Failure Pattern
Autoscaling replicates workloads without stable identity. Attackers exploit scaling events to blend in.
What We See in the Field
A compromised workload participates in scaling groups. Monitoring tools see identical metadata and assume it is part of the trusted set.
Underlying Causes
Ephemeral identity
Cloned metadata
Certificates shared across replicas
High churn overwhelming security tools
Identity drift in dynamic scaling
Trust-Native Network Resolution
DTL provides persistent identity to each workload regardless of scale. Autoscaling does not create blind spots because identity remains immutable.
Broken Trust Assumption
This failure pattern has played out repeatedly in real security incidents—not because of missing tools, but because of how trust is assigned.
In breaches such as SolarWinds, Capital One, Okta, and MOVEit, attackers did not bypass security controls. They operated through them, using valid identities, trusted credentials, signed code, and encrypted sessions. Security systems accepted these signals as proof of legitimacy, allowing malicious behavior to proceed.
The common thread across these incidents is structural: identity was assumed based on trust signals, not proven at the moment of execution.