Kubernetes Security for Enterprise Production Environments
COURSE FORMAT & DELIVERY DETAILS Self-Paced, On-Demand Access with Immediate Global Availability
This premium course is designed for enterprise professionals who demand clarity, precision, and maximum return on their learning investment. It is a self-paced program, granting you immediate online access the moment your enrollment is confirmed. There are no fixed start dates or mandatory attendance windows, making it ideal for engineers, architects, DevOps leads, and security specialists working in high-pressure production environments. Designed for Rapid Results, Built for Long-Term Mastery
Most learners complete the full course in 3 to 5 weeks with dedicated study, but many report applying mission-critical security configurations and hardening practices within the first 72 hours. The content is structured to deliver actionable insights from the very first module, allowing you to enhance your cluster’s security posture immediately, regardless of your current Kubernetes maturity level. Lifetime Access, Zero Expiration, Continuous Value
Once enrolled, you receive lifetime access to all course materials, including future updates at no additional cost. As new Kubernetes CVEs emerge, security advisories evolve, and enterprise compliance standards shift, your knowledge base evolves with them. This is not a time-bound training module-it's a permanent, up-to-date digital vault of enterprise-grade security practices and frameworks. Available Anywhere, Anytime, on Any Device
The course is fully mobile-friendly and optimized for 24/7 global access. Whether you’re in the office, at home, or on-site during an audit, your learning environment is always available. No downloads, no installations-just responsive, intuitive access across all your devices. Direct Instructor Support & Expert Guidance
Every learner receives structured, expert-led guidance with dedicated support channels. The course is curated and maintained by seasoned Kubernetes security architects with over 10 years of experience securing Fortune 500 production clusters. Your questions are answered not by automated bots, but by practitioners who have led red team exercises, passed PCI-DSS audits, and implemented zero-trust policies at scale. Official Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
Upon successful completion, you receive a globally recognized Certificate of Completion issued by The Art of Service. This credential validates your advanced expertise in Kubernetes security within enterprise production settings. It is regularly cited by alumni in performance reviews, job applications, and promotion cases across cloud, security, and infrastructure roles. Employers in financial services, healthcare, and tech sectors actively recognize The Art of Service certifications for their rigor and accuracy. Transparent Pricing, No Hidden Fees
The price you see is the price you pay. There are no surprise charges, no recurring fees, and no upsells. The full package-lifetime access, updates, support, and certification-is included. Flexible Payment Options
We accept all major payment methods, including Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal, ensuring a seamless and secure enrollment process for individuals and teams. 14-Day Risk-Free Guarantee: Satisfied or Refunded
You're protected by a 14-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. If the course doesn’t meet your expectations for depth, relevance, or real-world applicability, simply request a full refund. This isn’t just a transaction-it’s a commitment to your success without financial exposure. Enrollment Confirmation and Access Process
After enrollment, you will receive a confirmation email. Your access details will be delivered separately once your course materials are fully prepared. This ensures a smooth, error-free onboarding experience and guarantees that all content is current and production-ready upon delivery. Built to Address Your Biggest Concern: “Will This Work for Me?”
Yes. This course works even if you are managing a single cluster with legacy workloads, working under strict compliance mandates, or part of a distributed team with inconsistent security practices. The curriculum is role-agnostic yet deeply specific, with actionable workflows for: - DevSecOps Engineers needing to implement policy-as-code across CI/CD pipelines
- SREs responsible for maintaining uptime while enforcing least privilege
- Platform Architects designing multi-tenant, air-gapped, or government-grade clusters
- Security Analysts required to produce audit-ready compliance documentation
Our alumni include Principal Engineers at global banks, Site Reliability Leaders in regulated healthcare environments, and Cloud Security Architects at Tier-1 tech firms. One enterprise team reduced their exposed attack surface by 76% within six weeks of applying course principles. Another passed their first SOC 2 Type II audit without a single Kubernetes-related finding. This Works Even If:
You inherit poorly documented clusters, lack dedicated security resources, operate under aggressive compliance timelines, or are new to Kubernetes security but responsible for safeguarding mission-critical infrastructure. The step-by-step frameworks, reusable configuration templates, and audit-aligned checklists are designed for real-world constraints, not idealized environments. Maximum Trust. Minimum Risk. Maximum Reward.
This is the most comprehensive, enterprise-focused Kubernetes security training available. With lifetime access, ongoing updates, expert support, and a globally respected certification, your enrollment isn’t just a course purchase-it’s a strategic career investment with measurable ROI.
EXTENSIVE and DETAILED COURSE CURRICULUM
Module 1: Foundations of Kubernetes Security in Enterprise Contexts - Understanding the shared responsibility model in cloud-native environments
- Mapping Kubernetes control plane components to security boundaries
- Identifying attack vectors specific to production-grade clusters
- Core concepts: Pod, Namespace, Node, Service, Ingress, API server
- Threat modeling with STRIDE in Kubernetes environments
- Common misconfigurations leading to cluster compromise
- Security posture assessment using CIS Kubernetes Benchmark
- Overview of zero trust principles in distributed systems
- Role of segmentation and isolation in cluster security
- Evaluating risk tolerance across business units and SLAs
- Integrating security into DevOps culture and practices
- Preparing for compliance frameworks: GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2
- Establishing security baselines for new cluster deployments
- Documenting cluster architecture for audit readiness
- Analyzing real-world Kubernetes breach case studies
Module 2: Securing the Kubernetes Control Plane and Etcd - Hardening API server configurations and secure flags
- Enabling audit logging with granular policy definitions
- Protecting etcd with encryption at rest and access controls
- Disabling dangerous flags like anonymous authentication
- Securing kubelet configurations on master nodes
- Isolating control plane nodes with network policies
- Using dedicated service accounts for control plane components
- Rotating certificates and keys with automated tooling
- Implementing secure boot and disk encryption for master nodes
- Validating API server RBAC binding best practices
- Restricting access to kubeconfig files and tokens
- Monitoring control plane health with Prometheus alerts
- Using network segmentation for multi-cluster environments
- Deploying control plane in private subnets with no public exposure
- Securing cloud provider integrations (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Module 3: Node-Level Security and Host Hardening - Selecting secure container-optimized OS distributions
- Disabling unnecessary services and ports on worker nodes
- Applying kernel hardening with sysctl and seccomp
- Configuring AppArmor profiles for container runtime
- Using immutable infrastructure principles for node deployment
- Securing SSH access with key rotation and MFA
- Enabling OS-level integrity monitoring (e.g., tripwire)
- Integrating node scanning with CIS Benchmarks
- Automating node compliance checks with OSQuery
- Isolating critical workloads on dedicated nodes (taints and tolerations)
- Validating container runtime security settings
- Disabling privilege escalation in Docker and containerd
- Using read-only root filesystems for workloads
- Enforcing mandatory access controls on host filesystem
- Monitoring node-level anomalies with Falco
Module 4: Pod and Container Security Best Practices - Designing secure Pod specifications with minimal privileges
- Disabling root user inside containers using securityContext
- Setting resource limits and preventing denial-of-service
- Running containers as non-root with user and group IDs
- Mounting secrets securely using Kubernetes native mechanisms
- Enforcing readOnlyRootFilesystem in production workloads
- Blocking hostNetwork, hostPID, and hostIPC access
- Validating PodSecurity policies (legacy) and alternatives
- Implementing Pod Security Standards (Restricted, Baseline, Privileged)
- Using init containers securely and without privileges
- Scanning container images for known vulnerabilities pre-deployment
- Signing images with cosign and verifying in admission control
- Using distroless and minimal base images
- Leveraging gVisor and Kata Containers for untrusted workloads
- Blocking privileged containers cluster-wide with policies
