Cybersecurity For The Cloud Era: Best Practices For Cloud-native Security

In 2024, it is safe to say that the world has moved to the “cloud!” While the two COVID-19 years were instrumental in increasing the implementation of cloud-native platforms, the trend has only gotten more relevant with time. Cloud-native software applications reduce your costs, increase time-to-market, and let you scale your venture seamlessly.

However, you shouldn’t overlook the need for cloud-native security . Building cloud-based applications involves various security risks that should be avoided to ensure efficient operations. This calls for a shift in your software development life cycle suited to cloud-native security.

In the cloud era, cybersecurity requires design deliveries that adhere to cloud-native principles. From providing secure codes to ensuring continuous monitoring, modern software development gives importance to cloud-native architecture from the get-go.

If you plan to implement cloud-native security practices within your organization, you know its four Cs – cloud, container, cluster, and code.

Cloud

The cloud layer deals with the infrastructure of your cloud-native resources. While your cloud service provider will look after the infrastructure, you will be responsible for securing your valuable data.

You should beware of threats like automated attacks and misconfigurations while dealing with the cloud layer. Your administration console can be at risk due to inadequate access protection resulting from misconfiguration. Attackers may also scan your system’s vulnerabilities using automation.

Container

This layer has container images with vulnerabilities you can scan. Do not ignore security issues like weak privilege configurations, image security, and unknown resources by keeping these containers updated. Moreover, scanning the applications you run in these containers keeps your system secure.

Cluster

You can find Kubernetes components in this layer. These components make up your control plane and worker nodes. You can authenticate Kubernetes components using TLS certificates and encrypted communication. When it comes to seamless cloud-native security, you should focus the most on protecting the kube-api-server.

Code

This is the application layer that gives you maximum security control. Your cybersecurity team can minimize security risks by limiting exposed endpoints, services, and ports. TLS encryption will help you secure communication between external and internal services.

Best Practices To Ensure Cloud-native Security

If you plan on keeping your cloud-native applications and systems secure, here are some of the most effective practices you can follow:

Taking Up Shared Responsibility

From app development to implementing cybersecurity, every domain in your IT infrastructure is connected. You can ensure seamless cloud-native security by making your DevOps and security teams work with each other. This way, the developers in your team can learn more about secure coding and the security professionals can obtain valuable insights into cloud-native software implementation.

Shifting Left

In the cloud era, shifting left helps you analyze modern cybersecurity tools capable of handling the speed and scale of cloud-native applications. Instead of waiting for matters to get worse, you should apply suitable security measures during the early stages of software development.

You should also stay away from serverless features by shifting left. It becomes easier for attackers to exploit system vulnerabilities in serverless containers and function codes. Ensure that your developers refrain from using untrusted container images in their Ci/CD pipelines.?

Going For Cloud-agnostic Security

Cloud-agnostic security is ideal for multi-cloud models. It keeps your overall IT infrastructure secure across multiple cloud-native apps and services from multiple providers. A single robust cloud-native security strategy can simplify continuous monitoring, recovery, compliance, and all other cybersecurity measures. Inform all your stakeholders about the same to bring everyone on the same page.

Hire Cybersecurity Professionals To Ensure Seamless Cloud-native Security

Whether you already have moved on to cloud-native security or are planning to make the shift, seek help from experienced cybersecurity professionals. Certified experts can help you scan your IT infrastructure, find vulnerabilities, and recommend the best solutions to keep your organization secure. They also ensure that you comply with the necessary regulations while maintaining the security of your cloud-native apps and services. Working with these professionals reduces the risk of cyberattacks and helps you create robust plans to tackle them when things get worse. Along with modern cloud computing innovations, enhanced cybersecurity is the need of the hour.

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