Cybersecurity Archives - Page 5 of 5

Is Your Company Following These Cyber Risk Mitigation Strategies

Posted on December 22, 2021December 23, 2024 by admin

Have you heard of the Log4j Log4Shell vulnerability? It’s one of the worst cybersecurity flaws discovered on 10 Dec’21. The rise of technology and the growing reliance on IT systems have definitely advanced our lives. However, they have also opened doors for cyberattacks.

IoT devices have become the attackers’ favorite thing to hack, and crimes related to credential stealing and ransomware are also increasing with time. Moreover, cybercriminals are also extending their reach to cloud platforms.

You know cybercrime is a problem. But how do you know it’s coming? Cybercrime can have long-reaching effects, affecting your business, and your customers, depending on the extent of the attack. Let us discuss what cost an organization has to pay post-cyberattack, how to find the vulnerabilities, implement cybersecurity risk mitigation strategies, and where to hire a Cybersecurity Consulting Firm.

Image source: Stealthlabs

What is the Cost of a Cyberattack?

The price of cyber attacks is way more than you may think. The harm of a digital assault totally depends upon your business. In case your business is adequately strong, then, at that point, you can expect a little damage. A good cyber risk mitigation strategy can likewise help you in lessening the harm of cyberattacks. Nonetheless, this isn’t the genuine expense of a digital assault. The cyberattack will likewise influence your business reputation too. Some of the indirect costs of cyberattack are as follows –

Data Loss – The loss of information can expand your bills because you will have to invest resources in data recuperation. Likewise, you may also have to suffer expected fines and consequences.
Investor Perception – Normally, an organization’s worth drops post-data breach. Negative media will affect your business esteem. If you have a huge association, then, at that point, you may lose a large number of dollars because of this. This is additionally appropriate to more modest organizations. Most SMBs need more frameworks to manage negative media.
Operational expenses – Sometimes, hackers may attempt to close down your web-based activities. They will utilize DDoS assaults to assault your servers. This will prompt client misfortune. Your clients will move to different stages as your services are not working.
Reputation – You will lose your faithful clients because of the assault. It will likewise become hard to draw in new clients. Your brand name is connected with your whole business. If you want your customers to stay with you, assess your cyber risks and fix them ASAP. Now let’s find out how to mitigate cyber security risk in the below section.

Also, Read – A Cyber Attack Can Ruin Your Business – Are You Really Prepared?

What is Cyber Security Risk Mitigation?

Cyber risk mitigation is the method involved with assessing a company’s important assets and afterwards ensuring them using risk strategy. Your association needs to decide its risk tolerance, so you can make a risk mitigation plan that will limit those dangers. Risk tolerance can be high, medium, or low. A risk alleviation system will shield your association’s resources from internal and external threats and save money in alternate ways.

Cyber risk mitigation is a critical thinking tool that assists you with making a cyber threat alleviation plan for unknown threats so it tends to be managed all the more easily. A cyber risk mitigation plan is a chance for you to diminish and dispose of hazards. You can’t keep a catastrophe from occurring consistently, however, you can generally diminish its effect. It implies having a decent danger alleviation procedure set up that will help you assume the most noticeably terrible ought to occur.

Best Cybersecurity Risk Mitigation Strategies

Proactive cybersecurity risk mitigation is rapidly turning into the main choice for associations as the probability of encountering a digital assault is everything except ensured. The following are the 6 top strategies for the mitigation of cyber security incidents across your IT environment. Let’s see how to mitigate cyber security risks.

Conduct a risk assessment to determine vulnerabilities

The initial phase in a cybersecurity risk mitigation plan ought to be to conduct a risk evaluation, which can assist with uncovering potential loopholes in your association’s security controls. A risk evaluation can offer knowledge into the resources that should be ensured and the security controls at present set up, and directing one can help your association’s IT security group identify areas of weakness that could be possibly taken advantage of, and therefore can focus on which steps ought to be taken first. Network safety appraisals are an incredible method for acquiring an ongoing glance at your association’s cybersecurity posture.

