Cloud Security Policy Framework for Automated Risk Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing security solutions for cloud environments face challenges in expressing and automating the evaluation of security policies, especially in microservices and serverless architectures, where traditional methods require direct coding and tight integration with infrastructure and applications.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based system and method that fetches security policies from a policy catalog service, compiles them into queries, executes these queries over customer data in multiple data sources, and persists the results, allowing for automated evaluation and alerting through a graphical user interface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional security solutions require policies to be represented directly as application code in a specific programming language, then security policies can be implemented with tight integration into infrastructure and applications, but this results in multiple limitations and challenges including reduced adaptability, increased complexity, and difficulty in automated evaluation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a policy compilation layer that acts as an intermediary between high-level security policy definitions and their execution. Policies are defined in a declarative format and then compiled into executable form, allowing the system to maintain both ease of policy expression and reliable implementation without requiring direct coding in specific programming languages.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the security policy implementation into distinct layers: policy definition, policy compilation, and policy execution. This segmentation allows each layer to be optimized independently - policies can be defined in a flexible, high-level format while the compilation and execution layers handle the technical implementation details, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and reliability.
2Ease of operation
If security policies are expressed in a generic format allowing automated evaluation, then adaptability and ease of operation improve, but traditional tight integration with infrastructure and applications may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal policy representation format that can be applied across different cloud infrastructure and applications. The generic policy format with standardized constructs (resources, conditions, actions) enables automated evaluation while maintaining broad applicability across diverse systems, achieving both ease of operation and reliable integration through a common interface.
3Reliability
If continuous automated risk assessment is implemented in cloud environments, then security monitoring improves, but system complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous automated risk assessment through periodic evaluation cycles triggered by events or schedules. Rather than requiring constant complex processing, the system periodically fetches policies from a catalog, compiles them, executes queries against customer data, and persists results. This periodic approach maintains continuous security monitoring while managing system complexity through structured, interval-based operation.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure includes systems and methods for a security policy framework. Various embodiments include responsive to receiving a trigger, fetching one or more policies from a policy catalog service; compiling the one or more policies into a query, wherein the one or more policies can be compiled into a plurality of different query languages; executing the query over customer data, the customer data being located in one or more data sources; and persisting results of the query.