Streamline your FedRAMP certification with this container security checklist

Organizations pursuing FedRAMP certification face numerous hurdles, as detailed in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) latest cloud security report. The journey involves a wide range in authorization costs, often reaching into the millions, and the challenge of meeting stringent technical requirements. Moreover, issues like securing an agency sponsor and managing stakeholder engagement add layers of complexity. Coupled with broader concerns of cybersecurity, skilled workforce management, and tracking costs, the path to FedRAMP certification is a demanding one.

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FedRAMP accreditation involves rigorous scrutiny of your cloud infrastructure, with container security being a critical area. Chainguard is helping organizations like Snowflake achieve these container security milestones to fast track development processes and measures for compliance requirements.

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‍"Snowflake is on a mission to help organizations scale their cloud businesses securely. Adoption of Chainguard Images has transformed the way our team builds securely with open source software across the organization and has helped to streamline and strengthen our FedRAMP certifications by providing fast open source vulnerability remediation."

At Chainguard, we want to help you simplify your FedRAMP journey, so we have put together a comprehensive checklist for the framework's container security requirements. Here is a preview:

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Step 1: Implement asset management best practices

Identifying and tracking assets is a critical component required for an Authorizing Official (AO) to assess risk and the overall trustworthiness of a FedRAMP accreditation package. This should include first and third party components built or ingested during the software development life cycle (SDLC) and deployed within the accreditation boundary.

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Step 2: Automate container supply chain and hardening

Once you understand your container security landscape, apply industry frameworks and best practices for hardening images. Leverage automated tools to streamline container hardening controls to all assets within the accreditation boundary.

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Step 3: Creating a continuous vulnerability management plan

Once you have a solid asset management and container supply chain plan in place, vulnerability management becomes less of a burden. Evaluating your assets against vulnerability management guidelines is a great first step to identify potential gaps and address any known vulnerabilities before submitting your FedRAMP accreditation package. This is critical to a successful FedRAMP certification process.

To learn more, download our checklist and start fortifying your cloud ecosystem today, and check out our Compliance & Risk Mitigation resources to see how Chainguard can help.