ication to perform security analytics. Should a threat be detected, various mitigation steps can be taken, such as altering intrusion prevention system (IPS) settings, change routing, or deploy more resources to better absorb an attack. This can be achieved by ASTRA working with ONAP to deploy the appropriate updates across the infrastructure, minimizing the service interruption caused by security threat. SDN increases the dependency on application software, which brings with it new benefits and challenges. The benefits include new partitioning options like containers and the opportunity to automate via integration with continuous integration (CI), continuous deployment (CD), and defect management tools. The primary challenge is to maintain emphasis on traditional secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) measures such as threat modeling, security testing, and vulnerability remediation. In AT&T's implementation of the network cloud, VNFs are onboarded to SDC module. Prior to distribution into the run-time environment, all VNFs undergo certification testing. The overall objective of this effort is to incorporate testing of a number of key security requirements and best practices into the VNF certification process in SDC where VNFs will be evaluated against (~35 security requirements). The goal is to automate this compliance function. Automating the evalua- tion of those security requirements is done in two parts: Network Security Part 1-UPSTREAM automation The upstream processing involves locating data points about the VNF (resource mod- ule or service) to determine - Whether a particular security requirement is applicable, and if SO - Notifying the VNF owner of the evaluation, which will be performed to determine whether the security requirement is effective Part 2-DOWNSTREAM automation The downstream processing involves evaluating a particular VNF against the relevant security requirements identified in Part 1 including - Measuring the effectiveness of each security requirement and providing a pass/ fail conc