Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Shipping secure code rapidly and at scale is a challenge across the software industry, as evidenced by continued news of high-profile data breaches and critical vulnerabilities. To address this challenge, organizations are increasingly adopting DevSecOps, a practice in which application developers work closely alongside operations and security teams throughout the development life cycle.

Achieving and maintaining compliance in the cloud proves challenging for many organizations, as it is a complex, ongoing effort that includes safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring infrastructure resources are correctly configured. Success often hinges on the ability to monitor compliance-related trends over time, enabling organizations to spot risk patterns, gauge their current compliance posture, and adapt as new risks emerge. However, gathering this data can be difficult.

As Windows organizations migrate toward cloud-based environments, they often lose context of their full stack. In addition to securing their on-premises servers, they now need to deal with virtual servers, managed services, and platform-as-a-service offerings. Cloud-based resources require organizations to relinquish control over physical infrastructure and limit their access to underlying operating systems.

APIs are foundational to modular application development. They support an organization’s internal services as well as provide a mechanism for customers to access certain services or datasets for their own applications. Because of the role that both internal and public-facing APIs play in applications, they are considered one of the top targets for threat actors.

In recent years, the popularity of Kubernetes deployments has surged—as has the prevalence of security risks associated with the technology. Red Hat’s State of Kubernetes Security for 2023 reveals that 67 percent of organizations have encountered delays in application deployments due to Kubernetes-related security issues. Additionally, 37 percent have experienced significant revenue or customer losses stemming from Kubernetes security incidents.

Organizations are adopting Google Cloud at a growing rate. This growth is partially influenced by both the rise of AI computing and a push towards multi-cloud usage. A recent report found that 85 percent of organizations deploy their applications on multi-cloud architecture. With the shift to AI computing and multi-cloud adoption, organizations are reconsidering their cloud security coverage now more than ever.

Cloud environments are susceptible to a wide variety of cyberattacks, making them difficult to secure. Some cyberattacks are easier to detect than others, so a priority in cloud security is having adequate detection and response systems in place to mitigate them. Unauthorized cryptomining has become a prevalent threat in recent years, especially in cloud environments where it can be harder to detect.

Detecting malware in container environments can be a major challenge due to the rapid development of malicious code, the proliferation of insecure container images, and the multilayered complexity of container stacks. Staying ahead of attackers means tracking the constant evolution of malware and rooting out threats in your codebase at the expense of considerable compute.

Kata Containers is an open source project that seeks to enhance security for containers by isolating them in lightweight VMs. Each Kata Container runs with the speed and flexibility of standard containers, and it easily integrates with common container management software—including Docker and Kubernetes.

As of August 2023, only 3 out of 23 US government agencies were compliant with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirements for log management and security observability. These requirements are outlined in M-21-31, a 2021 memorandum that was issued following Executive Order 14028 on improving national cybersecurity. Until all of these agencies implement the new requirements, the federal government’s ability to fully detect, investigate, and remediate cybersecurity threats will be constrained.