According to Forrester, 71% of DevOps teams leverage containers and microservices to deliver applications.
These facts warrant a closer look at container security, with a focus on how DevOps can provide a robust framework for the entire software engineering and delivery workflow.
With continuous delivery and high software quality in place, organizations can bring out new solutions and features to market faster, but the big dilemma is to steer clear of a trade-off between speed and security.
A Sysdig report from 2023 says a staggering 87% of container images that run in production come with critical or high-severity vulnerabilities.
While the concept of containerization itself addresses a good deal of security concerns, it also introduces new vulnerabilities.
While container security tools help strike that balance through image scanning, secrets management, runtime protection, and compliance, there's a more proactive strategy.
Shifting security left: When security is taken into account and implemented from the first stages of the project, it doesn't become an afterthought but instead an integral part of the development process itself.
This helps catch and fix security issues early, meaning that fewer of them end up in a production-ready deployment.
Automation: Automating software vulnerability checks, monitoring running containers, and enforcing project and industry-relevant security practices can greatly lessen both the workload of the developers and the chances of something malicious slipping past the development or security teams.
Increased collaboration: By breaking down information silos between different organizational units, it's possible to enhance the overall security of the software development process and foster a culture of shared responsibility.
While there are many steps to container security in the context of DevOps, there are a few universally held best practices that all developers should incorporate into their development lifecycle.
A primary practice is to secure container runtimes to the highest degree.
The use of verified software and container images for development reduces the risk of malicious code or vulnerabilities lurking in the final product.
Even official software can have security loopholes, so regular vulnerability scanning can help detect and fix issues before deployment.
It's also hard to overestimate the importance of actively monitoring and responding to security threats after the deployment is complete.
Security as an overarching concept is a complex set of ever-changing challenges, and while containerization does help remedy some issues at a fundamental level, it also introduces a host of new attack vectors.
Security has to be integrated into the fabric of software development at early stages, and this is where DevOps comes into play.
Organizations can get a lot of mileage out of automation tools to significantly reduce the risks associated with deploying and running containers, but the onus is on developers to keep it that way throughout the software engineering lifecycle.
DevOps best practices can harden the security of your organization's container environment, both on-premises and in the cloud.
David runs Privacy-PC.com and MacSecurity.net projects that present expert opinions on contemporary information security matters, including social engineering, malware, penetration testing, threat intelligence, online privacy, and white hat hacking.
This Cyber News was published on www.tripwire.com. Publication date: Mon, 01 Jul 2024 10:43:17 +0000