9 Top Cloud Threat Detection (CTR) Tools

Targeted attacks in cloud security are on the rise, hitting businesses big and small. This surge in threats puts developers like you in a crucial position. You’re not just coding – you’re on the front lines against a variety of cybersecurity risks that are growing and changing every day.

With 80% of companies encountering at least one cloud security incident in the last year, the relevance and utility of Cloud Threat Detection (CTR) tools becomes particularly apparent. 

Integrating CTR tools into your development process improves your applications’ functionality and strengthens their ability to resist the latest cyber threats. But with so many cloud threat detection tools out there, knowing which to trust with your valuable data is challenging.

Understanding Cloud Threats

In the cloud, your organization faces several key threats. Data breaches are a top concern, often stemming from exposed APIs, cloud misconfigurations, insecure storage buckets, SSRF or compromised credentials, leading to significant data loss and legal issues.

DDoS attacks and ransomware are also a significant risk, targeting your cloud resources and disrupting service availability. These attacks are more complex in the cloud, scaling rapidly and exploiting the distributed nature of cloud services.

The growing frequency and complexity of cloud threats necessitate proactive detection. This means implementing tools and processes that swiftly spot and mitigate security issues, safeguarding your data, reputation, and business continuity. 

For this – we recommend cloud threat detection tools. 

Top 4 Key Criteria for Evaluating CTR Tools

When it comes to evaluating and selecting the right Cloud Threat Detection (CTR) tools as part of your toolchain, here 4 key criteria that can assist your decision-making process:

1. Detection Accuracy – Look for tools that offer high detection accuracy and minimize false positives. You want a tool that can precisely identify threats without inundating your team with unnecessary alerts.

2. Scalability and Cloud Platform Integration – Verify that the CTR tool can integrate with your cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP. Scalability is important to accommodate the dynamic nature of cloud environments, allowing for effective security coverage as your infrastructure grows.

3. User-Friendliness and Ease of Implementation – Opt for tools that are user-friendly and straightforward to implement. Complex solutions can slow down deployment and require extensive training. Choose tools that align with your team’s skills and resources right out of the gate.

4. Pricing Models and Cost-Effectiveness – Evaluate the pricing models offered by CTR tool providers. Understand how costs scale with usage and assess long-term expenses.

10 Top Cloud Threat Detection (CTR) Tools

1. Intruder | www.intruder.io

Intruder is a platform that provides vulnerability management services to its users. It combines continuous network monitoring, automated vulnerability scanning, and proactive threat response in one platform.

Main Features

• Quickly set up and use the online vulnerability scanner for infrastructure, web apps, or APIs.
• Get a complete view of your attack surface, automated scanning, and proactive threat response, with actionable results prioritized by context.
• Integrates with top developer tools like GitHub, Azure DevOps, GitLab, Atlassian Jira, and Service Now.

Best For

Smaller businesses with limited cybersecurity resources can benefit from Intruder’s user-friendly setup and fast. Larger businesses looking to manage complex and extensive attack surfaces.

Price

Pricing for Intruder depends on the number of applications and infrastructure targets that need scanning. There are three pricing tiers available. 

2. Cloud Guard – SpectralOps | spectralops.io 

SpectralOps is part of Cloud Guard and specializes in data loss prevention through automated codebase security. This is achieved through monitoring, classification and protection of code, assets, and infrastructure for exposed API keys, tokens, credentials, and high-risk security misconfigurations.

Main Features

• Employs AI and hundreds of detectors to scan code, configurations, and assets in real-time, identifying security errors and weaknesses as developers work.
• Prioritizes code safety, preventing tampering, detecting hardcoded secrets, and addressing security misconfigurations without hindering developer productivity.
• Enhances compliance by providing visibility into log shipping integration, ensuring data protection and regulatory adherence.
• Supports various automated code security use cases, including Infrastructure as Code Scanning, Code Tampering Prevention, and Source Code Leakage Detection.

Best For

SpectralOps is best suited for businesses that are looking to secure their SaaS applications and cloud environments. It is ideal for organizations that want to proactively manage their security posture and reduce the risk of security breaches.

Price

Offers a free trial. 

3. Cyscale | cyscale.com

Cyscale is a cloud-native application protection platform that provides automated cloud security services to its users. The platform offers continuous visibility over complex cloud environments to identify misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, and provides agentless automated scanning and guided remediation across multiple cloud service providers including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud.

Main Features

• Gain contextual insights into vulnerabilities and risks, helping you prioritize security actions based on the broader context of your cloud environment.
• Access security standards and policy templates for various compliance frameworks like CIS Cloud Benchmarks, ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, NIST, and more to assist with audits.
• Monitor and assess user permissions and privilege access through a powerful Identity Dashboard, integrating with Okta for cloud Single Sign-On (SSO) users.