Module 5: Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Kubernetes - Mapping external identity providers (OIDC) to Kubernetes users
- Integrating LDAP and Active Directory with Kubernetes RBAC
- Designing role-based access control (RBAC) for least privilege
- Differentiating between Roles and ClusterRoles
- Binding users and groups securely using RoleBindings
- Using kubeconfig files with short-lived tokens
- Implementing Just-In-Time access with workflow automation
- Managing service account tokens with BoundServiceAccountTokenVolume
- Rotating kubelet client certificates automatically
- Securing dashboard access with authentication proxies
- Auditing access logs for suspicious or anomalous behavior
- Using multi-factor authentication for cluster access
- Enforcing access reviews and periodic permissions audits
- Integrating with enterprise SSO solutions
- Preventing token leakage in logs and CI/CD environments
Module 6: Network Security and Micro-Segmentation - Understanding Kubernetes networking models (CNI, overlay networks)
- Implementing NetworkPolicies for ingress and egress control
- Designing zero trust micro-segmentation policies
- Default-deny policies for production namespaces
- Allowing only required communication between services
- Protecting exposed services with external load balancers
- Securing Ingress controllers with TLS and WAF integration
- Validating certificate rotation using cert-manager
- Blocking lateral movement with namespace isolation
- Using service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) for mTLS
- Enforcing mutual TLS across all service-to-service communication
- Monitoring encrypted traffic patterns for anomalies
- Integrating with cloud firewall rules and VPC flow logs
- Protecting against DNS exfiltration and tunneling
- Scanning for open ports and exposed services with kube-hunter
Module 7: Policy Enforcement and Admission Control - Understanding the role of admission controllers in security
- Enabling and configuring built-in admission plugins
- Using OPA Gatekeeper for policy-as-code enforcement
- Writing custom constraint templates for enterprise rules
- Blocking images from untrusted registries
- Requiring specific labels and annotations in all resources
- Enforcing resource quota compliance at admission time
- Automating security policy checks in CI/CD pipelines
- Integrating Kyverno for native Kubernetes policy management
- Using ValidatingAdmissionPolicies (K8s 1.26+)
- Creating blueprints for compliant application deployment
- Auditing policy violations with reporting tools
- Versioning and testing policies before enforcement
- Rolling back policy changes safely with canary deployment
- Generating compliance evidence from policy logs
Module 8: Securing the CI/CD Pipeline for Kubernetes - Integrating image scanning into CI stage with Trivy and Clair
- Preventing deployment of vulnerable or unpatched images
- Signing and attesting artifacts using Sigstore and Fulcio
- Validating provenance using in-toto and SLSA framework
- Using read-only service accounts in CI environments
- Securing pipeline secrets with external secret managers
- Leveraging GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins securely
- Running CI workers in isolated, ephemeral environments
- Implementing pull request security gates
- Enabling automatic rollback on security policy failure
- Verifying Helm chart integrity and provenance
- Scanning Kubernetes manifests with kube-linter and Checkov
- Using templating engines (Helm, Kustomize) with secure defaults
- Protecting against supply chain attacks via dependency checks
- Integrating SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) generation
Module 9: Runtime Security and Threat Detection - Deploying Falco for real-time anomaly detection
- Writing custom rules for suspicious process execution
- Detecting privilege escalation attempts inside containers
- Monitoring file system access and configuration changes
- Alerting on unexpected network connections or DNS queries
- Integrating with SIEM systems (Splunk, ELK, Datadog)
- Using eBPF for low-overhead security observability
- Collecting and analyzing audit logs at scale
- Setting up alert fatigue prevention with intelligent thresholds
- Responding to incidents with predefined runbooks
- Detecting crypto-mining and malware behavior patterns
- Identifying misconfigurations post-deployment
- Using Tetragon for advanced Kubernetes runtime enforcement
- Protecting against container escape techniques
- Correlating events across control plane, nodes, and pods
Module 10: Secret Management and Data Protection - Comparing Kubernetes Secrets with external secret managers
- Using HashiCorp Vault for dynamic secret generation
- Integrating AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager
- Automating secret rotation with external controllers
- Preventing secret leakage in logs and error messages
- Encrypting secrets at rest using KMS providers
- Managing TLS certificates with cert-manager and Let's Encrypt
- Validating secret access with RBAC and policy
- Using sealed-secrets for secure GitOps workflows
- Implementing zero-knowledge secret sharing for admin access
- Storing database passwords, API keys, and tokens securely
- Enabling audit trails for secret access and rotation
- Masking secrets in UIs and CLI outputs
- Using OCI registries to store sensitive configurations
- Application-level encryption for sensitive workloads
Module 11: Incident Response and Forensics in Kubernetes - Building a Kubernetes-specific incident response plan
- Isolating compromised nodes and pods safely
- Preserving forensic evidence from memory and disk
- Collecting logs, audit trails, and configuration states
- Using kubectl debug and ephemeral containers responsibly
- Generating memory dumps without crashing production systems
- Integrating with SOAR platforms for automated playbooks
- Conducting post-incident root cause analysis
- Rebuilding affected components from trusted sources
- Identifying attack origins using network flow analysis
- Documenting findings for legal and compliance teams
- Testing response procedures with tabletop exercises
- Creating immutable snapshots of cluster state post-breach
- Using Velero for secure backup and recovery workflows
- Validating recovery integrity with cryptographic hashing
Module 12: Compliance, Auditing, and Reporting - Mapping Kubernetes controls to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001
- Generating compliance reports from audit logs
- Using kube-bench for automated CIS benchmark checks
- Tracking configuration drift over time
- Integrating with GRC platforms (ServiceNow, Drata)
- Creating Sarbanes-Oxley compliant access attestations
- Documenting separation of duties in Kubernetes operations
- Producing audit trails for external regulators
- Automating evidence collection with API queries
- Maintaining version-controlled security policies
- Using Open Policy Agent for compliance-as-code
- Reporting on image provenance and vulnerability status
- Validating encryption standards across the stack
- Documenting disaster recovery and backup strategies
- Obtaining third-party attestations and penetration test results
Module 13: Advanced Topics in Enterprise-Scale Security - Securing multi-cluster federations and global services
- Implementing cluster API with hardened control planes
- Using Rancher and OpenShift securely in hybrid cloud
- Protecting against supply chain attacks in open source
- Validating Kubernetes dependencies with SLSA
- Implementing air-gapped clusters with offline operations
- Securing edge computing deployments with K3s
- Using confidential computing for sensitive workloads
- Running Kubernetes on bare metal with secure boot
- Managing nation-state level threat models
- Designing immutable clusters with declarative state
- Integrating with hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Using TPMs for node attestation
- Implementing end-to-end zero trust with SPIFFE/SPIRE
- Validating service identity across clusters and clouds
Module 14: Hands-On Implementation Projects - Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams
Module 15: Certification Preparation and Career Advancement - Reviewing key domains for Kubernetes security certification exams
- Practicing scenario-based assessment questions
- Mapping course content to CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
- Translating implementation projects into professional portfolio artifacts
- Writing security documentation for leadership and audit teams
- Structuring your experience for resumes and interviews
- Demonstrating ROI of security improvements to stakeholders
- Presenting security architecture decisions with confidence
- Earning your Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
- Using the certificate to validate skills with employers and clients
- Accessing exclusive alumni resources and job boards
- Joining enterprise security communities and working groups
- Staying updated with monthly security bulletins
- Receiving invitations to invite-only expert roundtables
- Building long-term career momentum in cloud security
Module 1: Foundations of Kubernetes Security in Enterprise Contexts - Understanding the shared responsibility model in cloud-native environments
- Mapping Kubernetes control plane components to security boundaries
- Identifying attack vectors specific to production-grade clusters
- Core concepts: Pod, Namespace, Node, Service, Ingress, API server
- Threat modeling with STRIDE in Kubernetes environments
