Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Threat actors exploiting cloud services are keeping me very busy in these final days of this troubled 2022. The main character of this Cloud Threats Memo is MuddyWater (also known as Earth Vetala, MERCURY, Static Kitten, Seedworm, and TEMP.Zagros), one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups, active since at least 2017, and believed to be a subordinate element within Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

As the need for a new security strategy grows, we use cloud-native security platforms (CNSP). Cloud services like containers, serverless security, platform as a service (PaaS), and microservices are the building blocks of cloud-native architectures. Because these services are loosely coupled- that is, they are not hardwired to any infrastructure components developers can frequently make changes without harming other parts of the application or other team members’ projects.

Cloud transformation and work from anywhere changed how security needs to work. Surveying done for the Verizon Mobile Security Index showed that 79% of IT and security professionals agree recent changes to working practices had adversely affected their organization’s Cybersecurity. One key reason modern working practices make security more challenging is each new SaaS application adopted by employees expands the attack surface and opens a new door for potential risks.

Live conferences are finally back, and the 11th annual AWS re:Invent did not disappoint. After a virtual 2020 and an in-person reduced-sized edition in 2021, there were more than 52,000 (yes — 52,000!) smiling faces milling about this year’s conference in Las Vegas. As per usual, re:Invent was full of exciting product news and updates. Here are the major announcements that got our attention and some of the things Snyk was up to in Vegas.

Azure Bicep is getting more popular by the day and is rapidly becoming the replacement for Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates. In this post, I am going to go over some security fundamentals when using Bicep. If you are not familiar with Bicep then I recommend taking a look at the Microsoft Learn documentation to find out more.

Starting January 1, 2023, Netskope will offer customers Cloud Exchange (CE), its industry leading integration platform, as a managed service. This managed service will enable a much larger customer base to benefit from CE, including customers lacking in-house resources or preferring to consume CE as a managed service.