4 Ways To Secure Microsoft Azure Containers Instances

Working and doing business in the cloud is pretty common these days. Microsoft Azure is a versatile public cloud platform that offers plenty of options when it comes to deployment. Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service are all available within the service’s framework, making it incredibly useful for a variety of business applications. Whether you’re using it for analytics, software solutions, or everyday business applications, Azure has a lot to offer. One key aspect of using Azure involves container instances and keeping them secure. Here’s a quick guide to four ways to do exactly that.

Understanding Microsoft Azure Containers

Containers are essentially a bundle containing an application’s code, config files, and libraries. It’s a self-contained system that enables developers to deploy applications across multiple environments. When you move an application across different environments, configuration issues and other differences might prevent that program from running properly. Containers are similar to virtual machines but much more versatile. When using them in the Microsoft Azure environment, keeping them secure is extremely important. 

Safeguard Your Credentials

Protecting your credentials is probably one of the most important things you can do to secure your azure container instances. Think about it this way: your containers are going to proliferate and spread across several regions/clusters within Azure. Logins, passwords, and tokens need to be secure to set it up so that only authorized users can access them. So how do you go about maintaining credential security? There’s a lot of common sense involved, but the key is inventorying credential secrets and then using management tools especially for container platforms. You’ll also need to encrypt databases and create role-based access. Following a few basic precautions for your credentials can prevent compromise or other issues in the long run.

Use A Private Registry

In computing, the registry is essential to a computer’s function. It allocates the machine’s resources, provides a location for custom settings, and much more. In Microsoft Azure, the registry lets you build, store, and manage aspects of your container. This could be images of the container or artifacts inside of the private registry covering all deployment methods. Using a private registry allows you to retrieve container workloads quickly. You can also use role-based access and scale the registry to your needs, whether it’s a small project or a global application (a single registry can serve multiple hosts regardless of location). Since a private azure container registry handles Docker images and other related formats, it can be very versatile over time.

Use A Security Program

When it comes to securing azure container instances, you can always use a specialized security program. Some software solutions exist to help keep container instances more secure. By incorporating the software solution into your Azure activities, you can help secure your containers better. How? Using a security program with your containers requires injecting the security libraries into the image code. This effectively creates built-in protection for the container image itself. Once the container is deployed, it’ll communicate with the security software’s dashboard so you can see what’s happening as it’s happening. In this manner, you can block malicious code from entering your containers and understand the nature of any threats from the dashboard. It’s easy, convenient, and self-contained, ultimately bringing an additional layer of security to your Azure container instances as you deploy them.

Check Logs

Keeping tabs on your logs is always a good practice. Logs provide key insight into events and other pertinent information. Finding information via logs requires first obtaining/generating log analytics security credentials, followed by deploying a container group. After a few minutes, your log files will appear in your Azure portal. As you peruse the logs, you can query them for specific events using language similar to the following:

ContainerInstanceLog_CL

| where (ContainerGroup_s == “mycontainergroup001”)

| where (TimeGenerated > ago(1h))

Logs are a useful way to monitor your Azure container instances after they’re deployed and to help find any potential security or function issues as you work. 

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