Meeting RBI & SEBI Compliance with AccuKnox CNAPP – Strengthening Cloud & App Security

Financial institutions are under pressure to adopt cloud technologies while meeting stringent regulatory requirements. For instance, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) operates in a highly secure, air-gapped environment to protect sensitive financial data, but this setup poses challenges in integrating modern security tools without compromising compliance.

All major financial institutions like the RBI need to secure CI/CD pipelines, container registries, and code repositories while ensuring no external connectivity risks. This is a common struggle for many regulated entities (REs) under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which mandates strict governance, data security, and transparency in cloud operations through its nine-principle framework. This framework, detailed in SEBI’s circular dated March 6, 2023 (SEBI Framework for Cloud Services), is a principle-based approach with nine high-level principles to guide REs, including stock exchanges, clearing corporations, depositories, stockbrokers, mutual funds, and KYC registration agencies.

💡How can your organization balance innovation with such rigorous demands?

Pain Points for Financial Organizations 

• Financial institutions are prime cyberattack targets, with 74% facing ransomware in 2021–2022 and an average breach costing $5.72M, driven by the high value of financial data (e.g., credit card numbers sell for $30 each).
• 65% of cloud attacks now target financial firms and telcos, often exploiting hidden misconfigurations that compromise security, highlighting the urgency of robust cloud-native protection.
• Compliance is an ongoing challenge with overlapping standards like NIST, PCI-DSS, GDPR, and SOC; failure to meet them led to $7B in fines for financial organizations in 2022 alone.
• Banks must balance security and innovation by adopting cloud-native security solutions that prioritize threats, detect misconfigurations, and ensure real-time compliance without disrupting business growth.

AccuKnox CNAPP steps in as a solution, offering a platform to secure cloud and application environments while aligning with SEBI’s requirements.

A Central Bank’s Challenge and AccuKnox’s Solution

A leading financial regulator needed to secure its air-gapped infrastructure, which included Kubernetes clusters, a Red Hat Quay registry, and CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and OpenShift. The institution faced a problem: how to integrate security tools like SonarQube for static code analysis and automate vulnerability tracking without external connectivity, all while meeting compliance standards. Manual processes were slowing down their operations, and misconfigurations in their Kubernetes environment posed risks.

AccuKnox CNAPP provided a tailored solution. The platform was deployed in the institution’s air-gapped Kubernetes environment using Helm charts, ensuring no internet dependency. It integrated with their existing tools— CI/CD (Jenkins, Github, Harness), container scanning (Quay, Docker), and code analysis (SonarQube, Veracode, Semgrep, Checkmarx) —while automating vulnerability tracking through Jira. This allowed the institution to scan for misconfigurations, container images, and centralize findings in a control plane, all within their isolated setup. The result? A streamlined security process that met compliance needs without disrupting workflows. 

Why Cloud Native and Application Security Matter for SEBI Compliance?

SEBI’s framework requires REs like stockbrokers and mutual funds to enforce data localization, implement robust security controls, and maintain transparency. Cloud-native security protects dynamic multi-cloud setups, while application security ensures software handling sensitive data is vulnerability-free. Without these, you risk non-compliance or breaches. For example, how do you ensure your applications are secure before deployment?

Here’s a quick look at how these security measures map to SEBI’s expectations:

How AccuKnox Solves These Challenges

AccuKnox CNAPP offers a unified platform to secure your cloud workloads, applications, and infrastructure, directly addressing SEBI’s requirements. It integrates seamlessly into your workflows, whether you’re operating in a hybrid setup or an air-gapped environment. Here’s how it aligns with SEBI’s principles:

• Governance & Compliance: Tools like CIS benchmarks help you monitor and manage risks in real-time.
• Data Security: Workload hardening and container security ensure your data stays protected.
• Security Controls: Features like Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) scanning catch vulnerabilities early.
• Transparency: Integration with Jira automates incident tracking, making reporting straightforward.

What sets AccuKnox apart is its platform approach—it consolidates multiple security functions into one solution, reducing complexity. It supports air-gapped deployments for sensitive environments and integrates with tools like Jenkins and OpenShift, ensuring security doesn’t disrupt your CI/CD pipelines. 

This mapping demonstrates how AccuKnox’s features, such as air-gapped deployment for secure on-premises operations and SonarQube SAST integration for secure code, address SEBI’s principles.

Real-world Applications for Financial Institutions

Let’s look at how AccuKnox works in practice for banking and financial entities:

These examples show how AccuKnox helps you meet SEBI’s demands while keeping your operations secure and efficient. Here’s a simplified flowchart of how AccuKnox integrates into your CI/CD pipeline:

This streamlined process ensures security without slowing down development. 

Takeaways

In conclusion, AccuKnox CNAPP is a powerful tool for financial and banking institutions seeking to meet SEBI’s compliance requirements while strengthening their cloud and application security. By leveraging AccuKnox’s comprehensive features, REs can ensure secure and compliant cloud adoption, protecting operations and maintaining stakeholder trust. The five key takeaways are:

1. Solve data security challenges by implementing robust encryption and access controls, reducing data breach risks for SEBI operations.
2. Enhance application security through integrated SAST and DAST tools, improving regulatory compliance and investor protection.
3. Streamline compliance management with built-in support for STIG, CIS, and other benchmarks, ensuring efficient audits and reporting for SEBI adherence.
4. Improve incident response with observability and monitoring capabilities, enhancing operational resilience for financial SEBI operations.
5. Optimize vendor management by gaining visibility into CSP security posture, fostering flexibility and compliance in SEBI-regulated environments.

You can protect your workloads and achieve runtime security using AccuKnox. AccuKnox CNAPP secures your Kubernetes and other cloud workloads using Kernel Native Primitives such as AppArmor, SELinux, and eBPF. Reach out to us for additional guidance in planning your cloud security program.