According to market share data published on several websites, many enterprises prefer Amazon Web Services to other public cloud platforms. AWS Cloud Security offers a variety of features to keep business resources safe and in compliance. It has been regularly releasing new security control mechanisms as well as tools to improve user management, secure code deployment, address AWS cloud security risks, and safely access AWS services.

AWS recently launched a new security service called Amazon Macie, which uses machine learning to avoid data loss by automatically classifying, discovering, and protecting sensitive data in AWS. However, enterprises must still take a number of steps to enhance cloud safety and avoid security breaches.

It is also critical for enterprises to understand common AWS security risks in order to make better use of AWS’s security control mechanisms.

The Top 7 AWS Cloud Security Risks

Excessive Privileges and Access Rights Granted to Users

AWS’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) web service assists enterprises in controlling how users access and control AWS resources. IAM also simplifies the creation and management of privileges for personal AWS users. The administrator also can grant users access to data objects stored in layers via the Simple Storage Service (S3). However, administrators frequently contribute to cloud security issues by granting excessive privileges as well as access rights to specific users.

Individual users should not be granted unnecessary permissions, according to the administrator. Similarly, he must regularly review permissions, remove inactive users, and rotate credentials.

Invisibility due to a lack of security

A lot of individuals across the organization have access to the enterprise information and assets stored on AWS. No administrator can keep track of the resources that individual users access on a daily basis. As a result, he is unable to detect malicious activities but also unauthorized data access in real-time, increasing the risks associated with AWS cloud security.

However, he can concentrate on AWS security visibility to detect malicious user activities instantly. In addition to identifying malicious user activity through log analysis, the administrator must also determine whether a specific malicious activity or security attack has been carried out at a specific time and on a specific server. At the same time, the administrator must focus on internal activities that contribute to security issues, such as unusual login attempts, unusual network activity, critical file changes, and unauthorized installations.

Failure to Implement a Data Protection Mechanism

Enterprises frequently forget that data protection, as well as information security, are not solely the responsibility of the cloud vendor. They do not use the cloud vendor’s robust security control mechanisms to optimize data protection but also prevent data breaches. AWS services such as S3, EBS, and RDS offer a variety of features to protect information and avoid data breaches.

However, administrators frequently overlook the importance of providing and implementing security mechanisms. They can easily improve data security by utilizing AWS security features such as access permission, replication, encryption, versioning, backup, and data integrity authentication. Similarly, encryption technologies must be used to keep data secure all through transmission.

Incorrectly Configuring Security Groups

AWS administrators can use security groups as a virtual firewall to control traffic flow across instances. When launching an instance, it must be linked to particular security groups. Administrators frequently overlook the importance of keeping instances secure as well as isolated via security group configuration. Misconfigured security groups cause a number of performance issues, including timeouts and service outages.

An administrator can also link a single instance to multiple security groups. The association makes managing and monitoring the related security groups difficult. As a result, the administrator must correctly configure so every security group to avoid both safety and efficiency issues.

Not establishing a Network Access Control List

AWS allows users to use network access control lists (NACLs) to control subnet traffic both inflow and outflow as an additional layer of security. Administrators can use NACL in the same way that security groups are used to maintain their virtual private cloud security.

Administrators frequently unintentionally cause a slew of cloud security issues by failing to configure NACL. They can easily avoid security issues by assigning a rule number to the rule. Before allowing as well as denying packages, AWS will utilize the rule number to evaluate requests. So when NACL is not configured, the VPN stays open to all ports as well as IP addresses. To guarantee adequate inbound traffic, the administrator must configure the NACL.

Conclusion

Several studies have found that the majority of AWS cloud security risks as well as incidents are the result of human error. Many cloud security incidents have occurred as a result of the failure to implement AWS’s security control mechanisms. To take full advantage of the security mechanisms offered by Amazon Web Services but also reduce unnecessary security exposures, enterprises must incorporate a robust cloud security strategy.