- Common misconfigurations leading to cluster compromise
- Security posture assessment using CIS Kubernetes Benchmark
- Overview of zero trust principles in distributed systems
- Role of segmentation and isolation in cluster security
- Evaluating risk tolerance across business units and SLAs
- Integrating security into DevOps culture and practices
- Preparing for compliance frameworks: GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2
- Establishing security baselines for new cluster deployments
- Documenting cluster architecture for audit readiness
- Analyzing real-world Kubernetes breach case studies
Module 2: Securing the Kubernetes Control Plane and Etcd - Hardening API server configurations and secure flags
- Enabling audit logging with granular policy definitions
- Protecting etcd with encryption at rest and access controls
- Disabling dangerous flags like anonymous authentication
- Securing kubelet configurations on master nodes
- Isolating control plane nodes with network policies
- Using dedicated service accounts for control plane components
- Rotating certificates and keys with automated tooling
- Implementing secure boot and disk encryption for master nodes
- Validating API server RBAC binding best practices
- Restricting access to kubeconfig files and tokens
- Monitoring control plane health with Prometheus alerts
- Using network segmentation for multi-cluster environments
- Deploying control plane in private subnets with no public exposure
- Securing cloud provider integrations (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Module 3: Node-Level Security and Host Hardening - Selecting secure container-optimized OS distributions
- Disabling unnecessary services and ports on worker nodes
- Applying kernel hardening with sysctl and seccomp
- Configuring AppArmor profiles for container runtime
- Using immutable infrastructure principles for node deployment
- Securing SSH access with key rotation and MFA
- Enabling OS-level integrity monitoring (e.g., tripwire)
- Integrating node scanning with CIS Benchmarks
- Automating node compliance checks with OSQuery
- Isolating critical workloads on dedicated nodes (taints and tolerations)
- Validating container runtime security settings
- Disabling privilege escalation in Docker and containerd
- Using read-only root filesystems for workloads
- Enforcing mandatory access controls on host filesystem
- Monitoring node-level anomalies with Falco
Module 4: Pod and Container Security Best Practices - Designing secure Pod specifications with minimal privileges
- Disabling root user inside containers using securityContext
- Setting resource limits and preventing denial-of-service
- Running containers as non-root with user and group IDs
- Mounting secrets securely using Kubernetes native mechanisms
- Enforcing readOnlyRootFilesystem in production workloads
- Blocking hostNetwork, hostPID, and hostIPC access
- Validating PodSecurity policies (legacy) and alternatives
- Implementing Pod Security Standards (Restricted, Baseline, Privileged)
- Using init containers securely and without privileges
- Scanning container images for known vulnerabilities pre-deployment
- Signing images with cosign and verifying in admission control
- Using distroless and minimal base images
- Leveraging gVisor and Kata Containers for untrusted workloads
- Blocking privileged containers cluster-wide with policies
Module 5: Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Kubernetes - Mapping external identity providers (OIDC) to Kubernetes users
- Integrating LDAP and Active Directory with Kubernetes RBAC
- Designing role-based access control (RBAC) for least privilege
- Differentiating between Roles and ClusterRoles
- Binding users and groups securely using RoleBindings
- Using kubeconfig files with short-lived tokens
- Implementing Just-In-Time access with workflow automation
- Managing service account tokens with BoundServiceAccountTokenVolume
- Rotating kubelet client certificates automatically
- Securing dashboard access with authentication proxies
- Auditing access logs for suspicious or anomalous behavior
- Using multi-factor authentication for cluster access
- Enforcing access reviews and periodic permissions audits
- Integrating with enterprise SSO solutions
- Preventing token leakage in logs and CI/CD environments
Module 6: Network Security and Micro-Segmentation - Understanding Kubernetes networking models (CNI, overlay networks)
- Implementing NetworkPolicies for ingress and egress control
- Designing zero trust micro-segmentation policies
- Default-deny policies for production namespaces
- Allowing only required communication between services
- Protecting exposed services with external load balancers
- Securing Ingress controllers with TLS and WAF integration
- Validating certificate rotation using cert-manager
- Blocking lateral movement with namespace isolation
- Using service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) for mTLS
- Enforcing mutual TLS across all service-to-service communication
- Monitoring encrypted traffic patterns for anomalies
- Integrating with cloud firewall rules and VPC flow logs
- Protecting against DNS exfiltration and tunneling
- Scanning for open ports and exposed services with kube-hunter
Module 7: Policy Enforcement and Admission Control - Understanding the role of admission controllers in security
- Enabling and configuring built-in admission plugins
- Using OPA Gatekeeper for policy-as-code enforcement
- Writing custom constraint templates for enterprise rules
- Blocking images from untrusted registries
- Requiring specific labels and annotations in all resources
- Enforcing resource quota compliance at admission time
- Automating security policy checks in CI/CD pipelines
- Integrating Kyverno for native Kubernetes policy management
- Using ValidatingAdmissionPolicies (K8s 1.26+)
- Creating blueprints for compliant application deployment
- Auditing policy violations with reporting tools
- Versioning and testing policies before enforcement
- Rolling back policy changes safely with canary deployment
- Generating compliance evidence from policy logs
Module 8: Securing the CI/CD Pipeline for Kubernetes - Integrating image scanning into CI stage with Trivy and Clair
- Preventing deployment of vulnerable or unpatched images
- Signing and attesting artifacts using Sigstore and Fulcio
- Validating provenance using in-toto and SLSA framework
- Using read-only service accounts in CI environments
- Securing pipeline secrets with external secret managers
- Leveraging GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins securely
- Running CI workers in isolated, ephemeral environments
- Implementing pull request security gates
- Enabling automatic rollback on security policy failure
- Verifying Helm chart integrity and provenance
- Scanning Kubernetes manifests with kube-linter and Checkov
- Using templating engines (Helm, Kustomize) with secure defaults
- Protecting against supply chain attacks via dependency checks
- Integrating SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) generation
Module 9: Runtime Security and Threat Detection - Deploying Falco for real-time anomaly detection
- Writing custom rules for suspicious process execution
- Detecting privilege escalation attempts inside containers
- Monitoring file system access and configuration changes
- Alerting on unexpected network connections or DNS queries
- Integrating with SIEM systems (Splunk, ELK, Datadog)
- Using eBPF for low-overhead security observability
- Collecting and analyzing audit logs at scale
- Setting up alert fatigue prevention with intelligent thresholds
- Responding to incidents with predefined runbooks
- Detecting crypto-mining and malware behavior patterns
- Identifying misconfigurations post-deployment
- Using Tetragon for advanced Kubernetes runtime enforcement
- Protecting against container escape techniques
- Correlating events across control plane, nodes, and pods
Module 10: Secret Management and Data Protection - Comparing Kubernetes Secrets with external secret managers
- Using HashiCorp Vault for dynamic secret generation
- Integrating AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager
- Automating secret rotation with external controllers
- Preventing secret leakage in logs and error messages
- Encrypting secrets at rest using KMS providers
- Managing TLS certificates with cert-manager and Let's Encrypt
- Validating secret access with RBAC and policy
- Using sealed-secrets for secure GitOps workflows
- Implementing zero-knowledge secret sharing for admin access
- Storing database passwords, API keys, and tokens securely
- Enabling audit trails for secret access and rotation
- Masking secrets in UIs and CLI outputs
- Using OCI registries to store sensitive configurations
- Application-level encryption for sensitive workloads
Module 11: Incident Response and Forensics in Kubernetes - Building a Kubernetes-specific incident response plan
- Isolating compromised nodes and pods safely
- Preserving forensic evidence from memory and disk
- Collecting logs, audit trails, and configuration states
- Using kubectl debug and ephemeral containers responsibly
- Generating memory dumps without crashing production systems
- Integrating with SOAR platforms for automated playbooks
- Conducting post-incident root cause analysis
- Rebuilding affected components from trusted sources
- Identifying attack origins using network flow analysis
- Documenting findings for legal and compliance teams
- Testing response procedures with tabletop exercises
