What is Cloud-Native Security?

Cloud-native security encompasses the practices, tools, and architectures designed to protect applications built using cloud-native technologies like containers, microservices, and serverless computing. It requires a shift from traditional perimeter-based security.

Cloud-Native Components

Containers

Docker, containerd
Image security
Runtime protection

Orchestration

Kubernetes security
Pod security policies
Network policies

Microservices

Service mesh security
API security
Inter-service authentication

Serverless

Function security
Event-driven security
Execution environment

Security Considerations

Build Time

Secure base images
Vulnerability scanning
Secret management
SBOM generation

Deploy Time

Admission control
Configuration validation
Policy enforcement
Image signing

Runtime

Workload protection
Network segmentation
Behavioral monitoring
Incident response

Key Technologies

Container Security

Image scanning (Trivy, Snyk)
Runtime security (Falco)
Registry security

Kubernetes Security

RBAC
Network policies
Pod security standards
Secret management

Service Mesh

mTLS (Istio, Linkerd)
Traffic policies
Observability