

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) is the process and tooling that monitors cloud services for risks and misconfigurations, then guides or automates fixes across Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and often Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). It continuously evaluates and improves your cloud security posture through prevention, detection, and response to cloud infrastructure risks.

Cloud infrastructure threats can include mismanagement of public buckets, overly permissive access, and fragmented visibility in SaaS deployments. Every new container, API, or role modification can silently introduce vulnerabilities into the cloud infrastructure, inadvertently exposing organizations to cyber risks.

In the ebook Operationalizing Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), our experts found that  56.8% of ransomware group intrusions originated from misconfigured or exposed assets.

An effective CSPM addresses this risk by identifying and remediating exposed services, weak permissions, and policy violations before attackers can exploit them.

How CSPM Works

CSPM connects to cloud service providers through APIs, builds a real-time inventory of your assets, and continuously checks their configurations against security policies and best practices. This gives SOC teams the risk-based visibility they need to focus their remediation efforts on the areas with the highest risk impact.

Let’s examine the typical workflow of a CSPM platform:

1. Discovery and inventory. The platform connects to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud using provider APIs. It pulls a current list of accounts, services, and data stores, along with their owners and tags.
2. Configuration assessment. Each resource is analyzed against predefined or custom security benchmarks such as CIS Benchmarks and NIST guidelines.
3. Risk identification. Detects misconfigurations, compliance gaps, excessive permissions, insecure network configurations, and anomalies that increase exposure.
4. Prioritization and remediation. Automates remediation workflows or sends actionable alerts to operations teams. Fixes are done either directly or through integrations with other security tools.
5. Reporting. Posture summaries and compliance dashboards were generated for auditors and stakeholders.

Key Features of CSPM

CSPM gives you a live inventory across cloud providers and SaaS. Key features include:

1. Unified Asset Inventory

CSPM platforms provide a centralized view of all cloud assets across public, private, and hybrid environments. Through API integration with cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, CSPM:

• Automatically inventory resources.
• Detect configuration changes.
• Identify policy deviations in real time.

This visibility eliminates blind spots that often result from multi-cloud complexity, helping organizations maintain consistent governance across different environments.

2. Policy and Benchmark Assessments

CSPM maps configurations to industry standards and regulatory frameworks, such as CIS Benchmarks, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001. This capability:

• Compares resource settings to approved baselines.
• Flag deviations for immediate review.
• Update posture continuously as environments scale.
• Generate reports on demand.

3. Guided and Automated Remediation

CSPM compares cloud configurations with pre-defined rules to detect improper settings and configuration drift. It can initiate automated corrections without human intervention, such as disabling exposed storage, enforcing encryption, or reverting non-compliant network rules. These workflows reduce manual effort and ensure consistent enforcement across providers.

4. Threat detection and Risk Prioritization With Context

Advanced CSPM solutions add risk context. They correlate findings with real exposure on the internet and known attack patterns, so teams work on the most exploitable issues first.

Risk prioritization is further enhanced when CSPM works with adjacent tools. Attack Surface Management confirms which cloud assets are reachable from the internet. Threat Intelligence highlights active campaigns, risky IP space, and tactics that abuse specific misconfigurations.

5. Integrations With Security Tools

Modern CSPM solutions can also integrate seamlessly with existing security tools. For example:

• SIEM (Security Information & Event Management) systems to provide posture data and alerting.
• IAM (Identity & Access Management) tools to correlate identity risks with configuration risks.
• CNAPP (Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform) to ensure that deployed cloud environments are configured securely.

Benefits of Implementing CSPM

CSPM improves visibility and reduces risk in multi-cloud environments. Common benefits include:

• Unified visibility across providers and SaaS: Centralized dashboards provide a clear overview while enforcing consistent policies and controls across multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
• Lower misconfiguration risk: Continuous checks and risk prioritization drive faster remediation, reducing the window where public buckets, open security groups, or missing encryption can be abused.
• Integration with existing operations: Posture management embedded into daily workflows by connecting with SIEM, SOAR, ticketing systems, and collaboration tools. CSPM also supports DevSecOps practices by integrating security checks into development pipelines.
• Compliance and audit readiness: Automated compliance checks simplify regulatory readiness without manual audits.
• Faster remediation and less manual effort: Automation, risk-based prioritization, and integrations enable faster containment of misconfigurations or exposed services before they evolve into full-scale incidents.

CSPM vs Other Cloud Security Solutions

The difference between CSPM and other cloud security solutions lies in their focus areas. When evaluating cloud security tools, clarity on their detection and remediation processes helps you decide where CPSM fits in your program.

