# Security in Cloud-Native Services: A Survey
## 3 Key Features for Security in Cloud-Native Services
Monitoring the security of dynamically scaling cloud-native services is essential but can be challenging. The increased number of instances, constant changes in the infrastructure, and complex network connections make it difficult to maintain visibility and detect potential security incidents. Implementing robust security monitoring tools and practices, such as centralized logging, real-time threat detection, and anomaly detection, can help identify security breaches and enable prompt incident response. * **Disaster Recovery [73], Incident Response [74], and Data Backup [75]:** Establishing comprehensive disaster recovery plans and incident response procedures ensures that organizations can quickly recover from cybersecurity incidents and minimize their impact on operations. Regularly testing and updating these plans is crucial to maintaining their effectiveness. Furthermore, cloud-native services should have regular backup schedules, reliable backup storage solutions, and well-documented recovery procedures. * **Process Automation [76]:** Process automation is essential for enhancing cybersecurity in cloud-native services. It reduces human error, ensures consistency, and standardizes security practices. Automation enables quick detection and response to security events, supports scalability [77], and facilitates continuous compliance. It also integrates threat intelligence for proactive threat hunting and faster incident response. Overall, automation strengthens security, protects data, and mitigates risks in the dynamic cloud-native environment. As such, in the context of facilitating secure cloud-native services, process automation refers to areas such as service orchestration, mitigation of incidents, security management, security checks, and static application testing. * **Vulnerability Management [78]:** With the dynamic nature of cloud-native environments, vulnerability management becomes complex. Traditional vulnerability management practices may not be sufficient due to the large number of instances and rapid deployment cycles. Identifying and patching vulnerabilities in a timely manner becomes crucial to preventing potential exploits. Continuous vulnerability scanning, automated patch management [79], and integration with security tools and processes can help address this challenge. * **Configuration Management [80]:** Cloud-native services rely heavily on configurations that define their behavior and security settings. However, managing and enforcing consistent configurations can be challenging in a dynamic and scalable environment. Configuration drift, where instances deviate from their desired configurations over time, can lead to security vulnerabilities. Implementing configuration management tools and practices that automate configuration enforcement and regularly verify compliance can help mitigate this challenge. * **Continuous Security Testing [81]:** Regular security testing [82], including vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and security code reviews, should be integrated into the development lifecycle of cloud-native services. Adopting a DevSecOps approach, where security is incorporated throughout the software development and deployment processes, helps identify and address vulnerabilities early on and ensures that security measures are continuously tested and validated. To overcome the challenges associated with maintaining a consistent security posture in dynamic and scalable cloud-native environments, organizations should prioritize security considerations throughout their cloud-native development and deployment processes. Emphasizing automation, configuration management, vulnerability management, and Continuous Security monitoring helps ensure that security controls are consistently applied, vulnerabilities are promptly addressed, and potential security incidents are detected and responded to in a timely manner. The remainder of this work is dedicated to exploring numerous solutions that can be leveraged in order to establish the aforementioned features.