Establish network access controls

Whenever you have evaluated your resources and distinguished potential trouble spots, the subsequent stage is to build up network access controls to assist with moderating the dangers of insider threats. Numerous associations are going to security frameworks that assess trust and client access advantages dependent upon the situation relying upon every client’s particular work. This limits both the probability and effect of dangers or assaults that happen because of worker carelessness or a basic absence of familiarity with online protection best practices.

Also, Read – Cyber Attacks on Utilities Are Spiking. Is Your Company Prepared?

Implement firewalls and antivirus software

Another significant cybersecurity risk methodology implies the establishment of safety solutions like firewalls and antivirus. These innovative protections offer an extra obstruction to your PC or organization. Firewalls go about as a buffer between the rest of the world and your organization and give your association more prominent command over incoming and outgoing traffic. Essentially, antivirus looks through your devices as well as the organization to distinguish any possible cyber attacks.

Create a patch management schedule

Numerous Software and application providers keep releasing patches consistently, and cybercriminals know about that very well. Therefore, they can rapidly decide how to take advantage of a patch. Organizations need to keep an eye on the patch release and create an effective management schedule that can help your association’s IT security group stay in front of Attackers.

Continuously monitor network traffic

Proactive activity is the best strategy for alleviating cyber attacks. With approximately 2,200 assaults happening each day, the best way to genuinely remain ahead of cybercriminals is to continuously monitor network traffic. To genuinely empower real-time threat detection and network safety hazard moderation, consider tools and devices that permit you to acquire an exhaustive perspective on your whole IT ecosystem anytime. This will permit your IT security group to more effectively distinguish new dangers and decide the ideal way to remediation.

Build an incident response plan

Guaranteeing that everybody, including both the IT cloud cyber security group and non-technical employees, knows what they’re answerable for in case of an information break or assault can make it more straightforward to have assets set up and all set. This is known as an occurrence reaction plan, and it is one of the critical factors in alleviating cyber-attack within your organization. Dangers can emerge out of any place and they aren’t going to cease themselves. Therefore, it is important for every organization to keep the response plan ready to proactively remediate any issues.

How PeoplActive Can Help Your Business?

Having a cybersecurity team has become a necessity for every business. Mitigation in Cyber security is crucial to safeguard the entire production and delivery process. Are you looking for cybersecurity professionals to ensure mitigation in cybersecurity? If so, PeoplActive is a one-stop solution for you.

PeoplActive is an IT consulting company and also offers staffing/staff augmentation services to our clients or both PERM and Remote roles. We specialize in cloud and cyber security roles however, that does not limit our expertise, we also assist our clients with different complex IT roles like Full Stack, Mean Stack, Data Engineers, iOS or Android, etc.

Our tech-savvy recruiters are well-versed with the latest technology, programming knowledge, and other skills which help them better understand the job description and bring exceptional talents to your dream team.

Geographies – US, India, UAE, and ANZ.
Avg. placement Percentage – More than 90%
Specialization – Cloud Platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP, etc.) Cyber Security, DevOps, Architect, Data Engineers, etc.
Joining Turn Around – 2 to 4 weeks.
Flexible hiring model – Contractual or Permanent.

We hope you found the blog useful and informative. In case, you want to beef up your project team with cloud cyber security experts, let us know today. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cyber Attacks on Utilities Are Spiking. Is Your Company Prepared?

Posted on November 19, 2021December 16, 2024 by admin

As the utility sector embraces digitization, it is also becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks. Companies have adopted operational technology (OT) and made large investments in big data, cloud computing, and IoT to better manufacture and accelerate product delivery. However, this has increased their attack surface and exposed the infrastructure to cybersecurity threats.

In this blog, we would be discussing the cyber risks utility companies face, the possible damages, the overall readiness of the industry to meet those risks, and what are the most effective solutions to counter cyber attacks on utilities.

