Palo Alto Networks Introduces Prisma Cloud Software Composition Analysis

With open-source software, developers can create cloud-native applications more quickly and modularly without having to start from scratch every time. The Unit 42 Cloud Threat Report, 2H 2021, discovered, however, that open source software frequently has known vulnerabilities, leaving businesses vulnerable to serious threats. To aid developers in making secure use of open source software elements, Palo Alto Networks released the first context-aware programs effectively analysis (SCA) tool. With the addition of SCA to Prisma® Cloud, Palo Alto Networks further proves its position as the industry’s leading supplier of cloud-native security. 

However, the runtime context that would be useful for fixing vulnerabilities is absent from traditional SCA solutions, which are stand-alone products capable of generating many alerts. Developers & security teams now have a proactive way to uncover & prioritize vulnerabilities that could have an effect on the application lifecycle thanks to SCA’s integration into the Prisma Cloud platform (i.e., code, build, deploy and run). Before applications are deployed to a production environment, Prisma Cloud SCA identifies and fixes open source software vulnerabilities by analyzing dependencies between packages. It can also aid developers in prioritizing fixes in light of currently deployed software components. Single-point deployments of SCA solutions do not allow for these features. 

Developers using open source software must be able to create applications without worrying about putting their company at risk, according to Ankur Shah, senior vice president, Prisma Cloud, Palo Alto Networks. SCA on Prisma Cloud is essential for shielding the business from code to cloud & giving developers the freedom to build quickly because the typical application contains 75% open source components. 

Prisma Cloud is a comprehensive cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) that uses context awareness across the application lifecycle to give businesses a single, comprehensive picture of their cloud-based risk exposure. Instead of the piecemeal, reactive methods used by most cloud security solutions today, Prisma Cloud takes a proactive, preventative stance. Due to a three-year growth of 188% in cloud incident response cases, this shift in strategy is now essential. 

Comprehensive cloud-based code To ensure the security of businesses, CNAPP must adhere to the following five guiding principles. 

Secure application development lifecycle covering coding, building, deploying, and running on the cloud. 

With continuous, real-time visibility, misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, & attacks in cloud settings can be thwarted through real-time, contextual security analysis. 

Protecting from assaults and safeguarding against zero-day vulnerabilities before they’re exploited is the first line of defense in reducing the mean time to remediation. 

A unified platform that supports a wide variety of cloud service providers, workload architectures, continuous integration & delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, integrated development environments (IDEs), and repositories is essential to providing customers with the liberty of choice they need to embark on the cloud. 

A security that scales with the cloud automatically and reliably protects apps as their storage and processing needs grow. 

For developers to easily keep track of it & refer to a thorough codebase inventory of every component used in applications throughout cloud environments, Prisma Cloud provided a software bill of materials (SBOM) in addition to SCA. Prisma Cloud’s conformance to these criteria has been ensured through the adoption of SCA & SBOM.