- Creating immutable snapshots of cluster state post-breach
- Using Velero for secure backup and recovery workflows
- Validating recovery integrity with cryptographic hashing
Module 12: Compliance, Auditing, and Reporting - Mapping Kubernetes controls to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001
- Generating compliance reports from audit logs
- Using kube-bench for automated CIS benchmark checks
- Tracking configuration drift over time
- Integrating with GRC platforms (ServiceNow, Drata)
- Creating Sarbanes-Oxley compliant access attestations
- Documenting separation of duties in Kubernetes operations
- Producing audit trails for external regulators
- Automating evidence collection with API queries
- Maintaining version-controlled security policies
- Using Open Policy Agent for compliance-as-code
- Reporting on image provenance and vulnerability status
- Validating encryption standards across the stack
- Documenting disaster recovery and backup strategies
- Obtaining third-party attestations and penetration test results
Module 13: Advanced Topics in Enterprise-Scale Security - Securing multi-cluster federations and global services
- Implementing cluster API with hardened control planes
- Using Rancher and OpenShift securely in hybrid cloud
- Protecting against supply chain attacks in open source
- Validating Kubernetes dependencies with SLSA
- Implementing air-gapped clusters with offline operations
- Securing edge computing deployments with K3s
- Using confidential computing for sensitive workloads
- Running Kubernetes on bare metal with secure boot
- Managing nation-state level threat models
- Designing immutable clusters with declarative state
- Integrating with hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Using TPMs for node attestation
- Implementing end-to-end zero trust with SPIFFE/SPIRE
- Validating service identity across clusters and clouds
Module 14: Hands-On Implementation Projects - Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams
Module 15: Certification Preparation and Career Advancement - Reviewing key domains for Kubernetes security certification exams
- Practicing scenario-based assessment questions
- Mapping course content to CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
- Translating implementation projects into professional portfolio artifacts
- Writing security documentation for leadership and audit teams
- Structuring your experience for resumes and interviews
- Demonstrating ROI of security improvements to stakeholders
- Presenting security architecture decisions with confidence
- Earning your Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
- Using the certificate to validate skills with employers and clients
- Accessing exclusive alumni resources and job boards
- Joining enterprise security communities and working groups
- Staying updated with monthly security bulletins
- Receiving invitations to invite-only expert roundtables
- Building long-term career momentum in cloud security
- Hardening API server configurations and secure flags
- Enabling audit logging with granular policy definitions
- Protecting etcd with encryption at rest and access controls
- Disabling dangerous flags like anonymous authentication
- Securing kubelet configurations on master nodes
- Isolating control plane nodes with network policies
- Using dedicated service accounts for control plane components
- Rotating certificates and keys with automated tooling
- Implementing secure boot and disk encryption for master nodes
- Validating API server RBAC binding best practices
- Restricting access to kubeconfig files and tokens
- Monitoring control plane health with Prometheus alerts
- Using network segmentation for multi-cluster environments
- Deploying control plane in private subnets with no public exposure
- Securing cloud provider integrations (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Module 3: Node-Level Security and Host Hardening - Selecting secure container-optimized OS distributions
- Disabling unnecessary services and ports on worker nodes
- Applying kernel hardening with sysctl and seccomp
- Configuring AppArmor profiles for container runtime
- Using immutable infrastructure principles for node deployment
- Securing SSH access with key rotation and MFA
- Enabling OS-level integrity monitoring (e.g., tripwire)
- Integrating node scanning with CIS Benchmarks
- Automating node compliance checks with OSQuery
- Isolating critical workloads on dedicated nodes (taints and tolerations)
- Validating container runtime security settings
- Disabling privilege escalation in Docker and containerd
- Using read-only root filesystems for workloads
- Enforcing mandatory access controls on host filesystem
- Monitoring node-level anomalies with Falco
Module 4: Pod and Container Security Best Practices - Designing secure Pod specifications with minimal privileges
- Disabling root user inside containers using securityContext
- Setting resource limits and preventing denial-of-service
- Running containers as non-root with user and group IDs
- Mounting secrets securely using Kubernetes native mechanisms
- Enforcing readOnlyRootFilesystem in production workloads
- Blocking hostNetwork, hostPID, and hostIPC access
- Validating PodSecurity policies (legacy) and alternatives
- Implementing Pod Security Standards (Restricted, Baseline, Privileged)
- Using init containers securely and without privileges
- Scanning container images for known vulnerabilities pre-deployment
- Signing images with cosign and verifying in admission control
- Using distroless and minimal base images
- Leveraging gVisor and Kata Containers for untrusted workloads
- Blocking privileged containers cluster-wide with policies
Module 5: Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Kubernetes - Mapping external identity providers (OIDC) to Kubernetes users
- Integrating LDAP and Active Directory with Kubernetes RBAC
- Designing role-based access control (RBAC) for least privilege
- Differentiating between Roles and ClusterRoles
- Binding users and groups securely using RoleBindings
- Using kubeconfig files with short-lived tokens
- Implementing Just-In-Time access with workflow automation
- Managing service account tokens with BoundServiceAccountTokenVolume
- Rotating kubelet client certificates automatically
- Securing dashboard access with authentication proxies
- Auditing access logs for suspicious or anomalous behavior
- Using multi-factor authentication for cluster access
- Enforcing access reviews and periodic permissions audits
- Integrating with enterprise SSO solutions
- Preventing token leakage in logs and CI/CD environments
Module 6: Network Security and Micro-Segmentation - Understanding Kubernetes networking models (CNI, overlay networks)
- Implementing NetworkPolicies for ingress and egress control
- Designing zero trust micro-segmentation policies
- Default-deny policies for production namespaces
- Allowing only required communication between services
- Protecting exposed services with external load balancers
- Securing Ingress controllers with TLS and WAF integration
- Validating certificate rotation using cert-manager
- Blocking lateral movement with namespace isolation
- Using service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) for mTLS
- Enforcing mutual TLS across all service-to-service communication
- Monitoring encrypted traffic patterns for anomalies
- Integrating with cloud firewall rules and VPC flow logs
- Protecting against DNS exfiltration and tunneling
- Scanning for open ports and exposed services with kube-hunter
Module 7: Policy Enforcement and Admission Control - Understanding the role of admission controllers in security
- Enabling and configuring built-in admission plugins
- Using OPA Gatekeeper for policy-as-code enforcement
- Writing custom constraint templates for enterprise rules
- Blocking images from untrusted registries
- Requiring specific labels and annotations in all resources
- Enforcing resource quota compliance at admission time
- Automating security policy checks in CI/CD pipelines
- Integrating Kyverno for native Kubernetes policy management
- Using ValidatingAdmissionPolicies (K8s 1.26+)
- Creating blueprints for compliant application deployment
- Auditing policy violations with reporting tools
- Versioning and testing policies before enforcement
- Rolling back policy changes safely with canary deployment
- Generating compliance evidence from policy logs
Module 8: Securing the CI/CD Pipeline for Kubernetes - Integrating image scanning into CI stage with Trivy and Clair
- Preventing deployment of vulnerable or unpatched images
- Signing and attesting artifacts using Sigstore and Fulcio
- Validating provenance using in-toto and SLSA framework
- Using read-only service accounts in CI environments
- Securing pipeline secrets with external secret managers
- Leveraging GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins securely
- Running CI workers in isolated, ephemeral environments
- Implementing pull request security gates
- Enabling automatic rollback on security policy failure
- Verifying Helm chart integrity and provenance
- Scanning Kubernetes manifests with kube-linter and Checkov
- Using templating engines (Helm, Kustomize) with secure defaults
- Protecting against supply chain attacks via dependency checks
- Integrating SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) generation
Module 9: Runtime Security and Threat Detection - Deploying Falco for real-time anomaly detection
- Writing custom rules for suspicious process execution