Cybersecurity and threat detection remain important priorities as we move towards 2023. Both large and small firms are nonetheless concerned about data breaches and the theft of critical information. According to an IBM analysis, just in 2022, the average cost of data breaches hit $4.35 million globally, up 2.6% from the previous year.

Images Source: Springeropen

What is Cyber Security?

The goal of cybersecurity is to protect the data of your company from intrusions by malicious insiders and outsiders. It might include a collection of methods, tools, frameworks, and procedures used to safeguard networks, computers, software, and data from unwanted access or destruction. Any cybersecurity strategy should aim to protect data integrity, availability, and confidentiality. An organization’s reputation can be harmed (or even destroyed) by cybersecurity concerns in many ways. There is a chance that a hacker will get access to private data like bank or credit card numbers.

What is the Utility Sector?

The utility sector refers to a set of companies that are engaged in offering basic amenities, such as electricity, water, sewage services, dams, food, and natural gas. The utility sector encompasses a wide range of companies in different industries. They include manufacturers, providers, and suppliers such as:

- Energy companies
- Electricity companies
- Water companies
- Food manufacturing companies
- Natural gas companies
- Sanitation and waste disposal companies

The increasing use of software in OT (operational technology) such as programmed gas turbines and software-managed brownfield engine exchanges – has extended the attack surface for hackers to exploit. Also, the operational systems at utilities often take 10-20 years to upgrade or patch. Therefore, any software vulnerability in these systems remains exploitable for several years. Along with this, utility companies can have dozens of remote sites maintaining a continuous flow of data from a central HQ to multiple sub-networks. This shows that the IT security issue also stays in this sector. Utility companies have a large amount of valuable customer data such as credit card information and home addresses etc. that also increase the chances of cyber attacks on utilities data.

Critical security concerns facing the energy & utility industry

Utility Cybersecurity Challenge 1: Securing basic infrastructure and the grid

Our energy and utility basic infrastructures are encountering a significant shift towards the utilization of smarter and advanced technologies to counter the resource requirements of a growing population.

Operational Technologies (OT), like Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and SCADA, are connected to a wider network and are being increasingly targeted by hackers. As per reports, there is an absence of maturity in cybersecurity safety approaches while merging OT and IT that increase chances of cyber attacks on utilities.

Image Source: Weforum

Utility Cybersecurity Challenge 2: IoT and Cyber-Physical Attacks

One reason for this is the expanding utilization of internet-enabled gadgets and remote sensor networks by the energy and utility industry. Modern industrial systems are dependent on the utilization of the cyber-physical system. ICS (industrial control system) units are progressively turning out to be important for the more extensive Internet of Things (IoT), permitting them to control actual frameworks utilizing digital strategies.

Today, mobile applications are also being utilized as a remote control point. In doing so, we have made many new entry points for malicious activities. The sorts of attacks found in the utility sector encompass data breaches, defacement, physical harm, and information tampering. A review into the utilization of mobile applications to control ICS found more than 100 vulnerabilities, of which 20% could be utilized as a vector for malicious control of the industrial process and weakens cybersecurity for utilities.

Utility Cybersecurity Challenge 3: Automation, AI and security

Like every other industry, the utility industry is also utilizing advanced and smart technologies to smooth out processes such as big data, and artificial intelligence. Automation will bring new security and protection worries, as AI and ML capture personal as well as other critical data to build better and more enhanced frameworks. Total of this information may likewise draw new worries, particularly as far as security.

Also read: Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) the Future of Cyber Security?

Utility Cybersecurity Challenge 4: Cyber Security Skill Shortage

Utility and energy organizations belong to a traditional industry. Their core business isn’t security. However, not focusing on the cyberthreats within the organization can undeniably complicate things and may leave the business helpless.

As the utility sector is embracing digital transformation, it also requires a team having new skills and proactive plans to overcome the unprecedented cyber threats.

