8 ways to achieve agile security

This post was originally published here by gregg rodriguez.

Between 2017 and 2021, worldwide spending on cybersecurity will top $1 trillion, according to predictions from Cybersecurity Ventures. The barrage of cyberattacks on enterprises and new threat vectors within networks due to the move to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), or public cloud, makes the need for agile security more important than ever for CIOs and CISOs managing cybersecurity.

Thanks to AWS and Azure, anyone can build their own applications or procure infrastructure by simply subscribing to IaaS services, with or without the permission or assistance of an IT team.

While that’s great news for application owners who desire agility and faster time to market, it can be extremely challenging for security professionals tasked with protecting assets in cloud infrastructure environments.

Agile security for IaaS

If you are already using IaaS or are thinking about it, consider the following ways to help you begin driving an approach for more agile security within your organization:

1. Standardize on core security principles: Make security an integral part of the development pipeline from day one so that your teams can address any vulnerabilities that arise as soon as they are detected, at any point in the process.
2. Introduce a DevSecOps approach to security teams: In order to move on projects and continuously iterate and deploy new products and solutions, ensure rapid response teams are running 24/7, and that product security teams are aligned with the same trajectory as the rest of the organization.
3. Adopt “API-driven security”: By taking the human element away from the process, you establish a continuous integration methodology, which allows for consistency of delivery. For example, if a security policy needed to be adjusted, you do it once, thus eliminating inconsistency in the system or unnecessary outages.
4. Create a security rapid response team: Fast response times are imperative to giving a tech company competitive advantage. To enact “security at speed,” implement continuous measuring, testing and monitoring in an effort to iterate quickly.
5. Make safe use of public cloud: Deploy cloud-based services to create the modern, agile application environment your developers and IT departments need to innovate faster and more continuously. Use security best practices based on the Shared Responsibility Model to avoid cloud misconfigurations and reduce risk.
6. Deploy a code-driven security infrastructure: Security shouldn’t have to be built up from scratch over and over. Deployment of a code-driven security infrastructure allows for the repeatable and automated build and management of security systems.
7. Prioritize visibility and management: End-to-end visibility allows you to take a granular approach to managing configuration of its open-source tools that have helped the security team keep track of deployment, usage, and management of cloud services.
8. Adopt elasticity and automation: It’s essential that your tools can monitor, detect, and defend your workloads but also be able to expand as your usage does to ensure security from deployment to operations.

Halo Cloud Secure for agile security

Learn more about how Halo Cloud Secure can help you gain the critical comprehensive security and compliance visibility you need to effectively monitor and protect your IaaS environment, while driving a more agile approach to security. Download our product brief.