It's a fact: microservices architectures are more secure than monolithic ones. But it's also true that they're not impervious to attack—and that attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in the way you've set up your microservices architecture to wreak havoc on your architecture and even steal data.

Here are eight security best practices that will help keep your microservices architecture safe from harm:

1. Make your microservices architecture secure by design.

2. Scan for dependencies and vulnerabilities.

3. Use HTTPS everywhere (even when it's not required).

4. Use access and identity tokens for authentication and authorization between services in your architecture.

5. Encrypt and protect secrets (like passwords) so they can't be stolen when they're transmitted over the network or stored in databases.

6. Slow down attackers by limiting the amount of resources they can consume while they're trying to break into your system—for example, limit the number of connections they can make before getting blocked by your firewall or other security measures).

7. Know your cloud provider's security features

8. Cover your security bases.