Virtual Instance Remediation for Cloud Cybersecurity Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cybersecurity remediation solutions in cloud computing environments face challenges due to the need for high-level access permissions, which organizations are hesitant to grant to third parties, and maintaining in-house solutions is costly.
Innovation Solution
A system that configures a virtual instance to communicate with an inspection environment, receive remediation scripts, and generate remediation actions based on detected cybersecurity issues, allowing for controlled and efficient remediation without requiring full access to the computing environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If remediation solutions are provided by a third party with high-level access permissions, then remediation effectiveness is improved, but security risk and organizational hesitation increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual instance as an intermediary component that sits between the inspection environment and the computing environment. This virtual instance receives remediation scripts from the inspection environment, validates them, and executes them in the computing environment without requiring the inspection environment to have direct high-level access. The virtual instance acts as a trusted mediator that enables effective remediation while maintaining security boundaries.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the remediation process into distinct components: the inspection environment that detects issues, the virtual instance that manages remediation scripts and actions, and the computing environment that executes remediation. This segmentation allows each component to operate with appropriate permission levels, reducing the need for high-level access while maintaining remediation effectiveness.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If remediation solutions are maintained in-house, then security control is improved, but cost and specialization requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual instance serves as a managed intermediary that organizations can deploy and control within their own environments. Rather than maintaining complex in-house remediation expertise, organizations can manage the virtual instance which handles the complexity of remediation script validation and execution, reducing both cost and specialization requirements while maintaining security control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses remediation scripts that can be copied and reused across different computing environments and issues. These scripts are stored and managed by the virtual instance, allowing organizations to maintain a library of remediation actions without needing to develop custom solutions for each security issue, reducing maintenance costs and expertise requirements.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If read-level access is used for monitoring, then security is improved, but remediation capability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual instance acts as a mediator that enables remediation actions without requiring the inspection environment to have direct high-level access. The inspection environment maintains read-level access for security, while the virtual instance, which has appropriate permissions, executes remediation actions on behalf of the inspection environment, thus bridging the gap between security and remediation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a new dimension to the architecture by introducing the virtual instance as a separate layer between inspection and remediation execution. This dimensional change allows the inspection environment to operate with read-level access while the virtual instance handles privileged operations, separating security concerns from remediation capabilities.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system and method initiating remediation actions in response to a cybersecurity issue in a computing environment is disclosed. The method includes: configuring a virtual instance in a computing environment to communicate with an inspection environment; configuring the virtual instance to receive in the computing environment a plurality of remediation scripts from the inspection environment; generating a remediation infrastructure including a plurality of remediation actions, each remediation action corresponding to at least a remediation script of the plurality of remediation scripts; detecting a cybersecurity issue in the computing environment; configuring the virtual instance to initiate a remediation action of the plurality of remediation actions, based on detecting the cybersecurity issue; and receiving a feedback in the inspection environment from the virtual instance in response to initiating the remediation action.