- Detecting privilege escalation attempts inside containers
- Monitoring file system access and configuration changes
- Alerting on unexpected network connections or DNS queries
- Integrating with SIEM systems (Splunk, ELK, Datadog)
- Using eBPF for low-overhead security observability
- Collecting and analyzing audit logs at scale
- Setting up alert fatigue prevention with intelligent thresholds
- Responding to incidents with predefined runbooks
- Detecting crypto-mining and malware behavior patterns
- Identifying misconfigurations post-deployment
- Using Tetragon for advanced Kubernetes runtime enforcement
- Protecting against container escape techniques
- Correlating events across control plane, nodes, and pods
Module 10: Secret Management and Data Protection - Comparing Kubernetes Secrets with external secret managers
- Using HashiCorp Vault for dynamic secret generation
- Integrating AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager
- Automating secret rotation with external controllers
- Preventing secret leakage in logs and error messages
- Encrypting secrets at rest using KMS providers
- Managing TLS certificates with cert-manager and Let's Encrypt
- Validating secret access with RBAC and policy
- Using sealed-secrets for secure GitOps workflows
- Implementing zero-knowledge secret sharing for admin access
- Storing database passwords, API keys, and tokens securely
- Enabling audit trails for secret access and rotation
- Masking secrets in UIs and CLI outputs
- Using OCI registries to store sensitive configurations
- Application-level encryption for sensitive workloads
Module 11: Incident Response and Forensics in Kubernetes - Building a Kubernetes-specific incident response plan
- Isolating compromised nodes and pods safely
- Preserving forensic evidence from memory and disk
- Collecting logs, audit trails, and configuration states
- Using kubectl debug and ephemeral containers responsibly
- Generating memory dumps without crashing production systems
- Integrating with SOAR platforms for automated playbooks
- Conducting post-incident root cause analysis
- Rebuilding affected components from trusted sources
- Identifying attack origins using network flow analysis
- Documenting findings for legal and compliance teams
- Testing response procedures with tabletop exercises
- Creating immutable snapshots of cluster state post-breach
- Using Velero for secure backup and recovery workflows
- Validating recovery integrity with cryptographic hashing
Module 12: Compliance, Auditing, and Reporting - Mapping Kubernetes controls to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001
- Generating compliance reports from audit logs
- Using kube-bench for automated CIS benchmark checks
- Tracking configuration drift over time
- Integrating with GRC platforms (ServiceNow, Drata)
- Creating Sarbanes-Oxley compliant access attestations
- Documenting separation of duties in Kubernetes operations
- Producing audit trails for external regulators
- Automating evidence collection with API queries
- Maintaining version-controlled security policies
- Using Open Policy Agent for compliance-as-code
- Reporting on image provenance and vulnerability status
- Validating encryption standards across the stack
- Documenting disaster recovery and backup strategies
- Obtaining third-party attestations and penetration test results
Module 13: Advanced Topics in Enterprise-Scale Security - Securing multi-cluster federations and global services
- Implementing cluster API with hardened control planes
- Using Rancher and OpenShift securely in hybrid cloud
- Protecting against supply chain attacks in open source
- Validating Kubernetes dependencies with SLSA
- Implementing air-gapped clusters with offline operations
- Securing edge computing deployments with K3s
- Using confidential computing for sensitive workloads
- Running Kubernetes on bare metal with secure boot
- Managing nation-state level threat models
- Designing immutable clusters with declarative state
- Integrating with hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Using TPMs for node attestation
- Implementing end-to-end zero trust with SPIFFE/SPIRE
- Validating service identity across clusters and clouds
Module 14: Hands-On Implementation Projects - Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams
Module 15: Certification Preparation and Career Advancement - Reviewing key domains for Kubernetes security certification exams
- Practicing scenario-based assessment questions
- Mapping course content to CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
- Translating implementation projects into professional portfolio artifacts
- Writing security documentation for leadership and audit teams
- Structuring your experience for resumes and interviews
- Demonstrating ROI of security improvements to stakeholders
- Presenting security architecture decisions with confidence
- Earning your Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
- Using the certificate to validate skills with employers and clients
- Accessing exclusive alumni resources and job boards
- Joining enterprise security communities and working groups
- Staying updated with monthly security bulletins
- Receiving invitations to invite-only expert roundtables
- Building long-term career momentum in cloud security
- Designing secure Pod specifications with minimal privileges
- Disabling root user inside containers using securityContext
- Setting resource limits and preventing denial-of-service
- Running containers as non-root with user and group IDs
- Mounting secrets securely using Kubernetes native mechanisms
- Enforcing readOnlyRootFilesystem in production workloads
- Blocking hostNetwork, hostPID, and hostIPC access
- Validating PodSecurity policies (legacy) and alternatives
- Implementing Pod Security Standards (Restricted, Baseline, Privileged)
- Using init containers securely and without privileges
- Scanning container images for known vulnerabilities pre-deployment
- Signing images with cosign and verifying in admission control
- Using distroless and minimal base images
- Leveraging gVisor and Kata Containers for untrusted workloads
- Blocking privileged containers cluster-wide with policies
Module 5: Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Kubernetes - Mapping external identity providers (OIDC) to Kubernetes users
- Integrating LDAP and Active Directory with Kubernetes RBAC
- Designing role-based access control (RBAC) for least privilege
- Differentiating between Roles and ClusterRoles
- Binding users and groups securely using RoleBindings
- Using kubeconfig files with short-lived tokens
- Implementing Just-In-Time access with workflow automation
- Managing service account tokens with BoundServiceAccountTokenVolume
- Rotating kubelet client certificates automatically
- Securing dashboard access with authentication proxies
- Auditing access logs for suspicious or anomalous behavior
- Using multi-factor authentication for cluster access
- Enforcing access reviews and periodic permissions audits
- Integrating with enterprise SSO solutions
- Preventing token leakage in logs and CI/CD environments
Module 6: Network Security and Micro-Segmentation - Understanding Kubernetes networking models (CNI, overlay networks)
- Implementing NetworkPolicies for ingress and egress control
- Designing zero trust micro-segmentation policies
- Default-deny policies for production namespaces
- Allowing only required communication between services
- Protecting exposed services with external load balancers
- Securing Ingress controllers with TLS and WAF integration
- Validating certificate rotation using cert-manager
- Blocking lateral movement with namespace isolation
- Using service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) for mTLS
- Enforcing mutual TLS across all service-to-service communication
- Monitoring encrypted traffic patterns for anomalies
- Integrating with cloud firewall rules and VPC flow logs
- Protecting against DNS exfiltration and tunneling
- Scanning for open ports and exposed services with kube-hunter
Module 7: Policy Enforcement and Admission Control - Understanding the role of admission controllers in security
- Enabling and configuring built-in admission plugins
- Using OPA Gatekeeper for policy-as-code enforcement
- Writing custom constraint templates for enterprise rules
- Blocking images from untrusted registries
- Requiring specific labels and annotations in all resources
- Enforcing resource quota compliance at admission time
- Automating security policy checks in CI/CD pipelines
- Integrating Kyverno for native Kubernetes policy management
- Using ValidatingAdmissionPolicies (K8s 1.26+)
- Creating blueprints for compliant application deployment
- Auditing policy violations with reporting tools
- Versioning and testing policies before enforcement
- Rolling back policy changes safely with canary deployment
- Generating compliance evidence from policy logs
Module 8: Securing the CI/CD Pipeline for Kubernetes - Integrating image scanning into CI stage with Trivy and Clair
- Preventing deployment of vulnerable or unpatched images
- Signing and attesting artifacts using Sigstore and Fulcio
- Validating provenance using in-toto and SLSA framework
- Using read-only service accounts in CI environments
- Securing pipeline secrets with external secret managers
- Leveraging GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins securely
- Running CI workers in isolated, ephemeral environments
- Implementing pull request security gates
