If you’re looking to double down on improving your container security, there are a few approaches you can take to ensure you’re getting the most out of the security implementation plan, allowing you to use the necessary tools to monitor and audit your data.
Although container security has been a viable option for many years, it has recently begun to pick up momentum due to its simple code, useful features, and cheaper development cost, allowing coders and software developers to effectively build a secure environment for themselves and others, using various tools that come with cloud’s build-in security features.
However, if you’re looking to maximize security using containers, you will need to research the tools that become accessible through your cloud providers, such as Azure Security and Amazon Inspector, since some are designed specifically for general purposes and may not be compatible with containers.
Let’s explore some of the best ways to improve container security.
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Things to Know Beforehand
The first step you would need to take to become a professional at improving container security is to become familiar with all of the security tools that come from your cloud provider, allowing you to improve your foundational knowledge before you can begin the important tasks, such as securing the build environment.
Secondly, you must look at some of the policies that protect your resources and allow you to set up control groups so you can easily block root access at your discretion.
Unless you’re proficient at learning new software, you will find it extremely difficult to manage your container security optimally since there are many details involved in choosing the project or tool, including Bench Security or seccomp, which may have similar features that are important across all security channels.
One of the best features that stick out is identity and authentication, allowing you to control the access yourself and build the apps you want while letting certain users use this feature for optimal security.
Another important aspect of container security is the ability to evaluate and inspect log files, allowing you to filter them according to your security needs and what information you want them to present.
And the last thing you need to know before you can begin to directly improve your container security is how to use API keys and SSL certificates effectively so that your information stays encrypted and protected from external threats.
Let’s now consider how you can directly improve container security.
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Explore The Best Ways to Protect The Build Environment
Since containers provide excellent security options for coders and developers who are looking to protect the build environment, they often implement security strategies in the process of creating a container, which is much more efficient than waiting until the end before the project gets coded properly.
You may be wondering what the best security tool is when seeking to protect your build environment, and the answer will naturally come to you once you’ve identified the workflows that will optimize your apps and keep them secure.
What you essentially need to find is a healthy balance between security and utility since orchestration is not the only issue you need to focus on.
When setting up access controls on applications for yourself and users, you may want to create control parameters with limitations and access points, which are relevant in keeping security tight and contained.
Another solution for optimizing your container security is to employ runtime application self-protection (RASP) techniques, which work well with your built environment for integration and scanning purposes.
This allows you to detect and eliminate potential threats and analyze them so you know where they came from and what it was going to do.
Ensure That The Hosts For Your Containers Are Protected
You may want to use Linux to stay protected against potential cyberattacks and employ docker control groups according to the specific policies you choose while separating the containers so they do not infect one another.
You may choose to only use a few containers at most for a single host, which is an effective tactic to ensure private connections.
You may also opt for segregating the workloads by implementing various strategies, mechanisms, and access levels, which significantly improves your container security.
Protect Your Container Content
You might want to use image source integrity protection because it informs you of any changes made to an image since your staff members may take certain security measures, and it’s important for you to stay in the loop.
It is also in your best interests to opt for scanning mechanisms, which ensure that your containers stay protected against infections.
You must find ways to automate these scans and find the right images from trustworthy sources, allowing you to stay protected against any errors you or your staff might make accidentally.
However, there are some instances where your container may be left unprotected, which occurs in certain shops, and you might not see a problem with it.
You might have secured and controlled the container parameters and boundaries effectively, allowing your app code to steer clear of your container code, which is often a result of using the best security tools and having confidence in their ability to keep your container safe and secure at all times.
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Conclusion
If you’re looking to purchase certain security tools to optimize your container security, such as Anchore, Apparmor, or Cilium, you may want to choose reliable vendors such as Alertlogic and AquaSec, who often provide trial periods ranging from one week to several months, ensuring that you get a firsthand experience of their security tools to form an opinion around what works the best.
However, be wary of complex pricing models since they are not usually apparent on the vendor’s website and maybe choose to begin with open source instead of starting off from the commercial avenues.
Figure out your budgeting requirements for choosing the best commercial products since you will want to find options that provide detailed tutorials, making it possible for you to understand a tool properly before deciding that it’s the best choice.
Further blogs within this Container Security: Ways to Improve it category.