In today’s digital landscape, open source software (OSS) plays a crucial role in enabling collaboration and technical advancements. According to David Harmon, director of software engineering at AMD, OSS allows users to evaluate the code themselves, ensuring its legitimacy and functionality for their specific needs.

However, the widespread use of OSS also comes with security risks that organizations need to be aware of. Hidden vulnerabilities within OSS can be exploited by cyber attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems or networks. These vulnerabilities can even be intentionally implanted by malicious actors, compromising an organization’s security.

Vlad Korsunsky, corporate vice president of cloud and enterprise security at Microsoft, highlights the challenges that open source presents in terms of security. The difficulty in verifying and tracing changes to OSS code can increase an organization’s attack surface, making it easier for threats to go unnoticed.

As organizations increasingly adopt cloud-native applications running on OSS, such as Linux, they enjoy benefits like flexibility, faster software releases, and enhanced infrastructure management. However, this shift also introduces new security challenges, potentially exposing blind spots in security posture or overwhelming security teams with continuous alerts and tasks.

Harmon emphasizes the importance of evolving security practices with the move to the cloud, as threat models change and security becomes a top priority. With the majority of enterprises utilizing multi-cloud environments, the demand for robust cloud security measures is higher than ever.

According to Flexera’s State of the Cloud 2024 survey, 89% of enterprises face challenges related to cloud spend and security. Additionally, Tenable’s 2024 Cloud Security Outlook reports that 95% of surveyed organizations experienced a cloud breach in the previous 18 months.

Code-to-Cloud Security

Addressing security threats in today’s digital landscape requires more than just surface-level testing. Organizations must identify the root causes of security issues to effectively mitigate risks. However, this poses a challenge for IT security teams, who must balance security measures with potential impacts on business functionality.