An overview of policy as code

1. An overview of policy as code

Automation is a process that is becoming more relevant to the world of cloud security. Working in the cloud involves knowing how different components are automated. As a cloud security professional, it’s important for you to use those components proficiently to ensure they are fully secured. In this video, you'll explore how automation concepts are used in policy as code. In a cloud security team, you’ll have lots of considerations to take into account when developing software. Following policy and compliance conditions is an important task that is easily lost in the activity of building new applications. Traditionally, the cloud security team creates policies in environments where version control isn’t possible. And without automation, testing policies uses up a lot of time and effort. Also, problems happen when organizations don’t have a unified approach to implementing compliance security checks. These problems can include inconsistent scanning and manual application of security practices. To help prevent these problems, a security team implements policy as a code. Policy as code, also known as PaC, is the use of code to define, manage, and automate policies, rules, and conditions using a high-level programming language. PaC enables developers to provision and manage their policies to meet organizational requirements. PaC also enforces best practices for compliance management. An advantage to using PaC is strengthening the security in the DevSecOps lifecycle. Automated vulnerability scanning provides developers with continuous feedback about security concerns and red flags that may lead to compliance errors. The security team can also code triggers that alert developers to take immediate action on incoming threats. The security team can automate these triggers, which removes the manual decisions of what policy to test and when to test that policy’s integrity. Consider this example. You’re designing an app for users in the United States that tracks the users’ heartbeat. Users can choose to have the app send this data directly to their healthcare provider. Since the app interacts with sensitive health information, you must enforce policies that follow HIPAA guidelines. You choose to code these policies to determine misconfigurations, identify vulnerabilities, and automate versioning. Shortly after your team creates the triggers, you’re notified of a security vulnerability and policy violation. This allows your team to take appropriate steps to resolve the issue. Now, you’re able to better maintain user security as they monitor their heartbeat. Your app also maintains necessary HIPAA compliance. Security is an important aspect of PaC, but there are a lot more advantages to code policies and rules. Organizations that adopt PaC enjoy several benefits. Earlier you learned the ability to achieve version control is advantageous. First, developers can easily track code updates and, second, they can roll back revisions when needed. A third version control benefit is to improve visibility. With version control in place, project stakeholders can monitor the policies’ progression and ensure that policies are appropriately incorporated. A fourth important benefit is to increase efficiency. Automating testing and removing manual policy enforcement enables developers to quickly share and scale coded policies. With greater efficiency comes the fifth benefit, which is to facilitate collaboration. Access to the shared policies as code encourages and simplifies collaboration amongst the engineering team and beyond. Centralizing rules and policies allows stakeholders to work seamlessly together. You’ve gained a deeper understanding of how impactful coded and automated policies can be. You also explored how PaC practices provide security to developers and end users. So take a deep breath and rest assured you know how to use PaC in your next role in cloud security and keep the business fully secured.

2. Let's practice!

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