3 Steps To Improve Cybersecurity in Utilities Industry

Assess Your Risk Portfolio

One of the initial steps a utility can take to launch a fruitful, risk-based security strategy is to do a complete organizational review. This would include building a cybersecurity plan intended to recognize critical resources and the risk they would cause whenever compromised or lost.

With this data, utility companies become aware of the extent of the risk for delivery of services and can be better ready for it. With a better understanding of risk tolerance, these organizations can focus on cloud cybersecurity protection exercises, empowering utility leaders to settle on more advanced choices about expenditures on cybersecurity for utilities.

Pervasive Security Architecture

Advanced systems and devices are continually added to improve the performance, flexibility, and resiliency of the grid, Communication infrastructure was set up before security was even considered. With the arrival of IoT, the edge of the organization continues to develop and extend. Issues and weaknesses prompted wireless cameras and insecure routers leading to DDoS attacks. Shielding the infrastructure from the steadily expanding number of sensors and gadgets will guarantee grid stability. Identification of resources, legitimate access control, and data flow segregation will be in every way pivotal administration that should be planned and architected as the edge of the organization proceeds to develop and grow.

Utilize Common Security Tools

Utilities use Network firewalls in their security models to shield IT and OT frameworks from cyber threats. Firewalls block external threats and control traffic to distinct interior zones of the network. Limits for these trust zones are especially significant for utility organizations that require both IT and OT frameworks to operate.

Most of the firewalls are capable of inspecting the network traffic to and from the system which helps us to block inappropriate traffic. DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) firewalls apply deep and detailed inspection to the network traffic. These firewalls are used to isolate malicious data messages from routine control messages.

Haven’t you yet formed a Cybersecurity team?

Having a cybersecurity expert team has become a necessity for every business. Cybersecurity for utilities is equally important and crucial to safeguard the entire production and delivery process. Are you looking for cybersecurity professionals? If so, PeoplActive is a one-stop solution for you.

PeoplActive is an IT consulting company and also offers staffing/staff augmentation services to our clients for both PERM and Remote roles. We specialize in the cloud and cyber security roles however, that does not limit our expertise, we also assist our clients with different complex IT roles like Full Stack, Mean Stack, Data Engineers, iOS or Android, etc.

Our tech-savvy recruiters are well versed with the latest technology, programming knowledge, and other skills which help them better understand the job description and bring exceptional talents to your dream team.

Geographies – US, India, UAE, and ANZ.
Avg. placement Percentage – More than 90%
Specialization – Cloud Platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP, etc.) Cyber Security, DevOps, Architect, Data Engineers, etc.
Joining Turn Around – 2 to 4 weeks.
Flexible hiring model – Contractual or Permanent.

We hope you found the blog useful and informative. In case you have any requirements, let us know today. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Top 10 Cybersecurity Trends 2021

Posted on November 2, 2021December 16, 2024 by admin

Cybersecurity is a fast-growing field where both black hat hackers and cybersecurity service providers compete to outsmart one another. 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused due to human error. What are the cybersecurity challenges faced by large organizations and SMEs and how do they encounter them successfully? In this blog, we would be exploring the latest trends in cyber security 2021 to watch out for.

1. Cybersecurity Trends 2021: Rise of Automotive Hacking

Imagine a hacker stealing control of your vehicle remotely😢! Yes, it is possible as hackers have taken it to another level. The future of the automotive industry is bright, however, there is a stumbling block which it needs to kick out – Cyber attacks. The automotive vehicles make use of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology for better communication and operation which opens doors for hackers. Hacking a vehicle automatically reveals the owner’s trip data and other personal credentials which he might want to keep private.

In 2020, the number of automotive hacking cases increased by around 138%, and is also believed that in the coming years, we can witness a 99% increase in such incidents. There are some ways of protecting vehicles against hacking such as –

- Updating the car’s software
- Restrict the use of wireless systems
- Turn off GPS
- Use VPN

2. Cybersecurity Trends 2021: The Internet of Things (IoT) evolving

The evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) is creating doors for cybercrime. The Internet of Things are the devices that are connected to the internet and share data. Instances of IoT devices are – smartwatches, voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home. Moreover, it is believed that there will be around 64 billion IoT devices installed by 2026. Work from home is also driving it even faster.

