As Kubernetes environments mature into production, they are prime targets for ransomware. While traditional infrastructure relies on physical air-gaps and hardware clean rooms, cloud-native architecture requires a software-defined approach to immutability, isolation, and backup validation for recovery. How do you safely restore critical apps without risking re-infection and in the shortest time possible?

In this session, we explore how to design a zero-trust cyber recovery solution for K8s. We talk about securing the data copy management pipeline: utilizing OIDC for identity-driven API access, locking down backup RBAC, and using CSI snapshots alongside S3 Object Lock to ensure immutability. We propose an approach to building an automated "Clean Room" to facilitate safe workload recovery, while utilizing Antrea and Istio based traffic management to neutralize malware beaconing and lateral reinfection during forensic analysis. Walk away with a complete blueprint for K8s cyber recovery.