- Enabling automatic rollback on security policy failure
- Verifying Helm chart integrity and provenance
- Scanning Kubernetes manifests with kube-linter and Checkov
- Using templating engines (Helm, Kustomize) with secure defaults
- Protecting against supply chain attacks via dependency checks
- Integrating SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) generation
Module 9: Runtime Security and Threat Detection - Deploying Falco for real-time anomaly detection
- Writing custom rules for suspicious process execution
- Detecting privilege escalation attempts inside containers
- Monitoring file system access and configuration changes
- Alerting on unexpected network connections or DNS queries
- Integrating with SIEM systems (Splunk, ELK, Datadog)
- Using eBPF for low-overhead security observability
- Collecting and analyzing audit logs at scale
- Setting up alert fatigue prevention with intelligent thresholds
- Responding to incidents with predefined runbooks
- Detecting crypto-mining and malware behavior patterns
- Identifying misconfigurations post-deployment
- Using Tetragon for advanced Kubernetes runtime enforcement
- Protecting against container escape techniques
- Correlating events across control plane, nodes, and pods
Module 10: Secret Management and Data Protection - Comparing Kubernetes Secrets with external secret managers
- Using HashiCorp Vault for dynamic secret generation
- Integrating AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager
- Automating secret rotation with external controllers
- Preventing secret leakage in logs and error messages
- Encrypting secrets at rest using KMS providers
- Managing TLS certificates with cert-manager and Let's Encrypt
- Validating secret access with RBAC and policy
- Using sealed-secrets for secure GitOps workflows
- Implementing zero-knowledge secret sharing for admin access
- Storing database passwords, API keys, and tokens securely
- Enabling audit trails for secret access and rotation
- Masking secrets in UIs and CLI outputs
- Using OCI registries to store sensitive configurations
- Application-level encryption for sensitive workloads
Module 11: Incident Response and Forensics in Kubernetes - Building a Kubernetes-specific incident response plan
- Isolating compromised nodes and pods safely
- Preserving forensic evidence from memory and disk
- Collecting logs, audit trails, and configuration states
- Using kubectl debug and ephemeral containers responsibly
- Generating memory dumps without crashing production systems
- Integrating with SOAR platforms for automated playbooks
- Conducting post-incident root cause analysis
- Rebuilding affected components from trusted sources
- Identifying attack origins using network flow analysis
- Documenting findings for legal and compliance teams
- Testing response procedures with tabletop exercises
- Creating immutable snapshots of cluster state post-breach
- Using Velero for secure backup and recovery workflows
- Validating recovery integrity with cryptographic hashing
Module 12: Compliance, Auditing, and Reporting - Mapping Kubernetes controls to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001
- Generating compliance reports from audit logs
- Using kube-bench for automated CIS benchmark checks
- Tracking configuration drift over time
- Integrating with GRC platforms (ServiceNow, Drata)
- Creating Sarbanes-Oxley compliant access attestations
- Documenting separation of duties in Kubernetes operations
- Producing audit trails for external regulators
- Automating evidence collection with API queries
- Maintaining version-controlled security policies
- Using Open Policy Agent for compliance-as-code
- Reporting on image provenance and vulnerability status
- Validating encryption standards across the stack
- Documenting disaster recovery and backup strategies
- Obtaining third-party attestations and penetration test results
Module 13: Advanced Topics in Enterprise-Scale Security - Securing multi-cluster federations and global services
- Implementing cluster API with hardened control planes
- Using Rancher and OpenShift securely in hybrid cloud
- Protecting against supply chain attacks in open source
- Validating Kubernetes dependencies with SLSA
- Implementing air-gapped clusters with offline operations
- Securing edge computing deployments with K3s
- Using confidential computing for sensitive workloads
- Running Kubernetes on bare metal with secure boot
- Managing nation-state level threat models
- Designing immutable clusters with declarative state
- Integrating with hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Using TPMs for node attestation
- Implementing end-to-end zero trust with SPIFFE/SPIRE
- Validating service identity across clusters and clouds
Module 14: Hands-On Implementation Projects - Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams
Module 15: Certification Preparation and Career Advancement - Reviewing key domains for Kubernetes security certification exams
- Practicing scenario-based assessment questions
- Mapping course content to CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
- Translating implementation projects into professional portfolio artifacts
- Writing security documentation for leadership and audit teams
- Structuring your experience for resumes and interviews
- Demonstrating ROI of security improvements to stakeholders
- Presenting security architecture decisions with confidence
- Earning your Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
- Using the certificate to validate skills with employers and clients
- Accessing exclusive alumni resources and job boards
- Joining enterprise security communities and working groups
- Staying updated with monthly security bulletins
- Receiving invitations to invite-only expert roundtables
- Building long-term career momentum in cloud security
- Understanding Kubernetes networking models (CNI, overlay networks)
- Implementing NetworkPolicies for ingress and egress control
- Designing zero trust micro-segmentation policies
- Default-deny policies for production namespaces
- Allowing only required communication between services
- Protecting exposed services with external load balancers
- Securing Ingress controllers with TLS and WAF integration
- Validating certificate rotation using cert-manager
- Blocking lateral movement with namespace isolation
- Using service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) for mTLS
- Enforcing mutual TLS across all service-to-service communication
- Monitoring encrypted traffic patterns for anomalies
- Integrating with cloud firewall rules and VPC flow logs
- Protecting against DNS exfiltration and tunneling
- Scanning for open ports and exposed services with kube-hunter
Module 7: Policy Enforcement and Admission Control - Understanding the role of admission controllers in security
- Enabling and configuring built-in admission plugins
- Using OPA Gatekeeper for policy-as-code enforcement
- Writing custom constraint templates for enterprise rules
- Blocking images from untrusted registries
- Requiring specific labels and annotations in all resources
- Enforcing resource quota compliance at admission time
- Automating security policy checks in CI/CD pipelines
- Integrating Kyverno for native Kubernetes policy management
- Using ValidatingAdmissionPolicies (K8s 1.26+)
- Creating blueprints for compliant application deployment
- Auditing policy violations with reporting tools
- Versioning and testing policies before enforcement
- Rolling back policy changes safely with canary deployment
- Generating compliance evidence from policy logs
Module 8: Securing the CI/CD Pipeline for Kubernetes - Integrating image scanning into CI stage with Trivy and Clair
- Preventing deployment of vulnerable or unpatched images
- Signing and attesting artifacts using Sigstore and Fulcio
- Validating provenance using in-toto and SLSA framework
- Using read-only service accounts in CI environments
- Securing pipeline secrets with external secret managers
- Leveraging GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins securely
- Running CI workers in isolated, ephemeral environments
- Implementing pull request security gates
- Enabling automatic rollback on security policy failure
- Verifying Helm chart integrity and provenance
- Scanning Kubernetes manifests with kube-linter and Checkov
- Using templating engines (Helm, Kustomize) with secure defaults
- Protecting against supply chain attacks via dependency checks
- Integrating SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) generation
Module 9: Runtime Security and Threat Detection - Deploying Falco for real-time anomaly detection
- Writing custom rules for suspicious process execution
- Detecting privilege escalation attempts inside containers
- Monitoring file system access and configuration changes
- Alerting on unexpected network connections or DNS queries
- Integrating with SIEM systems (Splunk, ELK, Datadog)
- Using eBPF for low-overhead security observability
- Collecting and analyzing audit logs at scale
- Setting up alert fatigue prevention with intelligent thresholds
- Responding to incidents with predefined runbooks
- Detecting crypto-mining and malware behavior patterns
- Identifying misconfigurations post-deployment
- Using Tetragon for advanced Kubernetes runtime enforcement
- Protecting against container escape techniques
- Correlating events across control plane, nodes, and pods
Module 10: Secret Management and Data Protection - Comparing Kubernetes Secrets with external secret managers
- Using HashiCorp Vault for dynamic secret generation