An increase in the number of IoT devices gives opportunities to hackers by expanding the cyberattack surface. IoT devices have less processing as well as storage capability and that makes it challenging to install firewalls, antivirus, and other security applications to shield them.

Also Read – The Battle Against IoT Cyber Threats

3. Cybersecurity Trends 2021: Cloud – A Potential vulnerable

Adoption of remote working after the pandemic has expanded the need for cloud-based administrations. There are several benefits of Cloud services – adaptability, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and much more. However, they have become the primary target of hackers. Misconfigured cloud settings are a critical reason for data leakage, unauthorized access, and account hacking. The average expense of an information break is around $3.86 million, therefore, organizations need to take stringent steps towards cloud data protection.

Besides data breaches, organizations facing cloud security challenges include –

- To ensure regulatory compliance across jurisdictions
- Giving adequate IT expertise to deal with the cloud computing demands
- Cloud migrations issues
- Insider dangers – some unintentional, some deliberate – are brought about by the misuse of personal devices, unapproved remote access, unsecured networks, and weak passwords.

4. Cybersecurity Trends 2021: Social Engineering Attacks

Social engineering attacks refer to the broad range of malicious activities used to trick users and make security mistakes or share critical information. These activities usually take place in one or more steps. The attacker first gathers all the backend data such as weak security protocols or potential entry points and then gains the victim’s trust. These types of attacks are more dangerous because they rely on human error which is difficult to predict and identify.

Some common social engineering techniques are –

Baiting – These attacks trick a victim’s greed or curiosity through an unrealistic promise. As a result, the victim picks up the bait out of curiosity causing an automatic malware installation on the device.
Scareware – It involves practices where false alarms are bombarded on users’ screens. For eg – you must have seen on your system some similar text like this – “Protect your computer from harmful spyware attacks, install the tool”. If the user clicks on it, the attackers’ goal is achieved.

Phishing – It is the most common social media attack we have been facing. In this case, attackers send an email or text message that induces a sense of curiosity in the victim’s mind. As a result, the victim ends up clicking on the link or opening the attachments containing malware. For eg. – You must have heard of a fraud email elaborating about new policies and services which require an immediate call to action such as passwords or bank credentials etc.

5. Cybersecurity Trends 2021: Remote Working Cybersecurity Risks

Though WFH has several advantages yet it poses new cybersecurity risks on businesses. Remote work has become one of the most talked-about trends in cybersecurity. It’s difficult to create and secure work environment like a centralized office at home. In offices, there is an IT team looking after the operational and traditional security of the business by installing more firewalls, routers, and other advanced tools.

So, the biggest trend in cybersecurity is to focus on the security risks of a distributed workforce. It involves detecting, monitoring, and eradicating security vulnerabilities by implementing security controls. Most businesses have migrated to the cloud, find out what are cloud computing security challenges and how to overcome them.

6. Cyber Security Trends: Insider Threats

Businesses should equally work on inside and outside threats. With insider threats, we mean the security risks imposed by any individual associated with the organization including the employees, contractors, or business partners. Chances are there that these individuals may misuse the networks and assets to leak or delete confidential data. Some of the insider threat examples include –

The current employees misuse their credentials and share confidential data to get extra income. As per Gartner, these types of activities account for around 62% of insider threats. Not only current employees, but it is also very important to invalidate the credentials of ex-employees so that they can’t participate in any of such activities. Also, make sure that each and every employee is attending the security programs without fail. What are the best ways to minimize insider threats?

