Cloud, DevSecOps and Network Security, all together

The advent of technology, along with bringing efficiency in our lives, has brought upon us cyber warfare as well. The threat of cyber-attacks is multiplying with each passing day. It has just been a few days since we saw Dawn of 2020 and to date, 61 cyber security incidents around the world have already been disclosed, bringing the total tally of breached records to 1,505,372,820. (Source)

As per prediction of Professor Kerem Alkin, the head of Turkey’s Mobile Service Providers Association (MOBILSIAD), business operations are expected to lose $6 trillion by 2020 around the world due to cyber-attacks. Discussing the number of devices connected to the internet, Prof. Alkin said that the number will cross 200 billion mark and people are estimated to use over 300 billion passwords in daily life. The increasing number of cyber-attacks make network security our today’s topic of discussion. (Source)

How did network Security originate?

In 1988, reportedly 60,000 computers were attached to the Internet, most were minicomputers & professional workstations. On “2 Nov 1988”, many computers started to perform sluggishly, as they were running a malicious code that was attaching itself to other computers; it was the first internet "computer worm". This is exactly how the foundation for network security took place.

Types of Network Security Attacks:

Network Security has many layers of threat detections, together with firewall protection and is basically prone to different types of malicious attacks. Some of the most prevalent types which any IT professional should be aware of are as following:

1. Data Theft: The risks escalate when an attacker uses their unauthorized access to attain private information from the network.
2. Insider Threat: Employees within an organization use their own ways to penetrate through the network to access sensitive company information.
3. Malware Attacks: A malicious code inserts unauthorized software onto a network device and these attacks can disperse very easily from one device to another.
4. Password Attacks: By guessing, stealing or cracking a password to access private user information.

Solutions provided by Network Security:

One security strategy won’t be enough to safeguard a network effectively. A combination of different types of techniques will confirm that your network is as sheltered as possible. This will ultimately help to meet the unique needs of organization. To prevent malicious attacks, there are different types of solutions that can help in network security.

1. Antivirus Software: Malicious programs with the help of antivirus softwares can be scanned which is to be installed on all network devices. It should be updated regularly to fix issues or vulnerabilities.
2. Encryption: A kind of a process of scrambling data so that invaders are unable to view and decode it.
3. Firewalls: These software programs block unsolicited traffic from entering a network
4. Multi-Factor Authentication: Users must have two isolated methods of identification to log into an account (for example, typing a password and after that typing a numeric code.

Cloud Security in demand:

Cloud security is the protection of data stored online from theft, leakage, and deletion. Methods of cloud security comprise of firewalls, tokenization, VPN, penetration testing & avoiding public internet acquaintances or connections.

According to Kaspersky Lab, around 75 % of companies are likely to transfer applications to the cloud in the upcoming years. We can expect cloud-based security to continue to thrive better in 2020.Cloud-security platform is expected to become a $460 million industry (Source).

Network Security interlinked with Cloud Computing:

Cloud security aids network users to protect their network since cloud security is more secure and more scalable. Traditional IT Security can be related to slow scaling, higher management costs, with internal data centers that can be less resilient and more prone to cyber-attack as compared to cloud-based security.

How can DevSecOps act as a prevention process?

By using DevSecOps, major damages such as “company’s repute” & less “customer satisfaction” can be avoided and can serve as a prevention process in network security. DevSecOps framework uses DevSecOps tools to guarantee security to be added into applications during development & deployment phase instead of being bolted and added haphazardly afterwards. This concept was introduced in SDLCphase to bring development, operations & security to be together under one shade. It aims to embed security in every portion of the development process.

 How are security benefits achieved by DevSecOps:

DevSecOps can lead us to many advantages in terms of security i.e.

1. Better speed & agility for security teams
2. Timely identification of vulnerabilities included in the code
3. A capability to respond to changes and fluctuations rapidly
4. Increase collaboration and communication among teams
5. More chances for quality assurance testing and also in automation builds

The security challenge in the cloud is to deal with cloud based attacks while at the same time, monitor and check day to day activities ensuring users that their information is secured.

A Severe Shortage of Network Security Professionals:

As we know, cyber-crime epidemic has accelerated rapidly in recent years while companies & governments have tried to hire enough competent professionals to protect against the growing threat. This trend is estimated to continue in 2020. Some estimates portray 1 million unfilled positions globally (a potential increase of 3.5 million by 2021).

The severe shortage of trained cyber security professionals can be alarming. That’s why the following certifications are introduced to deal with the most critical issues faced by cyber security professionals:  

1. CCNA Cyber Ops Certification (Source)
2. CCNA Security Certification Training (Source)

 Cyber risk insurance will become more common:

Cyber insurance will increasingly become part of the operational risk strategy. However, the insurance industry needs to adapt products specific to client needs and not just provide extra extensions to existing risks. Cyber insurance might cover for loss of reputation & trust with their customers or improvement costs for security infrastructure in the upcoming years.

Conclusion:

As the list of security-training companies & security certifications is rising, employment in this space is almost there for you if you are qualified. You can join the following courses to start:

1. CCNA Cyber Ops Certification (Source)
2. CCNA Security Certification Training (Source)