- Integrating AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager
- Automating secret rotation with external controllers
- Preventing secret leakage in logs and error messages
- Encrypting secrets at rest using KMS providers
- Managing TLS certificates with cert-manager and Let's Encrypt
- Validating secret access with RBAC and policy
- Using sealed-secrets for secure GitOps workflows
- Implementing zero-knowledge secret sharing for admin access
- Storing database passwords, API keys, and tokens securely
- Enabling audit trails for secret access and rotation
- Masking secrets in UIs and CLI outputs
- Using OCI registries to store sensitive configurations
- Application-level encryption for sensitive workloads
Module 11: Incident Response and Forensics in Kubernetes - Building a Kubernetes-specific incident response plan
- Isolating compromised nodes and pods safely
- Preserving forensic evidence from memory and disk
- Collecting logs, audit trails, and configuration states
- Using kubectl debug and ephemeral containers responsibly
- Generating memory dumps without crashing production systems
- Integrating with SOAR platforms for automated playbooks
- Conducting post-incident root cause analysis
- Rebuilding affected components from trusted sources
- Identifying attack origins using network flow analysis
- Documenting findings for legal and compliance teams
- Testing response procedures with tabletop exercises
- Creating immutable snapshots of cluster state post-breach
- Using Velero for secure backup and recovery workflows
- Validating recovery integrity with cryptographic hashing
Module 12: Compliance, Auditing, and Reporting - Mapping Kubernetes controls to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001
- Generating compliance reports from audit logs
- Using kube-bench for automated CIS benchmark checks
- Tracking configuration drift over time
- Integrating with GRC platforms (ServiceNow, Drata)
- Creating Sarbanes-Oxley compliant access attestations
- Documenting separation of duties in Kubernetes operations
- Producing audit trails for external regulators
- Automating evidence collection with API queries
- Maintaining version-controlled security policies
- Using Open Policy Agent for compliance-as-code
- Reporting on image provenance and vulnerability status
- Validating encryption standards across the stack
- Documenting disaster recovery and backup strategies
- Obtaining third-party attestations and penetration test results
Module 13: Advanced Topics in Enterprise-Scale Security - Securing multi-cluster federations and global services
- Implementing cluster API with hardened control planes
- Using Rancher and OpenShift securely in hybrid cloud
- Protecting against supply chain attacks in open source
- Validating Kubernetes dependencies with SLSA
- Implementing air-gapped clusters with offline operations
- Securing edge computing deployments with K3s
- Using confidential computing for sensitive workloads
- Running Kubernetes on bare metal with secure boot
- Managing nation-state level threat models
- Designing immutable clusters with declarative state
- Integrating with hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Using TPMs for node attestation
- Implementing end-to-end zero trust with SPIFFE/SPIRE
- Validating service identity across clusters and clouds
Module 14: Hands-On Implementation Projects - Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams
Module 15: Certification Preparation and Career Advancement - Reviewing key domains for Kubernetes security certification exams
- Practicing scenario-based assessment questions
- Mapping course content to CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
- Translating implementation projects into professional portfolio artifacts
- Writing security documentation for leadership and audit teams
- Structuring your experience for resumes and interviews
- Demonstrating ROI of security improvements to stakeholders
- Presenting security architecture decisions with confidence
- Earning your Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
- Using the certificate to validate skills with employers and clients
- Accessing exclusive alumni resources and job boards
- Joining enterprise security communities and working groups
- Staying updated with monthly security bulletins
- Receiving invitations to invite-only expert roundtables
- Building long-term career momentum in cloud security
- Integrating image scanning into CI stage with Trivy and Clair
- Preventing deployment of vulnerable or unpatched images
- Signing and attesting artifacts using Sigstore and Fulcio
- Validating provenance using in-toto and SLSA framework
- Using read-only service accounts in CI environments
- Securing pipeline secrets with external secret managers
- Leveraging GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins securely
- Running CI workers in isolated, ephemeral environments
- Implementing pull request security gates
- Enabling automatic rollback on security policy failure
- Verifying Helm chart integrity and provenance
- Scanning Kubernetes manifests with kube-linter and Checkov
- Using templating engines (Helm, Kustomize) with secure defaults
- Protecting against supply chain attacks via dependency checks
- Integrating SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) generation
Module 9: Runtime Security and Threat Detection - Deploying Falco for real-time anomaly detection
- Writing custom rules for suspicious process execution
- Detecting privilege escalation attempts inside containers
- Monitoring file system access and configuration changes
- Alerting on unexpected network connections or DNS queries
- Integrating with SIEM systems (Splunk, ELK, Datadog)
- Using eBPF for low-overhead security observability
- Collecting and analyzing audit logs at scale
- Setting up alert fatigue prevention with intelligent thresholds
- Responding to incidents with predefined runbooks
- Detecting crypto-mining and malware behavior patterns
- Identifying misconfigurations post-deployment
- Using Tetragon for advanced Kubernetes runtime enforcement
- Protecting against container escape techniques
- Correlating events across control plane, nodes, and pods
Module 10: Secret Management and Data Protection - Comparing Kubernetes Secrets with external secret managers
- Using HashiCorp Vault for dynamic secret generation
- Integrating AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager
- Automating secret rotation with external controllers
- Preventing secret leakage in logs and error messages
- Encrypting secrets at rest using KMS providers
- Managing TLS certificates with cert-manager and Let's Encrypt
- Validating secret access with RBAC and policy
- Using sealed-secrets for secure GitOps workflows
- Implementing zero-knowledge secret sharing for admin access
- Storing database passwords, API keys, and tokens securely
- Enabling audit trails for secret access and rotation
- Masking secrets in UIs and CLI outputs
- Using OCI registries to store sensitive configurations
- Application-level encryption for sensitive workloads
Module 11: Incident Response and Forensics in Kubernetes - Building a Kubernetes-specific incident response plan
- Isolating compromised nodes and pods safely
- Preserving forensic evidence from memory and disk
- Collecting logs, audit trails, and configuration states
- Using kubectl debug and ephemeral containers responsibly
- Generating memory dumps without crashing production systems
- Integrating with SOAR platforms for automated playbooks
- Conducting post-incident root cause analysis
- Rebuilding affected components from trusted sources
- Identifying attack origins using network flow analysis
- Documenting findings for legal and compliance teams
- Testing response procedures with tabletop exercises
- Creating immutable snapshots of cluster state post-breach
- Using Velero for secure backup and recovery workflows
- Validating recovery integrity with cryptographic hashing
Module 12: Compliance, Auditing, and Reporting - Mapping Kubernetes controls to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001
- Generating compliance reports from audit logs
- Using kube-bench for automated CIS benchmark checks
- Tracking configuration drift over time
- Integrating with GRC platforms (ServiceNow, Drata)
- Creating Sarbanes-Oxley compliant access attestations
- Documenting separation of duties in Kubernetes operations
- Producing audit trails for external regulators
- Automating evidence collection with API queries
- Maintaining version-controlled security policies
- Using Open Policy Agent for compliance-as-code
- Reporting on image provenance and vulnerability status
- Validating encryption standards across the stack
- Documenting disaster recovery and backup strategies
- Obtaining third-party attestations and penetration test results
Module 13: Advanced Topics in Enterprise-Scale Security - Securing multi-cluster federations and global services
- Implementing cluster API with hardened control planes
- Using Rancher and OpenShift securely in hybrid cloud
- Protecting against supply chain attacks in open source
- Validating Kubernetes dependencies with SLSA
- Implementing air-gapped clusters with offline operations
- Securing edge computing deployments with K3s
- Using confidential computing for sensitive workloads
- Running Kubernetes on bare metal with secure boot
- Managing nation-state level threat models
- Designing immutable clusters with declarative state
- Integrating with hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Using TPMs for node attestation