- Train your staff on basic security awareness regularly
- Commission a simulated phishing assessment
- Implementing penetration testing annually will help you find security improvements
- Perform a 24/7 network and endpoint monitoring to trace abnormal activities/behavior

7. Cyber Security Trends: Mobile Cybersecurity

For telecommuters, it’s normal to keep switching from laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other computing devices as per their comfort, using public wi-fi networks. As a result, mobile threats are continuously evolving and creating potential security vulnerabilities. The progressing rollout of 5G innovation has added up to the potential security weaknesses which should be fixed. Mobile threats include –

- Attackers are taking advantage of basic security weaknesses within Android devices.
- Particular spyware intended to track encrypted messaging applications.
- Mobile malware has several application scenarios ranging from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assaults to SMS spam and data theft.

Mobile cybersecurity is a wide subject that encompasses different components, for example, back-end/cloud security, network security, and an ever-increasing number of connected objects (i.e., the Internet of Things), like wearables and auto gadgets. You can’t protect these apps using a single method however, putting extra layers of security can help in maximizing the degree of safety.

Also Read – Understand the 5 Essential Pillars of Cloud Security

8. Cyber Security Trends: Artificial Intelligence

Humans can’t deal alone with cyberattacks. Therefore, they are progressively turning to AI and ML to sharpen the security infrastructure. By deploying AI technology, organizations have successfully mitigated cyber threats and saved a significant amount. AI has been vital in building automated security frameworks at a faster pace, face detection, natural language processing, and automatic threat detection. This is advantageous both for large organizations managing huge data and SMEs whose security groups may be under-resourced.

Till now, we saw how AI has helped organizations improve their security infrastructure. However, hackers are also making use of advanced technology (AI) to automate their attacks.

The functional utilization of AI are as yet developing – we expect security tools driven by AI and ML to keep on growing in sophistication and capability.

9. Cyber Security Trends: Multi-Factor Authentication Improving

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is viewed as the standard level of validation. Nonetheless, hackers are finding better approaches to encounter it – explicitly, authentication completed using SMS or calls. In 2020, Microsoft encouraged clients to stop using mobile-based MFA, suggesting rather utilizing application-based authenticators and security keys.

SMS has some in-fabricated security, yet the messages sent – including for validation purposes – are not encrypted. This implies that hackers can acquire one-time passwords in plain text. This presents a weakness for exercises like internet banking, where confirmation is frequently done through SMS. Therefore, we need a better procedure that can add up certain security layers to this.

10. Cyber Security Trends: Data Privacy as a Discipline

Various prominent cyber attacks have exposed millions of personally identifiable information records (PII). This, combined with the introduction of stricter information laws around the world, for example, the EU’s GDPR, implies data protection is progressively being prioritized.

Companies that don’t comply with the guidelines and customer expectations may lose consumer trust and position in the market. Information security influences practically all parts of any organization. Thus, enterprises need to emphasize more on hiring information protection officials and guaranteeing role-based access control, multifaceted verification, encryption in transit and at rest, network division, and external appraisals to identify areas of progress.

These were some of the latest trends in cyber security. We hope you found the blog useful and informative. Is your cybersecurity specialist team understaffed? Hire top-tier cybersecurity professionals on contractual/permanent roles with PeoplActive. For more details, email us at info@peoplactive.com or contact us.

Kubernetes and Container Security Checklist to Build Secure Apps

Posted on September 7, 2021November 22, 2024 by admin

Do you really need Kubernetes? What does Kubernetes(k8s) do, Anyway? Organizations are embracing the concept of microservices and containerization to develop applications faster and in more secure environments. Nothing can better manage containers than Kubernetes. Let’s find out what Kubernetes is, Kubernetes security checklist, benefits of Kubernetes, cloud container security checklist, and more.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is an open-source platform used to automate the containerized workload management. It automates the load balancing, manages service discovery, tracks resource allocation, and several other activities required for automatic containers deployment. Click here to find more about Kubernetes benefits.

Benefits of Kubernetes –

Portability and flexibility
Multi-cloud capability
Increased developer productivity
Reduce cloud complexity
Open source

What are Containers?

A container is an independent unit that contains code and all its dependencies together so the application can run quickly from one computing environment to another. But there is a cloud container security checklist that must be followed during the SDLC. We will explore those cloud container security points under the Kubernetes security guidelines later in this blog.