Best For

Organizations seeking comprehensive visibility, control over their cloud security posture, and streamlined compliance.

Price     

Three pricing tiers starting at $700 (up to 1000 assets). 

4. Skyhawk | skyhawk.security 

Skyhawk is a security platform that provides real-time threat detection and response for cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. It offers a unified security posture across all environments, enabling organizations to manage security risks more effectively. 

Main Features

• Combines Cloud Detection & Response (CDR) with Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) to detect breaches as they occur.
• Detect malicious behavior by learning over time to focus on what is both suspicious and relevant for your organization.
• Uses a combination of rule-based and ML-based detectors to identify personalized and relevant behavior during regular operations and pinpoint contextual threats in real-time
• Offers Cloud Breach Prevention, which includes Runtime CDR, Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM), and CSPM in one platform. CSPM is provided for free.

Best For

Businesses requiring cutting-edge AI-driven security solutions.

Price

Contact for pricing details.

5. Barracuda CloudGen Firewall | barracuda.com 

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is a security solution that provides comprehensive protection against a broad range of network threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits, including SQL injections, cross-site scripting, denial of service attacks, trojans, viruses, worms, spyware, and many more. It offers advanced SD-WAN capabilities and supports connections to distributed sites, multiple clouds, and remote users.

Main Features

• Barracuda ATP uses full system emulation for deep visibility into malware behavior, checking files against an updated hash database, and emulating unknown files in a virtual sandbox.
• Templates, APIs, and cloud-native integration simplify deployment. Zero-Touch Deployment is available for remote sites.
• Barracuda collects threat data globally, improving threat defense across all connected security solutions.

Best For

Large enterprises needing comprehensive network protection.

Price

Contact for pricing or start with a free 14-day trial. 

6. Trivy | trivy.dev 

Trivy is an open source security scanner that can scan various targets for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, secrets, software licenses.

Main Features

• Scans IaC configuration files, including Terraform, CloudFormation, Docker, Kubernetes, and more, for security issues and common misconfigurations.
• Can scan both local and remote container images, works with multiple container engines, and supports archived and extracted images. 
• It’s compatible with raw file systems and remote git repositories.

Best For

Teams needing a reliable, open-source scanner for container images.

Price

Free, open-source.

7. Secret Scanner | github.com/grab/secret-scanner

Secret Scanner is a command-line tool that scans Git repositories for sensitive information such as private keys, API secrets, and tokens. It does so by looking at file names, extensions, and content, attempting to match them against a list of signatures.

Main Features

• Scans files in Git repositories by analyzing file names, extensions, and content, attempting to match them against a list of predefined signatures.
• Supports Git providers such as GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, allowing you to scan repositories from various sources.
• By default, scan findings are displayed as console output. You can save the results as JSON by specifying the output parameter.

Best For

Developers and DevOps professionals who work with Git repositories that are looking to safeguard codebases from security vulnerabilities.

Price

Free, open-source.

8. Suridata | suridata.ai

Suridata is a security platform that provides SaaS Security Posture Management. The  platform discovers  plugins, add-ons, and 3rd party integrations across your SaaS environment, analyzes their scope, assesses their usage, and determines whether or not they pose a risk to your organization. 

Main Features

• Uses pre-configured policies to uncover vulnerabilities, simplifying the mapping of your SaaS stack and security posture.
• Assesses the potential impact of each remediation effort on your complex SaaS applications, ensuring risks are addressed without disrupting daily operations.
• Guides you through the process of mitigating security risks, facilitating coordination among departments and stakeholders

Best For

SaaS organizations that need a cloud security solution that doesn’t negatively impact operations. 

Price

Contact for pricing or request a demo. 

9 Rezonate | rezonate.io

Rezonate provides an identity-centric security platform for cloud environments. It discovers, profiles, and protects human and machine identities across their entire access journey to your business assets. 

Main Features

• Understands human and machine identities, their access, and activity across clouds, IdPs, and SaaS.
• Automatically detect and eliminate weak authentication, risky permissions, and misconfigurations.
• Monitor user behavior, align with MITRE ATT&CK framework, and respond to threats promptly.

Best For

Enterprises seeking to fortify their cloud identity and access management.

Price

Contact for pricing or request a demo.

Empower Your Cloud Security

Cloud threat detection is a vital aspect of ensuring the security and integrity of your data and applications in the cloud. However, not all cloud threat detection tools are created equal. Some may offer more features, better performance, or lower costs than others. Therefore, it is important to compare and evaluate different options before choosing the best one for your needs.

If you want to see how SpectralOps can help you protect your cloud environment, sign up for a free trial today.