- Implementing end-to-end zero trust with SPIFFE/SPIRE
- Validating service identity across clusters and clouds
Module 14: Hands-On Implementation Projects - Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams
Module 15: Certification Preparation and Career Advancement - Reviewing key domains for Kubernetes security certification exams
- Practicing scenario-based assessment questions
- Mapping course content to CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
- Translating implementation projects into professional portfolio artifacts
- Writing security documentation for leadership and audit teams
- Structuring your experience for resumes and interviews
- Demonstrating ROI of security improvements to stakeholders
- Presenting security architecture decisions with confidence
- Earning your Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
- Using the certificate to validate skills with employers and clients
- Accessing exclusive alumni resources and job boards
- Joining enterprise security communities and working groups
- Staying updated with monthly security bulletins
- Receiving invitations to invite-only expert roundtables
- Building long-term career momentum in cloud security
- Comparing Kubernetes Secrets with external secret managers
- Using HashiCorp Vault for dynamic secret generation
- Integrating AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager
- Automating secret rotation with external controllers
- Preventing secret leakage in logs and error messages
- Encrypting secrets at rest using KMS providers
- Managing TLS certificates with cert-manager and Let's Encrypt
- Validating secret access with RBAC and policy
- Using sealed-secrets for secure GitOps workflows
- Implementing zero-knowledge secret sharing for admin access
- Storing database passwords, API keys, and tokens securely
- Enabling audit trails for secret access and rotation
- Masking secrets in UIs and CLI outputs
- Using OCI registries to store sensitive configurations
- Application-level encryption for sensitive workloads
Module 11: Incident Response and Forensics in Kubernetes - Building a Kubernetes-specific incident response plan
- Isolating compromised nodes and pods safely
- Preserving forensic evidence from memory and disk
- Collecting logs, audit trails, and configuration states
- Using kubectl debug and ephemeral containers responsibly
- Generating memory dumps without crashing production systems
- Integrating with SOAR platforms for automated playbooks
- Conducting post-incident root cause analysis
- Rebuilding affected components from trusted sources
- Identifying attack origins using network flow analysis
- Documenting findings for legal and compliance teams
- Testing response procedures with tabletop exercises
- Creating immutable snapshots of cluster state post-breach
- Using Velero for secure backup and recovery workflows
- Validating recovery integrity with cryptographic hashing
Module 12: Compliance, Auditing, and Reporting - Mapping Kubernetes controls to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001
- Generating compliance reports from audit logs
- Using kube-bench for automated CIS benchmark checks
- Tracking configuration drift over time
- Integrating with GRC platforms (ServiceNow, Drata)
- Creating Sarbanes-Oxley compliant access attestations
- Documenting separation of duties in Kubernetes operations
- Producing audit trails for external regulators
- Automating evidence collection with API queries
- Maintaining version-controlled security policies
- Using Open Policy Agent for compliance-as-code
- Reporting on image provenance and vulnerability status
- Validating encryption standards across the stack
- Documenting disaster recovery and backup strategies
- Obtaining third-party attestations and penetration test results
Module 13: Advanced Topics in Enterprise-Scale Security - Securing multi-cluster federations and global services
- Implementing cluster API with hardened control planes
- Using Rancher and OpenShift securely in hybrid cloud
- Protecting against supply chain attacks in open source
- Validating Kubernetes dependencies with SLSA
- Implementing air-gapped clusters with offline operations
- Securing edge computing deployments with K3s
- Using confidential computing for sensitive workloads
- Running Kubernetes on bare metal with secure boot
- Managing nation-state level threat models
- Designing immutable clusters with declarative state
- Integrating with hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Using TPMs for node attestation
- Implementing end-to-end zero trust with SPIFFE/SPIRE
- Validating service identity across clusters and clouds
Module 14: Hands-On Implementation Projects - Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams
Module 15: Certification Preparation and Career Advancement - Reviewing key domains for Kubernetes security certification exams
- Practicing scenario-based assessment questions
- Mapping course content to CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
- Translating implementation projects into professional portfolio artifacts
- Writing security documentation for leadership and audit teams
- Structuring your experience for resumes and interviews
- Demonstrating ROI of security improvements to stakeholders
- Presenting security architecture decisions with confidence
- Earning your Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
- Using the certificate to validate skills with employers and clients
- Accessing exclusive alumni resources and job boards
- Joining enterprise security communities and working groups
- Staying updated with monthly security bulletins
- Receiving invitations to invite-only expert roundtables
- Building long-term career momentum in cloud security
- Mapping Kubernetes controls to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001
- Generating compliance reports from audit logs
- Using kube-bench for automated CIS benchmark checks
- Tracking configuration drift over time
- Integrating with GRC platforms (ServiceNow, Drata)
- Creating Sarbanes-Oxley compliant access attestations
- Documenting separation of duties in Kubernetes operations
- Producing audit trails for external regulators
- Automating evidence collection with API queries
- Maintaining version-controlled security policies
- Using Open Policy Agent for compliance-as-code
- Reporting on image provenance and vulnerability status
- Validating encryption standards across the stack
- Documenting disaster recovery and backup strategies
- Obtaining third-party attestations and penetration test results
Module 13: Advanced Topics in Enterprise-Scale Security - Securing multi-cluster federations and global services
- Implementing cluster API with hardened control planes
- Using Rancher and OpenShift securely in hybrid cloud
- Protecting against supply chain attacks in open source
- Validating Kubernetes dependencies with SLSA
- Implementing air-gapped clusters with offline operations
- Securing edge computing deployments with K3s
- Using confidential computing for sensitive workloads
- Running Kubernetes on bare metal with secure boot
- Managing nation-state level threat models
- Designing immutable clusters with declarative state
- Integrating with hardware security modules (HSMs)
- Using TPMs for node attestation
- Implementing end-to-end zero trust with SPIFFE/SPIRE
- Validating service identity across clusters and clouds
Module 14: Hands-On Implementation Projects - Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams
Module 15: Certification Preparation and Career Advancement - Reviewing key domains for Kubernetes security certification exams
- Practicing scenario-based assessment questions
- Mapping course content to CKS (Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist)
- Translating implementation projects into professional portfolio artifacts
- Writing security documentation for leadership and audit teams
- Structuring your experience for resumes and interviews
- Demonstrating ROI of security improvements to stakeholders
- Presenting security architecture decisions with confidence
- Earning your Certificate of Completion from The Art of Service
- Using the certificate to validate skills with employers and clients
- Accessing exclusive alumni resources and job boards
- Joining enterprise security communities and working groups
- Staying updated with monthly security bulletins
- Receiving invitations to invite-only expert roundtables
- Building long-term career momentum in cloud security
- Project 1: Harden a default EKS cluster using AWS best practices
- Project 2: Build a zero-trust network policy suite for microservices
- Project 3: Implement full lifecycle image security with signing and scanning
- Project 4: Configure OPA Gatekeeper policies for PCI-DSS compliance
- Project 5: Deploy Falco with custom rules for anomaly detection
- Project 6: Integrate Vault for dynamic secret injection
- Project 7: Set up secure GitOps workflow with ArgoCD and sealed-secrets
- Project 8: Perform a security audit using kube-audit and generate report
- Project 9: Simulate and respond to a container escape incident
- Project 10: Document and present your security architecture to auditors
- Configuring multi-region disaster recovery with encrypted backups
- Implementing automated certificate rotation across 100+ services
- Building a self-service security toolkit for developers
- Creating role-based dashboards for security visibility
- Designing a security training program for platform teams