Identity and Access Management (IAM)

How do you control who or what has access to your AWS account and the services running in it? The answer is Identity and Access Management (IAM) and this episode introduces the fundamental concepts of IAM.

With any identity and access management solution, it is essential to understand the principals that can be managed, such as users and groups. This episode introduces you to the principals you will manage in AWS.

In operating systems it is common to have a root or admin user. In AWS a root users exists as well. You must understand this root user account and the implications it introduces to management and use of AWS.

AWS provides two primary authentication methods (though more can be implemented) and these are covered in this episode. Additionally, you will learn the basics of authentication.

Once authenticated, the user will have full capabilities or limited capabilities based on permissions within AWS. A primary method of permission management is authorization policy, which is covered here.

What if you don’t trust a single authentication method, such as a username and password pair? Then you can use multi-factor authentication, which is presented in this episode.

When using an access key and secret access key it is important to rotate them periodically. Key rotation principles are covered in this episode including the processes involved.

To understand practical permissions you must understand multiple permissions. Permissions can come from multiple sources and they aggregate to form practical or applied permissions. In this episode, you will explore multiple permissions.

AWS implements templates and recommended architectures that comply with various regulatory constraints under the AWS compliance program. This episode introduces the compliance program and reveals where you can get detailed information about regulations with which you must comply.

AWS Security Hub offers a single console for a number of useful security options in AWS, including IDS with Amazon GuardDuty, vulnerability scans with Amazon Inspector, and automatic policy compliance scans with Amazon Macie.

The final topic of this chapter is the shared responsibility model. AWS does not have full responsibility for the security of your cloud deployment. However, neither do you. Instead a shared responsibility model is used and it is covered here.

This topic will address data access and governance, recovery, retention, classification, and encryption key management concepts.

Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) allows you to pass-through the authentication of a local AD logon to access AWS resources. This episode explores the concept.