AWS Cookbook

Chapter 1. Security

1.0 Introduction

The average cost of a data breach in 2021 reached a new high of USD 4.24 million as reported by the IBM/Ponemon Institute Report. When you choose to run your applications in the cloud, you trust AWS to provide a secure infrastructure that runs cloud services so that you can focus on your own innovation and value-added activities.

But security in the cloud is a shared responsibility between you and AWS. You are responsible for the configuration of things like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies, Amazon EC2 security groups, and host based firewalls. In other words, the security of the hardware and software platform that make up the AWS cloud is an AWS responsibility. The security of software and configurations that you implement in your AWS account(s) are your responsibility.

As you deploy cloud resources in AWS and apply configuration, it is critical to understand the security settings required to maintain a secure environment. This chapter’s recipes include best practices and use cases focused on security. As security is a part of everything, you will use these recipes in conjunction with other recipes and chapters in this book. For example, you will see usage of AWS Systems Manager Session Manager used throughout the book when connecting to your EC2 instances. These foundational security recipes will give you the tools you need to build secure solutions on AWS.

In addition to the content in this chapter, so many great resources ...