Benefits of Containers –

Less overhead: Containers require fewer resources as compared to the traditional environments since they do exclude operating system images.
Expanded portability: Applications running in containers can be deployed effectively to different OS and hardware platforms.
More reliable operation: Groups of devops engineers know applications in containers will run in the same manner, irrespective of the platform they are deployed.
Better productivity: Containers permit applications to be all the more quickly deployed, fixed or scaled.
Better application development: Containers support agile and DevOps endeavors to speed up development, test, and production cycles.

Also Read – Cyberattacks Are Inevitable. Is Your Company’s Cloud Storage Secure?

Kubernetes security checklist can be defined along 4 areas:

Infrastructure
Kubernetes
Containers
Applications

1. Infrastructure

Infrastructure level security is the basic yet the biggest thing to consider while developing an application. There are several factors that come under the infrastructure dimension. Let’s find more on this Kubernetes security checklist –

Networking

In Kubernetes, usually deployment is microservices, where all the microservices are communicating with one another or external applications. Therefore, it becomes imperative to limit the networking traffic and allow only what is useful. Networks should have lower-level access control at the hardware level and better control over the traffic in a shared environment. Here, you will consider the different aspects of network design to foster a protected and secure network. Explore what are specific guidelines under Kubernetes security checklist to protect network.

Isolation of control traffic – Isolating Kubernetes control-plane traffic from data-plane traffic helps avoid traffic overshadows which may cause temporary service disruption. This one of the Kubernetes security best practices.
Isolation of Storage traffic – There are chances that the infrastructure’s storage service may bring down the application network. To avoid that, organizations isolate storage traffic from regular data and control traffic.
Network Segmentation – Kubernetes hides the basic framework from users. Developers should keep this fact in mind while designing the network. Networking infrastructure should support both Layer 2 VLAN-based segmentation and Layer 3 VXLAN-based segmentation, to segregate the traffic between different tenants or applications.

Also read: Azure Firewall Architecture

Storage

Storage is more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Developers working on Kubernetes must implement below-given Kubernetes security checklist at the storage level.

Self Encrypting Drives: With these drives, encryption is offloaded to the disk itself. This guarantees that in the event that somebody gets physical admittance to the disk, data won’t be accessible to them. This is among Kubernetes security best practices followed by engineers.
Volume encryption: In a shared infrastructure, Kubernetes CSI deals with the lifecycle of the volume. This detaches the users from the hidden storage. Volume Encryption guarantees that individual volumes are secure against undesired access.
Quality of Service: In a shared infrastructure, I/O-heavy application may affect the efficiency of other applications. Therefore, the underlying storage infrastructure must have the capability to ensure a guaranteed service level to each tenant.

Host and Operating System

The next level of security practice in Infrastructure is the physical or virtual host itself. Engineers can secure the underlying foundation in different ways –

Enable Kernel Security – Enable security modules like AppArmor and SELinux to limit access to the applications, processes, and files in a system.
Audit Logging – Implementing audit logging helps in monitoring systems, debugging, and finding the security beaches.
Rotate Credentials – It is one of the best practices to rotate the user credentials frequently to avoid security breaches.
CIS Conformance Test – This test is done to ensure that all the security practices have been implemented successfully.
Lockdown the Nodes – All the nodes must be lockdown after they are provisioned and set up in the Kubernetes cluster.

2. Securing Kubernetes

After securing the infrastructure, the next level to secure is the Kubernetes installment process. In an open-source Kubernetes installation, there are many settings that need to be done manually as they are not on by default. Let find more on this second most important Kubernetes security checklist –

Secure etcd

etcd is a key-value store used as a backing store for cluster data in Kubernetes. It stores all states and secret data of Kubernetes which makes it very important.

Lockdown nodes within etcd with minimal access and must be Accessible to masters only.
Encrypt the drives containing the etcd data.
Ideally, etcd communication should be over TLS.

