Fix · Project
Kubernetes and Cloud Infrastructure Hardening
acks.io infrastructure hardening is a project in which we implement security improvements in your Kubernetes clusters and cloud accounts: least-privilege access, network isolation, encryption, policy guardrails and secure defaults. Every change is made in code, rolled out in stages and handed over to your team.
An audit tells you what is wrong. Hardening is the work of fixing it without breaking production.
What we harden
Secure defaults, enforced in code
Identity and access
- Least-privilege RBAC and cloud IAM roles
- Workload identity instead of static keys
- SSO for humans, just-in-time privileged access
- Scoped CI/CD credentials
Network isolation
- Private clusters and private endpoints
- Default-deny NetworkPolicies
- Segmented VNets / VPCs and firewall rules
- WAF-protected ingress
Data protection
- Encryption at rest, including customer-managed keys
- TLS everywhere, certificate automation
- Secrets moved to a managed secret store
- Backups with tested restores
Workload security
- Pod Security Standards enforcement
- Non-root, read-only, minimal-capability containers
- Admission policies for images and configuration
Guardrails
- Cloud policies (Azure Policy, AWS SCPs, GCP Org Policies)
- Policy as code in Kubernetes
- Image scanning and signing in CI
Detection
- Audit logs collected and retained off-cluster
- Alerts on security-relevant changes
- Cloud-native threat detection enabled and routed
How we roll it out
Without breaking production
- Prioritise. We start from the highest-risk findings and agree the order with your team.
- Observe first. Where the tooling allows it, policies run in audit or dry-run mode first, so you see what would be blocked.
- Enforce in stages. Non-production first, then production, namespace by namespace or account by account.
- Hand over. Everything is in your repositories with documentation, so new resources stay secure by default.
From our work
Hardening we have delivered
For Boulevard Tech, an AI legal tech company handling sensitive documents, we built an Azure platform that is encrypted by default: customer-managed keys in Key Vault across all data stores, private AKS and private endpoints, Azure Front Door WAF at the edge and Azure Policy guardrails, all in Terraform.
For an airline cargo company, we hardened AKS networking and firewalling to meet airline security policies, and secured an on-prem Kubernetes platform with strict firewalling, RBAC and secret management.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is infrastructure hardening?
Infrastructure hardening is the work of reducing the attack surface of your systems: removing unnecessary access and exposure, enforcing secure defaults, and adding guardrails so new resources are secure by default. For acks.io it means implementing those changes in your Kubernetes clusters and cloud accounts, in code.
Do we need an audit first?
Not necessarily. If you already have findings from an audit, a penetration test or a customer security questionnaire, we can start from those. Otherwise we begin with a short assessment to agree priorities.
Will hardening break our applications?
Changes are rolled out in stages — audit mode or dry-run first where the tooling allows it, then enforcement — so that teams see what would be blocked before anything is blocked.
Is the result maintained after the project?
Everything is delivered as code with documentation, so your team owns it. If you want us to maintain it, that is covered by Managed Cloud or Fractional Platform Engineering.
Talk to an engineer about your infrastructure
A 30-minute call with a senior engineer, not a sales rep. We ask about your setup and what is worrying you, and tell you honestly whether we can help.