Are you wondering what Amazon Web Services (AWS) security services do? It allows companies to establish and scale up applications within no time in a protected way. Therefore, consistently inserting new tools and services come across new security challenges more often. According to the reports, around 70% of IT companies are worried about the security level they have in the cloud. And also approximately, 61% of SMBs think that their data can be at huge risk in the cloud.
If you are running any big or modern organization. there are high chances you are using virtual, physical, private cloud and public cloud computing combinations. This type of approach is one of the most effective approaches as it offers affordability and productivity both.
So what’s the problem? Such heterogeneous approaches can raise cyber security issues if not maintained adequately. For this, you can use 0scale.io solutions as they provide you with firm security controls for not just on-premises systems, but for your PaaS, IaaS, and DevOps environments including the traditional IT networks.
This blog will discuss AWS’s top 10 AWS security services tools for your accounts and applications. AWS is highly focused on the security of its environment as cybersecurity is one of the major concerns when we are running our IT networks.
So in this paper, we will discuss how these tools are helping you in the running of your AWS environment. We will discuss how these tools are going to improve your cybersecurity and take it to the next level. We will also review AWS account security versus application and service security.
Account Security versus Application and Service Security
It is important to know that AWS offers AWS security services tools for both application and service security and account security. AWS security tools cater to both the perimeters whether it is account security or application and service security.
It is not wrong if we say that an AWS account acts as an attack vector. Why, because its data and resources are accessible through public API (application programming interface). So there is a dire need to implement high security to the accounts. The strategies implemented by AWS help in preventing the leakage of data to the public. For this, AWS uses a secure identity and access management strategy so that data is not leaked to the public by offering you access patterns and configured permissions. It also keeps a record of your actions for audit and compliance purposes.
what’s more?
This was all about the account security provided by the AWS security services environment, but what about applications and services security? How are applications and services secured in the AWS environment? Applications and services running in the AWS environment are prone to several sorts of threats such as attacks from Cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, brute-force, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS). They attack to slow down your service and application and threaten security as well. Without the provision of adequate management, there are higher chances of leakage of your sensitive information to the public like database credentials.
The strategies implemented by AWS help in preventing the leakage of data to the public. For this, AWS uses a secure identity and access management strategy so that data is not leaked to the public by offering you access patterns and configured permissions. It also keeps a record of your actions for audit and compliance purposes. As mentioned before it is very important to maintain high security for your applications and services when migrating to the cloud.
So how to cope with these potential threats?
The following AWS Account Security Tools help you in keeping your systems safe and secure. They help you in preventing the leakage of your data to the public.
Top 6 AWS AWS security services Tools
1. AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
When we talk about controlling the access of your resources. AWS IAM is an important security tool as it provides its customers with controlled access. It provides you with the right to permit your users for accessing the resources. This helps in minimizing the chances of attack from outside. AWS IAM provides you with multi-factor authentication to secure the access of the user and it also supports the (SSO) single sign-on
You can use AWS IAM for testing and troubleshooting the permission extent that you have assigned to your clients and users following the rule of least privileged of the IAM configuration.
2. Amazon GuardDuty
Amazon Guard Duty enables you to detect malicious activities prevailing in your environment by the use of machine learning. It provides continuous monitoring and analyses of every activity of yours. through combining CloudTrail event logs, VPC Flow Logs, S3 event logs, and DNS logs. Amazon GuardDuty helps detect malicious activity or when your instances are serving mining or malware bitcoin. It also identifies exposed or leaked credentials. It can also detect abnormalities in access patterns. The pricing range depends on the amount of data being analyzed, the cost increases with the amount of data. Price usually increases linearly, meaning that price will also increase when you are increasing your AWS environment.
3. Amazon Macie
This AWS security services tool is known as Amazon Macie. it is concerned with protecting your confidential data present in the S3 buckets in the AWS environment. you can figure out where your sensitive data is, then identifies that data and makes it secure. Amazon Maci will notify you whenever your data or your S3 bucket is accessible to the public or is unencrypted. It alerts you whenever your AWS account is shared with outsiders.
The number of S3 buckets and the amount of data that Macie is monitoring are the determining factors of Amazon Macie’s pricing.
4. AWS Config
If you want to record and evaluate your AWS resource configuration continuously, then AWS Config will be the best choice for you. As it does a continuous evaluation of your AWS resources and keeps records of all the changes that you have made in your resources. This is very important for the running of your IT resources in the AWS security services environment. For E2C instances, all the volumes must be encrypted, so if any volume is not encrypted AWS Config encrypts it or deletes it accordingly.
AWS Config requires configuration per region, so it must be configured in all regions so that all the resources can be recorded and evaluated continuously.
5. AWS CloudTrail
If you want to track all the activities that you are performing in the AWS environment then it would be the best option to use AWS CloudTrail for that purpose. As it tracks all the activities performed in your AWS environment. It keeps a record of all your activities and events so that you can view all your activities. This helps you in maintaining a secured AWS environment. It notifies you whenever an abnormal activity is done in your AWS environment.
CloudTrail was introduced in 2017, so you can manage all your accounts by using CloudTrail within your organization.
6. Security Hub
Now if you want to combine all the above services, the security hub can be helpful for you in this case. AWS security hub functions by combining all the above services in a centralized and unified way. It collects and combines all the data gathered from your AWS accounts functioning in all the regions. Then it provides you with a complete view of the AWS security posture
The most important feature offered by the security hub is that supports the security standards recognized by the industry such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security and CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark. It is one of the simplest and most comprehensive tools that provide your AWS accounts with improved security.
These were the AWS account security tools that you can use for your AWS accounts. Now let’s discuss the AWS application and services security tools. The following are the top 4 AWS application and services security tools.
Top 4 AWS Application Security Tools
1. Amazon Inspector
Amazon Inspector is one of the most effective security tools for applications and services deployed in the AWS environment. It conducts a security assessment of all the AWS services and applications present in the E2C instances.
You can install Amazon Inspector on your E2C instances, as it helps you in generating a detailed report consisting of all the security findings. It will keep a check and balance on your application and its security.
2. AWS Shield
AWS Shield protects against distributed denial-of-service attacks. It is a fully managed service that acts as a shield for your application against such attacks led by DDoS. It guards and shields your applications running in the AWS environment. AWS Shield protects your applications from malicious activities from the outside. AWS security services shield can be used for multiple accounts and applications within your organization.
3. AWS Web Application Firewall
This tool known as WAF or AWS Web Application Firewall is also a well-known and famous security tool for the protection of your AWS applications. It protects the applications and blocks access of your application to outsiders. It restricts the number of users per IP for enhanced security of the application.
So if you are looking for an adequate tool that can protect your AWS applications with efficiency and ease then it is one of the best tools for you to use.
4. AWS Secrets Manager
If you want to store and retrieve all your private and sensitive information like certificates, tokens, and database credentials, then you can opt for AWS Secrets Manager. It is responsible for creating, deleting, updating, and retrieving secrets. It is a managed service that helps you in restoring and retrieve your sensitive information.
Conclusion
So to sum up, if you are looking for improved and enhanced security AWS security tools are the best solution for you. It offers you ample security tools for both your accounts and applications or services that you can use according to your need and preference.
Figuring out the vulnerabilities is one portion of the overall AWS security services. Work with the long-term mission to make sure that the cloud assets are configured appropriately from the beginning. Allowing such tools will offer important insights into AWS account and application security, but most of the security incidents come from misconfiguration. The company’s mission is the big help to choose the ideal tools to protect the cloud environment.
If you want to learn more about cloud computing services, check our blog page to discover how different AWS security services are winning the technological world.