Securing Access to Kubernetes

Kubernetes offers access control solutions to secure the data. These can be broken down into the following Kubernetes security best practices as listed below.

Authentication – Kubernetes has several authentication modules: Client Certificates, Plain Tokens, Bootstrap Tokens, Passwords, and JWT Tokens. For production environments, enterprises will require an external user management and authentication plugin that supports these capabilities.
Authorization – Once users are connected to the Kubernetes cluster, it is important to authorize them for accessing the requested resources. Kubernetes supports multiple authorization modules including ABAC (attribute-based access control), RBAC (role-based access control), and webhooks.
Admission Control – It is used to intercept and control the Kubernetes requests and allows users to access only if they are authenticated and authorized.

Security Policies

Kubernetes provides few configurable policies which need to be aligned as per enterprise practices. They are not set by default but need to be defined by the users. Check out what are those practices in Kubernetes security framework.

Pod Security Policy – an admission control plugin to ensure that pods are admitted only when certain security guidelines are met.
Network Policies – By default, the pods are non-isolated. Therefore, it is important to set network policies to control the group of pods and communication between them.
Quality of Service – To guarantee that enough computing resources are provided to avoid noisy neighbors and starvation problems.

Also Read – Must-Have Steps in a Cloud Migration Checklist

3. Securing Containers

Containers need to be secured in both phases – while they are being developed and while they are running. Check out the key elements under this cloud container security checklist-

Container Image Security

The containers are based on an image file that is downloadable from an open library or can also be passed from one team to another. Team members should keep a track of where these images are coming from and what’s inside them. Let’s find what comes under this particular cloud container security checklist –

Image Vulnerability Scanning – Container images must be scanned using tools like Aqua, Twistlock, Clair, etc to detect the known vulnerabilities. These tools scan all the packages and dependencies in the image and find out the vulnerabilities.
Image Signing – Enterprises need to strictly admit images that are only signed via corporate Notary and maintaining a system of trust.
Control Privileges – One of the best practices to stay secure is to avoid using a root user in a container image. A user within containers must have the least privileges for system operation.

Running Containers

There are tools like Twistlock, Sysdig, Aqua, etc that offer threat prevention by monitoring network and system calls. Also, they are capable of intercepting and blocking unwanted calls to enforce security within the system.

These are the cloud container security checklist which developers must follow to build application quickly without any risk of cyber attacks.

4. Securing Applications

After ensuring the security of the infrastructure, Containers, Kubernetes installation process, the enterprise needs to focus on the security of the Application itself. Let’s find out how what include under this Kubernetes security checklist –

Application Access

TLS for Kubernetes Ingress – The most well-known practice for presenting your application outside of the cluster is utilizing an ingress controller like Envoy or NGINX. All external access to the ingress controller should be over TLS, and interaction between the ingress controller and application containers must utilize TLS too, despite the fact that there are situations where that isn’t required – relying upon the organization plan and corporate security policies.
Encrypt everything in Transit – Except for a couple of cases, the default behavior ought to encrypt everything in transit. It is prudent to encrypt network traffic between containers.

Communication

Networking: Service networks like Istio, Linkerd, and Consul give many Layer 7 networking features, permitting the limitation and control of traffic between various tenants.
Ports: It’s critical to just uncover the ports on your application/containers that are significant for communication to that application.

Application hardening

Analyse and evaluate source code on regular basis to guarantee it is following all the norms to avoid vulnerabilities and threats.
In general, developers depend on third-party applications and libraries to build their own applications and microservices. Therefore, it becomes of utmost importance to consistently examining code conditions for new vulnerabilities to guarantee that they are not a threat to the
Constantly testing applications against common attacks like DDoS attacks, SQL injection etc.

Do you think Kubernetes will remain massively important to organizations after ten years from now? Of course, it will be. It is the safest and quickest way to deploy cloud native applications. If you are developing cloud native apps with this approach, do follow the Kubernetes security guidelinesand Cloud container security checklist for faster deployment in a safe environment.

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