Cloud Data Management Assessment – Storage & Encryption Audit

The Cloud Data Management & Storage Security Assessment evaluates cloud data storage architectures, encryption posture, and access policies against established enterprise security baselines. Users select their primary cloud storage architectures and configure parameters covering object storage encryption, identity-based access restrictions, automated lifecycle retention, and backup immutability.

The assessment analyzes controls against NIST Special Publication 800-209 (Security Guidelines for Storage Infrastructure), providing a quantitative maturity score, identifying critical misconfigurations such as public read permissions or unencrypted snapshots, and producing a prioritized remediation roadmap.

Cloud service providers offer default server-side encryption using platform-managed keys (e.g., SSE-S3). However, enterprise compliance standards such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001 require Customer Managed Keys (CMKs) stored in a Hardware Security Module (HSM). Under envelope encryption, data is encrypted using a unique plaintext Data Encryption Key (DEK), and the DEK is subsequently encrypted using the Key Management Service (KMS) master Key Encryption Key (KEK).

This architecture ensures that cryptographic keys never leave the secure HSM boundary in plaintext. Furthermore, key access policies can be managed independently from storage bucket IAM policies, enforcing separation of duties between storage operators and cryptographic key administrators.