The world keeps changing in the blink of an eye. Yesterday, we were in the cloud age. Today, we have entered the age of cloud-native.
While this change may have happened in a significantly short span of time, its impact is much greater than we can imagine. To put the transformation in a nutshell, it’s about jumping from having on-demand IT resources over the internet or on a cloud environment to having a software architecture built on cloud principles to develop new-age applications.
And as every new technology tends to render the old ones obsolete, this new approach of building and running highly scalable applications in a cloud environment too has made the traditional approach to cloud security or network security extraneous and ill-suited. In fact, the infrastructure-agnostic and developer-focused multi-cloud approach that uses interlinked tools and platforms, of cloud native makes it a popular target for cyber threats.
That's why as more and more enterprises continue their adoption of cloud native practices to maximize the value of their containerized applications and Kubernetes investments, the need for protecting these applications from evolving security risks takes center stage. However, securing cloud native applications mean securing every crucial aspect of it, which is easier said than done. In today's blog, we will explore each of the security aspects and a quick glance through the best practices for each aspect. Let's begin!
What are the four C's of cloud native security?
The four C's of cloud native security represent the four fundamental layers of an application built on this methodology that require developers as well as DevOps teams to follow the best practices of cloud computing in order to achieve all the security goals and pass checks before the application reaches the end users. These four layers are Code security, Container security, Cluster security, and Cloud security.
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Code Security |
Container Security |
Cluster Security |
Cloud Security |
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Let's take a deep dive into each of the C's to understand them better and also answer some of the most asked questions about the 4C's.
#1 Code Security
Code is the innermost part or layer of an application, be it non-cloud or cloud based applications. It is also one of the key attack surfaces offering an organization the biggest security controls. Developers or security teams can minimize security issues through strict access management and threat monitoring across every exposed service, API endpoints, and other parts. and API endpoints. TLS encryption should be the norm for all communication, whether internal or external, to ensure an added layer of code security.
What is code quality and security?
Code quality and code security are two very different but interconnected aspects of the code development process. While code quality is a key concern for developers, code security is the headache of the testing department. In today’s increasingly embedded market, it’s the responsibility of every application developer to check for potential security risks and scope for security incidents in their codes before pushing the codes for cloud deployments.
What is code vulnerability?
Code vulnerability is a flaw or glitch in a code that can lead to a security risk and creates opportunities for threat actors to attach the code to any endpoint and extract or, worse, delete all data, tamper with the code, and do more. In addition, code vulnerability also makes the users as well as the developer vulnerable to different types of security threats.
What is security code analysis?
Secure code analysis is an examination process that can be manual or automated, designed to identify any existing security vulnerabilities by checking logic errors, implementations, style guidelines, etc. Today, one can perform a secure code review using tools such as Static Application Security Testing (SAST) that not only help developers carry out their security responsibilities in an effective way but also allow them to work in their preferred environment as these tools are compatible with GitHub, GitLab, Eclipse, IntelliJ, etc.
How do I provide security to code?
Similar to SAST, there are two more preferred ways of providing code security—Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST). Some other recommended ways of providing security to your code are limiting the ranges of ports in your communication, performing automatic scans of the third-party libraries of your applications, and launching dynamic probing attacks.
#2 Container Security
Once a code is developed, it is ready to be containerized, which means you can put it in a container. Hence, container makes the second layer of cloud native security. In this stage, the code goes to the application development team, who will work on the build pipeline before shipping it off further for continuous deployment.
What is Docker container security?
Docker container security is a comprehensive process of securing Docker containers starting from the host to network. Docker container security can be a challenge for organizations due to the moving nature of its parts and demands a higher level of incident response and cloud security strategy.
How do you secure a container?
While securing containers, three areas require maximum focus. First and foremost, it is of utmost importance to scan the containers and the OS for known vulnerabilities while building the Docker image. Image signing is the next step to maintain and enforce robust identity and access management. The last part is creating users with the least OS privilege and disallowing them once the containerization process is complete.
#3 Cluster Security
Cluster is the third layer, and when people think of security and Kubernetes, they mostly think of Kubernetes cluster security.
What does cluster mean in DevOps?
Cluster is a group of nodes hosted on VMs linked through a virtual private cloud used to run containerized applications. In Kubernetes, cluster is responsible for managing the desired state of it.
What is cluster security?
Cluster security indicates a communication protocol designed to maintain the security of secure control plane messages, such as config, cluster join, etc., between multiple Instant access points and devices.
How do you secure a cluster?
To secure a cluster, two concerns require the most attention—configurable cluster components and applications running in the cluster. Insufficient access control is one of the key challenges for maintaining the security of cluster components, whereas cluster misconfigurations are another major concern for development teams.
Some of the basic principles of cluster security are RBAC authorization, authentication, implementing network policies, ensuring Pod Security Standards, application secrets encryption, and leveraging TLS for Kubernetes Ingress.
What is cluster authentication?
Cluster authentication is a process of determining the identity of its peers, clients or subcomponents with the help of cluster security services. Each cloud provider has its own set of cluster authentication systems and processes.
#4 Cloud Security
Cloud is the last and final layer of a code as the code, once developed, containerized and put through cluster, is ready for cloud deployments. That makes cloud security the most complex and cumbersome process as well as the most important part of the process. But before we dig deeper into the ocean-like world of cloud security, we have to understand that cloud security necessitates a shared responsibility model. Based on the same, a client or the customer enterprise could be accountable for security of on-prem or in-office assets while the partner is responsible for security of all cloud-related resources covered under the model of engagement (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
What are security services in cloud?
Email security, data loss prevention, identity and access management, web security, and intrusion detection are some of the most common cloud security services. Security information and event management (SIEM), data encryption, business continuity and disaster recovery, and network security come under the bracket of cloud security services.
What types of cloud security solutions are available?
The types of cloud security solutions differ from vendor to vendor. At Cloud4C, we provide a wide range of cloud security solutions, starting from security consulting, managed security services, advanced managed detection and response (MDR), managed SOC, DevSecOps, to compliance as a service to protect data centers, proactively detect advanced threats, secure your network traffic and critical assets, and provide 360-degree security to your cloud resources and cloud environments.
What is the most effective cloud security?
While there is no "most effective" cloud security, encryption, zero trust, new-age threat intelligence and security mechanisms, and regular vulnerability scanning for potential threats are some of the best practices enterprises adopt to protect their weakest link, infrastructure, and cloud native applications from any known and unknown threats.
What is managed cloud security services?
Managed cloud security services is a term as well as a service model offered by cloud managed services providers (MSP) that provides end-to-end management of an enterprise's cloud security needs.
Cloud4C is a leading managed cloud services provider that also provides industry-best managed cloud security services to its Fortune 500 customers across the globe. As one of the world’s foremost security services provider, Cloud4C delivers cutting-edge managed detection and response, endpoint detection and response solutions paired with threat intelligence, SIEM-SOAR, cloud security offerings. Our competent managed Security Center Operations (SOC) services assist firms in embracing an extended, advanced cybersecurity and incident response team without any hassle. Achieve 360-degree protection with Cloud4C. Know more about our advanced security services here.
