Containers are standard units of software that consolidate everything necessary to run an application into a single, standalone entity. A container encapsulates the code, runtime, system tools, libraries, and settings necessary to run an application. Using containers enhances portability and facilitates a program’s journey through its development and implementation cycles. 

Software containers have become increasingly popular. Many organizations have realized the benefits of containerization and how they are crucial for their business activities. Unfortunately, as it is the case of many technologies, security of these containers has been somehow neglected. This can be as a result of lack of understanding by security teams who fail to take note of these technologies and the issues that they bring with regard to security. To understand the areas that are most vulnerable, you must first understand how these containers operate.

The cloud offers many benefits to corporations looking to streamline and reduce the cost of their IT systems. Taking advantage of the economies of scale provided by cloud providers is one of the driving forces behind the move to the cloud. There are a number of methods that can be employed when migrating an application from its current location to the cloud.

StackRox, a leading container and Kubernetes security organization, announced on January 23, 2019 the 2.4 release of its Container Security Platform. The new release allows businesses to quickly manage risks based on context and leverage Kubernetes for scalable policy enforcement. The recent enhancements focus on deployment-centric visibility, multi-factor risk profiling and network policy management.