System Design on AWS - Security

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When designing systems with AWS, security means protecting your data and systems from unauthorized access. This involves setting up a strong security framework that includes identity management, data encryption, and monitoring.

Why Security Matters?

The reason security matters in system design is that it protects our assets, data, and system from unauthorized access. In system design, security is crucial for the following reasons:

• Safeguarding Private Information: Computer systems handle confidential information such as financial records, client lists, and trade secrets. Security measures ensure that this data is protected from unauthorized access, theft, or exploitation.
• Preventing Financial Loss: Security breaches can cause major financial losses, such as costs for fixing issues, recovering data, and harming reputation. Strong security measures can help prevent these losses.
• Maintaining Compliance: Some industries, like healthcare and finance, have strict rules to follow, like HIPAA and PCI-DSS. Having good security measures helps them follow these rules and avoid getting in trouble or paying fines.
• Preserving Reputation: A security breach can hurt an organization's reputation and make customers lose trust. Having strong security measures helps keep customers trusting and confident in the organization.
• Protecting Against Cyber Threats: Cyber threats like malware, ransomware, and phishing are becoming more common. Having strong security measures helps protect against these threats and reduces the chance of a security breach.
• Maintaining System Integrity: Security measures play a crucial role in ensuring system integrity in AWS system design. They help protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of resources and data.
• Protecting User Privacy: Systems often have user data. Security measures help keep this data private and prevent others from accessing it without permission.

What Security Features Does AWS Offer?

AWS offers various security features for system design, including:

AES-256 Encryption

Provides Built-in AES-256 encryption for several services, such as EBS, S3, RDS, and Redshift which are described briefly below:

• EBS (Elastic Block Store): EBS volumes can be encrypted to protect data at rest, and AWS handles the encryption and decryption process transparently when you create an encrypted volume.
• S3 (Simple Storage Service): S3 buckets can be encrypted to keep your data safe. You can use either AWS's keys or your own keys to encrypt your data.
• RDS (Relational Database Service): RDS instances can be encrypted to keep your data safe. AWS handles the encryption, so you don't need to change your database applications.
• Redshift: Redshift clusters can be encrypted to keep your data safe. Redshift uses a strong encryption method (AES-256) to protect the data stored in the cluster.

Identity and Access Management(IAM)

Access Control is a crucial aspect of security in AWS. IAM helps you control who can access your AWS resources. It lets you create user accounts, decide what they can do, and keep track of their actions.

IAM Services

IAM helps design a secure system on AWS by providing a strong framework to control access to AWS resources. IAM services are:

• Users: Create and manage individual user identities.
• Groups: Create groups to manage multiple users and their permissions.
• Roles: Define roles to assign permissions to users or services.
• Policies: Create policies to define permissions and access control.
• Identity Providers: Integrate with external identity providers, such as Google or Facebook, for authentication.

Network Security

Network Security helps protect your AWS resources from unauthorized access and attacks, allowing you to design a secure system on AWS. It has the following security services:

• VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): VPC is a private and isolated area in the AWS Cloud where you can create and manage your own AWS resources.
• Network ACLs (Access Control Lists): Filter traffic at the subnet level.
• Route 53: Provides domain name system (DNS) services and route internet traffic to your applications.
• AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall): Protects web applications from common web exploits and attacks.
• Security Groups: Act as virtual firewalls to control inbound and outbound traffic.
• AWS Shield: Provides DDoS protection for applications. Protects your applications from large amounts of traffic that can make them unavailable.

Detection

On AWS, detection services help find potential security problems, threats, or unusual activities in your cloud setup. Detection services are as follows:

• Threat Detection: Understand and identify potential security threats, such as malware, viruses, or unauthorized access.
• Vulnerability Management: Regularly check for security weaknesses in your resources and applications, prioritize them, and fix them to prevent problems.
• Logging and Monitoring: Look at security messages from your resources and applications, understand what they mean, and take action to stay safe.

Reference Architecture

The AWS Security Reference Architecture (AWS SRA) helps you set up security services across multiple AWS accounts, making it easier to manage security and protect your data.