Tigera Update Makes Securing Containers Simpler
Tigera today announced a range of additional capabilities within its cloud-native application protection platform to secure container applications before and after they are deployed.
Utpal Bhatt, chief marketing officer for Tigera, says these capabilities—added to the Calico Cloud platform which is based on open source Calico virtual networking software—simplify the process of securing modern application environments by application development and cybersecurity teams.
New capabilities added to the platform include an ability to scan container images as they are being built as well as providing an ability to leverage machine learning algorithms and proprietary Tigera rulesets to prevent container images that have encapsulated malware from running.
In addition, Calico Cloud provides visibility into vulnerable workloads to better prioritize remediation efforts along with admission control policies that can be applied at runtime.
As organizations embrace cloud-native applications built using containers, their approach to application security is evolving, noted Bhatt. In fact, organizations that build cloud-native applications based on containers are more likely to have embraced DevSecOps best practices to ensure application security, he adds.
The Calico Cloud platform not only enables development teams to assume more responsibility for application security, it also allows cybersecurity teams to address any issues that might arise at runtime, says Bhatt.
It’s still early days as far as the adoption of DevSecOps best practices is concerned. However, it’s clear organizations are going to require additional tools and platforms to improve application security. The challenge is finding a way to integrate those tools and platforms within a DevOps workflow without slowing down the rate at which applications are built and deployed.
Far too many developers still assume that because a container only runs for a few seconds a cybercriminal will not have the time to discover and exploit it. Cybercriminals, however, are now continuously scanning for container vulnerabilities within software supply chains. The challenge is that the defensible attack surface continues to exponentially increase as more containers are employed. In fact, one of the things that make container security so challenging is how dynamic the application environment becomes as containers are ripped and replaced, notes Bhatt.
Unfortunately, it’s already been shown that it’s relatively simple for cybercriminals to take over an entire host once a container is compromised. In fact, it’s not uncommon for cybercriminals to monitor activity for months before launching an attack.
On the plus side, there is now a lot more focus on securing software supply chains in the wake of a series of high-profile breaches. Historically, funding for application security has been sparse largely because responsibility for it has tended to fall between the proverbial cracks. Cybersecurity teams assumed development teams were responsible for securing applications, while developers with little to no cybersecurity expertise assumed that cybersecurity teams would secure applications after they were deployed.
As more responsibility for application security shifts further left toward developers, however, the overall state of application security should finally improve as modern applications replace legacy monolithic applications.
