Securing Data in AWS S3
Key Takeaways
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S3 Bucket Security by Default:
- S3 buckets are private by default and encrypted with AWS-managed encryption.
- New buckets have "Block Public Access" enabled by default, preventing public access misconfigurations.
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IAM-based Access Control in S3:
- IAM users, roles, and policies are used to grant/deny access to S3 objects and buckets.
- Policies can be defined at the bucket level or attached to IAM entities.
- Understand policy language, resource definitions, and action mappings.
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Sharing Data across Accounts:
- Data can be shared between AWS accounts using IAM cross-account access policies.
- Bucket policies in the target account must allow access from the source account.
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Denying Unexpected Access:
- Use bucket policies with "Deny" statements to set up a data perimeter and block unauthorized access.
- Leverage AWS Organizations to manage access control policies at scale.
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Troubleshooting and Auditing:
- Use "Denial Source Information" to debug 403 access denied errors.
- Leverage the S3 Access Analyzer dashboard to identify public and externally shared buckets.
- Enable server access logs and AWS CloudTrail to audit data access.
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Securing Structured and Unstructured Data:
- Differentiate between structured data (with schema) and unstructured data (file-level access).
- Use IAM-based approaches for small to moderate scale access patterns.
- Leverage S3 Access Points and S3 Access Grant for more scalable, user-centric access control.
- Utilize AWS Lake Formation for fine-grained, schema-aware access control on structured data.
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Scalable Techniques for Data Access Management:
- Use multiple IAM roles and policies to manage access at scale.
- Leverage S3 Access Points to increase policy management flexibility.
- Adopt S3 Access Grants and AWS Lake Formation for user-centric, fine-grained access control.
Overall, the presentation covers a wide range of techniques to secure data in AWS S3, from the basics of default security configurations to advanced, scalable approaches for managing access to structured and unstructured data.