Prometheus, an open-source monitoring and alerting tool, is widely used by cloud-native organizations for tracking real-time metrics, but historically lacked built-in security features like authentication and encryption. This changed with the introduction of TLS and basic authentication support in version 2.24.0, addressing concerns over exposed sensitive data from publicly accessible endpoints. Despite these updates, many organizations have yet to implement these security measures, leaving considerable operational information vulnerable to unauthorized access. The blog highlights how this exposure can lead to leakage of sensitive data, such as usernames, passwords, and configuration files, often without developers' awareness. It emphasizes the necessity of adopting these security features to protect against data leaks and suggests using external tools like nginx for enhanced security. The blog also encourages organizations to routinely check their Prometheus endpoints for potential data exposure, even if they have implemented the new security features, and to stay informed about security practices through resources like JFrog Xray.