Zero Trust with Micro-segmentation: A Software-Defined Approach to Securing Cloud-Native Applications
Abstract
This paper advocates for micro-segmentation as a foundational element of zero-trust security in cloud environments. We explore how software-defined networking (SDN) enables dynamic micro-segmentation, enhancing protection for cloud-native applications and mitigating the impact of breaches. Zero Trust is a modern security paradigm that eliminates the notion of implicit trust within a network by enforcing strict access controls and continuous authentication. When applied to cloud-native applications, a software-defined approach to Zero Trust and micro-segmentation leverages virtualization, containerization, and dynamic policy enforcement to secure workloads.
Keywords
Zero Trust, Micro-segmentation, Software-Defined Security, Cloud-Native Applications
References
- C. Abdelmassih, "Container Orchestration in Security Demanding Environments at the Swedish Police Authority," ed, 2018.
- O. Mämmelä, J. Hiltunen, J. Suomalainen, K. Ahola, P. Mannersalo, and J. Vehkaperä, "Towards micro-segmentation in 5G network security," in European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC 2016) Workshop on Network Management, Quality of Service and Security for 5G Networks, 2016.
- C. DeCusatis, P. Liengtiraphan, A. Sager, and M. Pinelli, "Implementing zero trust cloud networks with transport access control and first packet authentication," in 2016 IEEE International Conference on Smart Cloud (SmartCloud), 2016: IEEE, pp. 5-10.
- R. Vanickis, P. Jacob, S. Dehghanzadeh, and B. Lee, "Access control policy enforcement for zero-trust-networking," in 2018 29th Irish Signals and Systems Conference (ISSC), 2018: IEEE, pp. 1-6.
- K. A. Torkura, M. I. Sukmana, and C. Meinel, "Integrating continuous security assessments in microservices and cloud native applications," in Proceedings of the10th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing, 2017, pp. 171-180.
- S. Brunner, M. Blöchlinger, G. Toffetti, J. Spillner, and T. M. Bohnert, "Experimental evaluation of the cloud-native application design," in 2015 IEEE/ACM 8th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing (UCC), 2015: IEEE, pp. 488-493.
- K. A. Torkura, M. I. Sukmana, F. Cheng, and C. Meinel, "Leveraging cloud native design patterns for security-as-a-service applications," in 2017 IEEE International Conference on Smart Cloud (SmartCloud), 2017: IEEE, pp. 90-97.
- D. R. Bharadwaj, A. Bhattacharya, and M. Chakkaravarthy, "Cloud threat defense–A threat protection and security compliance solution," in 2018 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing in Emerging Markets (CCEM), 2018: IEEE, pp. 95-99.
- J. Garrison and K. Nova, Cloud native infrastructure: Patterns for scalable infrastructure and applications in a dynamic environment. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.", 2017.
- D. Pilone, B. Mclaughlin, and P. Plofchan, "Lessons Learned while Exploring Cloud-Native Architectures for NASA EOSDIS Applications and Systems," in 2017 Winter ESIP Meeting, 2017, no. GSFC-E-DAA-TN38031.