CSPM vs CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platform)

A Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) focuses on securing workloads—such as virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions—at runtime. It addresses threats like malware, vulnerabilities, and runtime anomalies.

In contrast, CSPM focuses on configuration-level risks and policy compliance. Where CWPP protects active workloads, CSPM ensures the environment in which those workloads run is secure. Together, they form complementary layers of cloud defense.

CSPM vs CIEM (Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management)

CIEM tools specialize in managing identities and permissions within the cloud. Their goal is to detect and correct excessive or unused privileges that attackers can exploit.

While CSPM includes some identity checks, CIEM provides more granular control over entitlements. Integrating both solutions allows organizations to address two critical aspects of cloud risk: configuration drift (CSPM) and privilege misuse (CIEM).

CSPM as part of CNAPP (Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform)

CNAPP is a unified framework that integrates CSPM, CWPP, and CIEM under a single architecture. In this ecosystem, CSPM serves as the foundation to provide continuous visibility and compliance monitoring.

CNAPP expands this foundation to include workload protection, identity management, and runtime defense. This then enables end-to-end coverage for cloud-native applications.

Best Practices for Effective CSPM Deployment

Effective posture management requires integration with governance, operations, and development processes. Gartner predicts that 80% of cloud breaches by 2026 will result from misconfigured resources and insufficient posture management.

These practices can help improve your posture management and reduce exposure:

1. Establish a governance and policy framework

Teams reviewing processes should first define where CSPM fits in their environment, then define ownership and accountability. A shared view supports tighter workflows between security, IT operations, and compliance teams.

Security teams should manage configuration baselines, IT administrators should oversee deployment hygiene, and compliance teams should ensure alignment with frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST 800-53, or GDPR.

Create a unified cloud governance model that defines:

• Configuration baselines and escalation paths for non-compliance
• Access and change management rules for multi-cloud environments
• Regular audit cycles that tie directly into your Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) framework
• Governance ensures that posture management isn’t a one-time audit but a continuous operational process embedded across teams.

2. Implement continuous posture verification

CSPM should run continuously. Establish automated posture assessments that detect misconfigurations, policy drift, and exposure in real time.

Integrate alerts with SIEM or SOAR systems to ensure that findings trigger immediate action, and measure posture metrics (such as mean time to detect or remediate) as key performance indicators for cloud security readiness.

3. Automate secure configuration

Automation minimizes human error and accelerates remediation. Leverage automation wherever possible to enforce policies consistently across providers.

Use CSPM playbooks to:

• Disable public access to misconfigured storage or APIs
• Enforce encryption and MFA for sensitive data stores
• Revert risky network configurations to approved template

4. Add threat context

CSPM becomes more effective when enriched with adversary-focused intelligence. Use a Threat Intelligence platform to correlate posture issues with active threat actor campaigns, known exploitation methods, and related Indicators of Compromise.

Up-to-date threat models ensure CSPM rules reflect current tactics, techniques, and procedures. This enables risk-based prioritization by showing which misconfigurations align with current attacker behavior.

5. Align with Zero Trust

CSPM plays a critical role in building Zero Trust security across distributed IT environments as it adheres to its principle of “never trust, always verify.” CSPM complements this model by ensuring that the underlying cloud infrastructure, configurations, and access policies remain aligned with Zero Trust principles.

6. Review and evolve

Revisit policies as services change. Conduct quarterly reviews that assess control coverage, threat mapping, and integration performance. Continuous adaptation ensures your CSPM framework remains effective against both current and emerging attack vectors.

How Group-IB Enhances Your Organization’s CSPM

Integrating Group-IB intelligence-driven solutions into your cloud security program provides accurate adversary-centric visibility across your attack surface. Security teams can connect isolated configuration data with real-time intelligence to transform raw alerts into prioritized, actionable defense.

To gain real-time visibility into its attack surface and secure its expanding cloud ecosystem, Data Cloud Technology (DCT) partnered with Group-IB and deployed Attack Surface Management. The solution shows which cloud assets are exposed on the internet. This helps security teams prioritize cloud vulnerabilities that present real external risk.

The Threat Intelligence platform adds context to active campaigns, risky IP space, and attacker tooling targeting cloud misconfigurations. Digital Risk Protection supports the takedown of look-alike domains and leaked credentials that can be used to abuse misconfigurations.

Our multi-layered approach links cloud risk to real exposure and active targeting, so you see the full attack path and fix what matters first. Talk to our experts today to strengthen your CSPM outcomes.