# What is Cloud-Native Security?

> Cloud-native security is the application of security engineering and operations to cloud-native architectures and delivery models, including loosely coupled services, containers, declarative application programming interfaces (APIs), immutable infrastructure that is replaced rather than modified, orchestration, and extensive automation.

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## Content

It protects the development, distribution, deployment, and runtime lifecycle while accounting for short-lived workloads, service identities, shared platforms, and rapidly changing dependencies.

Cloud-native describes an architectural and operating model, not simply the location of a workload; these patterns can run in public, private, hybrid, or on-premises environments. Security therefore connects software supply-chain controls, platform policy, workload isolation, service-to-service authorization, observability, resilience, and recovery.

### Key points

- **Lifecycle and supply chain:** Protect source, pipelines, dependencies, images and other artifacts, deployment definitions, registries, admission decisions, and promotion between environments.
- **Identity and policy:** Use workload and service identities, least privilege, short-lived credentials, authenticated interfaces, policy as code, and segmented communication rather than trusting network location.
- **Runtime and resilience:** Harden orchestrators and hosts, isolate workloads, monitor application and control-plane behavior, manage vulnerabilities, and test containment, restoration, and credential rotation.
- **Important limitation:** Cloud-native technology is not inherently secure. Ephemeral components can hinder investigation, automation can spread mistakes quickly, and concentrated control planes or shared platforms can create broad failure impact.

### Related terms

[Cloud security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-security/>) · [Cloud security architecture](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-security-architecture/>) · [Container security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/container-security/>) · [Serverless security](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/serverless-security/>) · [Cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP)](<https://yellowcube.eu/glossary/cloud-native-application-protection-platform/>)

### Sources

[Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), Who We Are](https://www.cncf.io/about/who-we-are/) · [CNCF Technical Advisory Group Security, Cloud Native Security Whitepaper, Second Edition](https://tag-security.cncf.io/community/resources/security-whitepaper/v2/cloud-native-security-whitepaper/) · [NIST IR 8505, A Data Protection Approach for Cloud-Native Applications](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/ir/8505/final)

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