Secure and Resource Effective Usage of Containers for Military and Critical Infrastructure Environments

Abstract

Virtualization is an essential part of modern ICT infrastructures and provides both resource and cost efficiency, as well as eases the operation and maintenance of such infrastructures. Currently, virtualization environments are most often based on virtual machines (VMs). However, compared to Containers, such as Kubernetes, VMs have overhead built into the architecture. This work examines the secure and resource efficient use of Containers for critical infrastructures such as Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). More specifically, this research assessed the suitability of Kubernetes as a lightweight alternative to virtual machines for military use and its compliance with the NATO CIS infrastructure requirements. Furthermore, this work examines the risk of container escape and how to set up a secure deployment of Kubernetes environments in practice.