3 Fundamentals for a Strong Cloud Penetration Testing Program

After a dull conference, the author concludes cloud pentesting is fundamentally the same as traditional testing: virtualized or shared, the underlying technology and security controls hardly change.

Syncing Domain Admins into Entra ID lets attackers pivot from compromised on-prem AD to the cloud, and back via password writeback. CIS and Microsoft advise keeping privileged admin accounts cloud-only.

Compares cloud penetration testing across AWS and Azure, explaining the shared responsibility model and why platform-specific nuances matter for methodology and cloud security maturity.

Explores hosting red team phishing pages and payloads on Azure services under Microsoft's trusted domains, using their good reputation to slip past web filters as domain fronting fades.

Reviews the Georgia Tech 2013 cyber threat forecast: cloud botnets, mobile browser and wallet flaws, malware obfuscation, counterfeit hardware in the supply chain, and healthcare data risks.

Passing an annual ROC or SAQ is not enough—PCI DSS is meant as a foundation for year-round compliance. The author offers a cheat sheet to schedule and assign recurring DSS 2.0 maintenance tasks.