Cloud native development practices are introducing significant security challenges for organizations in the US, UK, France, and Germany, according to a recent study by Venafi.
Furthermore, this study, titled “The Impact of Machine Identities on the State of Cloud Native Security in 2023,” surveyed 800 security and IT leaders from large organizations in these countries. It revealed that 59% of respondents have faced security incidents in their Kubernetes or container environments, with network breaches, API vulnerabilities, and certificate misconfigurations being the primary causes.
Alarming statistics indicate that nearly a third (30%) of these organizations experienced data breaches or network compromises as a result of these incidents. The consequences were far-reaching, with 33% having to delay application launches, 32% enduring service disruptions, and 27% suffering compliance violations. The study also highlights a concerning lack of skills and awareness in the cloud native security domain.
A vast majority (90%) of respondents believe that security teams need a better grasp of cloud native environments, and 59% of those who migrated to the cloud admitted they lacked an understanding of the associated security risks.
According to Matt Barker, the Global Head of Cloud Native Services at Venafi, while cloud native development offers scalability and flexibility, many organizations underestimate the effort required to ensure efficiency and security in these modern environments. As the trend towards cloud native architecture continues, addressing these security gaps is imperative to prevent further breaches and outages, especially as cloud native technologies are expected to play an increasingly integral role in the future.