Guest author: Harikrishna Kundariya
Harikrishna Kundariya, is a marketer, developer, IoT, Cloud & AWS savvy, co-founder, and Director of eSparkBiz, a Software Development Company. His 14+ years of experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT and SaaS applications.
Introduction
Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing highly relies on strong security measures. Organizations must have clear and practical strategies to protect against the threats in place. This guide discusses basic AWS security best practices for securing your cloud infrastructure.
- Understand AWS Shared Responsibility Model
AWS utilizes a Shared Responsibility Model structure for its operation:
- It is the responsibility of AWS to handle infrastructure, network, and physical security.
- Customers secure their data, applications and identity management.
Tip: Regularly review AWS compliance certifications and reports for what AWS offers as security options.
- Identity and Access Management
- Create IAM Roles and Policies: Set up such permissions with AWS Identity and Access Management
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Call for the two-step verification for any account access.
- Grant Least Privilege: Give only those rights needed
- Use IAM Access Analyzer: Search and delete extra permissions to tighten security
For example, an e-commerce site uses IAM roles that have limited permissions for its Lambda functions.
- Network Security
- Build Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) with different public and private networks
- Control traffic in and out of your instances via Security Groups and Network ACLs
- Block common web attacks with the Web Application Firewall – Deploy AWS WAF
- Protect your application from DDoS attacks using AWS Shield setup.
For example, the AWS WAF blocks suspicious IP addresses and identifies the attack pattern utilized by a financial service company.
- Data Protection and Encryption
- Protect data with AWS KMS and Certificate Manager
- Limit access to the Set S3 Bucket Policies with resource policies and require encryption.
- If you want to store application credentials, add AWS Secrets Manager.
For instance, AWS KMS is used by healthcare companies to encrypt patient data and to rotate encryption keys automatically and frequently.
- Monitoring and Logging
- Track all account activity in the AWS environment by enabling AWS CloudTrail
- Monitor application performance and create alerts — install Amazon CloudWatch
- Check your systems for compliance continuously with AWS Config.
For example, an online learning platform alerts CloudWatch alarms when there are strange patterns of traffic flowing in.
- Incident Response and Management
- Create Response Plans by defining clear steps of action for dealing with security incident identification, response, and recovery.
- Automatically respond to security threats with the use of AWS Lambda.
- Provide a single dashboard to monitor security alerts and comply with security policies with AWS Security Hub.
For example, a logistics company isolates compromised systems by quickly using AWS Lambda.
- Compliance and Auditing
- Keep AWS resources continuously in check against regulatory requirements using AWS Audit Manager
- Get AWS compliance documents for your audits from AWS Artifact
- Track resource ownership, implement Resource Tagging and simplify auditing
For example, the financial technology firm uses AWS Audit Manager to stay compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
Real-life Data and ODE Applications
Security concepts of AWS systems become understandable through the examination of real-life data together with mathematical ODE models. In cybersecurity fields, ODEs serve multiple purposes, which include:
- DDoS Attack Modeling: DDoS Attack Modeling enables the prediction of attack growth patterns and the forecasting of its potential consequences.
- Intrusion Detection: An Intrusion Detection system assists us in the detection of suspicious patterns with the help of predictive algorithms.
- Malware Spread Analysis: Analysis of malware propagation allows security teams to develop protective strategies through rate evaluation.
Real-Life Examples and Data Sources
Here are some real-life examples to learn about the security challenges faced by various companies.
- Safeguarding Customer Data at Equifax
The sensitive personal data of 147 million consumers became publicly exposed when Equifax fell victim to a data breach in 2017. The incident occurred because Equifax maintained inadequate encryption procedures and weak access security measures. The breach triggered major legal penalties together with substantial financial losses while damaging Equifax’s reputation for a prolonged period.
Solution with AWS:
- The implementation of AWS IAM with least privilege principles would have created restricted access to protect sensitive data.
- The AWS Key Management Service (KMS) can establish encryption for data during both rest states and transit periods through server-side encryption.
Example:
| IAM Policy { “Version”: “2012-10-17”, “Statement”: [ { “Effect”: “Allow”, “Action”: [ “s3:GetObject” ], “Resource”: “arn:aws:s3:::equifax-sensitive-data/*”, “Condition”: { “StringEquals”: { “aws:PrincipalArn”: “arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/SensitiveDataAccessRole” } } } ] } S3 Bucket Policy { “Version”: “2012-10-17”, “Statement”: [ { “Effect”: “Deny”, “Principal”: “*”, “Action”: “s3:PutObject”, “Resource”: “arn:aws:s3:::equifax-sensitive-data/*”, “Condition”: { “StringNotEqualsIfExists”: { “s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption”: “aws:kms” } } } ] } |
- Protecting GitHub Applications through DDoS Attack Mitigation Strategies
In 2018, the GitHub network suffered a huge Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)attack at 1.35 Tbps. The incident taught GitHub to strengthen its defenses against DDoS attacks even though it successfully rebounded from the attack.
Solution with AWS:
- AWS Shield automatically identifies and defends against DDoS attacks for its customers.
- By using the AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF), users can configure rules to block malicious traffic.
Example:
| WAF Rule { “Name”: “BlockMaliciousIPs”, “Priority”: 1, “Action”: { “Block”: {} }, “Statement”: { “IPSetReferenceStatement”: { “ARN”: “arn:aws:wafv2:us-east-1:123456789012:ipset/BlockedIPs” } }, “VisibilityConfig”: { “SampledRequestsEnabled”: true, “CloudWatchMetricsEnabled”: true, “MetricName”: “BlockedIPs” } } AWS Shield Advanced Setup aws shield create-protection \ –name “GitHubProtection” \ –resource-arn arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-east-1:123456789012:loadbalancer/app/MyApp |
- Security compliance across Financial Services functions at Capital One Company
Capital One faced a security breach that exposed over 100 million customer records because of the incorrect configuration of its web application firewall in 2019. The company faced significant obstacles when trying to adhere to security regulations such as GDPR and PCI DSS.
Solution with AWS:
- The AWS CloudTrail service provides API activity logs to help users achieve visibility and auditing purposes.
- AWS Config operates as a continuous system that tracks and records the configurations of all AWS resources.
- AWS Security Hub presents users with a complete summary of their compliance positions.
Example:
| CloudTrail Configuration { “TrailName”: “CapitalOneTrail”, “S3BucketName”: “capitalone-cloudtrail-logs”, “IsMultiRegionTrail”: true, “IncludeGlobalServiceEvents”: true, “EnableLogFileValidation”: true } AWS Config Rule { “ConfigRuleName”: “S3BucketEncryptionRule”, “Source”: { “Owner”: “AWS”, “SourceIdentifier”: “S3_BUCKET_SERVER_SIDE_ENCRYPTION_ENABLED” } } |
Conclusion
The implementation of AWS cloud migration and deployment security needs proactive measures. By having the right combination of shared responsibility knowledge, IAM policies, network protection, data encryption, constant monitoring, and incident planning, organizations can reduce security threats to a minimum.
By adopting these best practices, your AWS security will improve and you will be able to operate cloud systems safely.
References:
https://breached.company/case-study-how-equifax-recovered-from-its-massive-data-breach
https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/innovators/capital-one
