Mastering the Digital Maze: Uniting Identity, Security, and Innovation for a Resilient Future

In today’s digital landscape, organizations face identity, security, compliance, and innovation challenges. Cryptography is crucial in identity and access management (IAM), ensuring data confidentiality and integrity. Effective identity management goes beyond internal systems—it’s also about vetting partners and vendors. Meanwhile, evolving security strategies like CMMC and Secure by Design (SbD) are reshaping how companies safeguard their operations. For DevOps, building the right tools based on real-world feedback is key. This blend of identity, security, compliance, AI, and tools is the backbone of modern enterprise success. Dive in as we explore these dynamic forces driving the future!

Identity:

27: What is the Role of Cryptography within IAM? - This webpage discusses the importance of cryptography in identity and access management (IAM). It explains that cryptography supports confidentiality, integrity protection, and origin authentication for identities and payloads. The author emphasizes the need to consider identity holistically in terms of life cycles, including stages such as identity creation, credential management, authentication, and access control. The webpage also mentions specific examples and considerations for different types of identities, such as B2E and B2C, and highlights the importance of data protection and consent management in the context of IAM.?

Security:??

Ahead of CMMC rollout, Pentagon preps CUI training, tools Time to Read: 3 - The Pentagon is developing training and tools to help program managers mark sensitive information that will trigger Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirements. CMMC will provide third-party audits to verify contractors' compliance with National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity standards. The DoD plans to roll out CMMC over three years and is concerned about adversaries stealing sensitive data from defense contractors. The DoD inspector general found that the department was not properly tracking the use of CUI markings and the completion of CUI training. The Pentagon is working to improve consistency in the application of CUI requirements and is developing tools to help identify when CUI markings are necessary. CUI is a critical aspect of the CMMC system, but it has yet to be codified into the CMMC rules.?

New whitepaper available: Building security from the ground up with Secure by Design - In today's digital landscape, organizations must prioritize security in order to maintain operational resilience and earn customer trust. However, many companies prioritize performance and user experience over security, leading to vulnerabilities in their supply chain. To combat this, the concept of Secure by Design (SbD) is gaining importance, and it involves integrating security measures into every step of the product development process. A recent whitepaper from AWS and SANS Institute outlines key considerations for implementing SbD, including integrating it into the software development lifecycle, using automation, and applying it to emerging technologies like AI.?

DevOps:

Stop Building the Wrong Tools: How Developer Surveys Transformed Our Focus Time to Read: 5 - The author shares their experience of building an internal developer portal at a high-growth startup and how a simple developer survey changed their approach. Despite investing two years in developing the portal, they realized it wasn't solving their developers' biggest pain points. The survey helped them understand the top priorities and focus on the right things. They shifted their focus to building local first tools for faster development and saw a positive response from users. The author encourages companies to regularly conduct developer surveys to stay informed about their priorities.?

Hyperstore: A Hybrid Row-Storage Engine for T???i???m???e??? ???S???e???r???i???e???s??? Real-Time Analytics Time to Read: 9 - Postgres has evolved into a versatile, polyglot database platform with extensions for various use cases, making it a popular choice for developers. Timescale's goal is to make Postgres even better, empowering developers to use it for critical applications. Postgres is well-suited for storing and managing relational data, but it also excels in real-time analytics, thanks to its hybrid row-columnar storage engine called hyperstore. Hyperstore combines the best of both worlds, providing fast inserts and efficient analytics without the need for separate databases.?

Compliance:?

Hosted RPKI Time to Read: 3 - Hosted RPKI is a service provided by ARIN that allows direct resource holders to participate in the infrastructure by obtaining a certificate and submitting Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs). This service offers benefits such as ease of use, minimal coding, and data security. To configure Hosted RPKI, users must log in to ARIN Online and select Routing Security from the navigation menu. From there, they can sign up for RPKI and request a resource certificate. Users can also create, view, and delete ROAs, as well as view their certified resources.?

Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) FAQs & Best Practices Time to Read: 10 - More information can be found in RFC 6482: A Profile for Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs). Be mindful of the messages in your syslog. RPKI messages are logged in syslog as part of the rtrd category. Create a process to monitor your ROAs and update them when needed. There are many different ways to monitor the state of your ROAs. Some options include using RPKI Relying Party (RP) software, monitoring ARIN Online for changes to your resource certificate, or programmatically pulling data from ARIN’s RESTful interface. It is important to regularly check and update your ROAs to ensure they are accurate and up to date.?

AI:

Analyzing the OpenAPI Tooling Ecosystem Time to Read: 10 - This webpage introduces a series of posts on the OpenAPI Specification (OAS) and its tooling ecosystem. The author discusses their efforts to design OAS 3.2 and 4.0 "Moonwalk" and their goal to make it easier to design, implement, and maintain tools. They also share their diagrams on the architecture of OAS-based tools and the many objects and fields defined by OAS. The author highlights the challenges of finding patterns in tool design and OAS usage and the need to understand the different tasks that can be done with an OpenAPI Description (OAD). They propose an "idealized architecture" that breaks down into three main purposes or functional areas: parsing libraries, OAD tools, and API tools. The author also discusses the use of color in their diagrams and the potential for an ADA (API Description API) in the future.?

Implementing GraphReader with Neo4j and LangGraph Time to Read: 28 - The webpage discusses the use of Language Models (LLMs) in AI agents for reasoning and problem-solving. It highlights the implementation of the GraphReader agent, which retrieves information from a structured knowledge graph. The agent uses LLMs to extract atomic facts and key elements from text chunks, which are then stored in a graph database. The post also provides code examples and instructions for setting up the environment to implement the GraphReader agent. The generated knowledge graph is illustrated and analyzed to showcase the effectiveness of the agent. Finally, the webpage discusses the limitations and potential improvements for the GraphReader agent.?

Tools/Projects:

Zero Trust SSH Client Explained Time to Read: 4 - The OpenZiti project offers SDKs for developers to create secure connections, as well as client tools for ssh and scp. The project promotes open source and auditable security-related code and is available on GitHub. The zssh client demonstrates how easy it is to adopt the OpenZiti SDK into an application, and it also highlights the potential vulnerabilities of traditional ssh. The article provides a simple example of creating an ssh client using OpenZiti's zero-trust overlay network, which is more secure. The full source for zssh is available on GitHub, and the article also mentions zrok.io, a free sharing platform built on OpenZiti. The project encourages people to share their experiences using OpenZiti on various social media platforms and provides additional resources, such as YouTube content.?

Lyft Promotes Best Practices for Collaborative Protocol Buffers Design Time to Read: 2 - Lyft has been using Protocol Buffers for inter-system integration, with a focus on collaborative protocol design to improve knowledge sharing, consistency, and development process quality. They explain the reasons for switching from HTTP+JSON to ProtoBuf, citing the descriptiveness, open-source code generators, optimized format, and backward compatibility. The company shares its experience in protocol definition design and highlights key principles such as clarity and extensibility. They also recommend using ProtoValidate, a tool for message validation based on user-defined rules. Lyft also established an approach for unifying constant values in protocol definitions using custom options. The company emphasizes the importance of reviewing language-specific tutorials to learn about setup and any nuances. They also mention best practices, such as using well-known data types and explicitly marking optional fields.

In Conclusion?

Get ready for even more exciting content coming your way! Join us next week as we dive into fresh topics, cutting-edge trends, and game-changing tools that will keep you ahead in the digital world. You won't want to miss it—see you then for another round of insights and innovation!

About UberEther?

UberEther is a leading technology integrator dedicated to innovating solutions for government clients. Based in Sterling, VA, we specialize in transforming security and access control needs into strategic advantages. Our accolades include numerous awards and recognitions, and we have achieved FedRAMP High + DoD IL5 Authority to Operate (ATO) for our Integrated Managed Identity Platform. Learn more about our cutting-edge solutions at uberether.com.