How BMO improved data security with Amazon Redshift and AWS Lake Formation

This post is cowritten with Amy Tseng, Jack Lin and Regis Chow from BMO.

BMO is the 8th largest bank in North America by assets. It provides personal and commercial banking, global markets, and investment banking services to 13 million customers. As they continue to implement their Digital First strategy for speed, scale and the elimination of complexity, they are always seeking ways to innovate, modernize and also streamline data access control in the Cloud. BMO has accumulated sensitive financial data and needed to build an analytic environment that was secure and performant. One of the bank’s key challenges related to strict cybersecurity requirements is to implement field level encryption for personally identifiable information (PII), Payment Card Industry (PCI), and data that is classified as high privacy risk (HPR). Data with this secured data classification is stored in encrypted form both in the data warehouse and in their data lake. Only users with required permissions are allowed to access data in clear text.

Amazon Redshift is a fully managed data warehouse service that tens of thousands of customers use to manage analytics at scale. Amazon Redshift supports industry-leading security with built-in identity management and federation for single sign-on (SSO) along with multi-factor authentication. The Amazon Redshift Spectrum feature enables direct query of your Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) data lake, and many customers are using this to modernize their data platform.

AWS Lake Formation is a fully managed service that simplifies building, securing, and managing data lakes. It provides fine-grained access control, tagging (tag-based access control (TBAC)), and integration across analytical services. It enables simplifying the governance of data catalog objects and accessing secured data from services like Amazon Redshift Spectrum.

In this post, we share the solution using Amazon Redshift role based access control (RBAC) and AWS Lake Formation tag-based access control for federated users to query your data lake using Amazon Redshift Spectrum.

Use-case

BMO had more than Petabyte(PB) of financial sensitive data classified as follows:

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
Payment Card Industry (PCI)
High Privacy Risk (HPR)

The bank aims to store data in their Amazon Redshift data warehouse and Amazon S3 data lake. They have a large, diverse end user base across sales, marketing, credit risk, and other business lines and personas:

Business analysts
Data engineers
Data scientists

Fine-grained access control needs to be applied to the data on both Amazon Redshift and data lake data accessed using Amazon Redshift Spectrum. The bank leverages AWS services like AWS Glue and Amazon SageMaker on this analytics platform. They also use an external identity provider (IdP) to manage their preferred user base and integrate it with these analytics tools. End users access this data using third-party SQL clients and business intelligence tools.

Solution overview

In this post, we’ll use synthetic data very similar to BMO data with data classified as PII, PCI, or HPR. Users and groups exists in External IdP. These users federate for single sign on to Amazon Redshift using native IdP federation. We’ll define the permissions using Redshift role based access control (RBAC) for the user roles. For users accessing the data in data lake using Amazon Redshift Spectrum, we’ll use Lake Formation policies for access control.

Technical Solution

To implement customer needs for securing different categories of data, it requires the definition of multiple AWS IAM roles, which requires knowledge in IAM policies and maintaining those when permission boundary changes.

In this post, we show how we simplified managing the data classification policies with minimum number of Amazon Redshift AWS IAM roles aligned by data classification, instead of permutations and combinations of roles by lines of business and data classifications. Other organizations (e.g., Financial Service Institute [FSI]) can benefit from the BMO’s implementation of data security and compliance.

As a part of this blog, the data will be uploaded into Amazon S3. Access to the data is controlled using policies defined using Redshift RBAC for corresponding Identity provider user groups and TAG Based access control will be implemented using AWS Lake Formation for data on S3.

Solution architecture

The following diagram illustrates the solution architecture along with the detailed steps.

IdP users with groups like lob_risk_public, Lob_risk_pci, hr_public, and hr_hpr are assigned in External IdP (Identity Provider).
Each users is mapped to the Amazon Redshift local roles that are sent from IdP, and including aad:lob_risk_pci, aad:lob_risk_public, aad:hr_public, and aad:hr_hpr in Amazon Redshift. For example, User1 who is part of Lob_risk_public and hr_hpr will grant role usage accordingly.
Attach iam_redshift_hpr, iam_redshift_pcipii, and iam_redshift_public AWS IAM roles to Amazon Redshift cluster.
AWS Glue databases which are backed on s3 (e.g., lobrisk,lobmarket,hr and their respective tables) are referenced in Amazon Redshift. Using Amazon Redshift Spectrum, you can query these external tables and databases (e.g., external_lobrisk_pci, external_lobrisk_public, external_hr_public, and external_hr_hpr), which are created using AWS IAM roles iam_redshift_pcipii, iam_redshift_hpr, iam_redshift_public as shown in the solutions steps.
AWS Lake Formation is used to control access to the external schemas and tables.
Using AWS Lake Formation tags, we apply the fine-grained access control to these external tables for AWS IAM roles (e.g., iam_redshift_hpr, iam_redshift_pcipii, and iam_redshift_public).
Finally, grant usage for these external schemas to their Amazon Redshift roles.

Walkthrough

The following sections walk you through implementing the solution using synthetic data.

Download the data files and place your files into buckets

Amazon S3 serves as a scalable and durable data lake on AWS. Using Data Lake you can bring any open format data like CSV, JSON, PARQUET, or ORC into Amazon S3 and perform analytics on your data.

The solutions utilize CSV data files containing information classified as PCI, PII, HPR, or Public. You can download input files using the provided links below. Using the downloaded files upload into Amazon S3 by creating folder and files as shown in below screenshot by following the instruction here. The detail of each file is provided in the following list:

credit_card_transaction_PCI_public – Contains credit card transactions categorized as public data and visible to principals who has access to public data.
credit_card_transaction_PCI – Contains credit card numbers and accessed to only principals who has access or clearance to PCI data.
lob_risk_High_confidential_public – Contains business reports that are accessed or shared by public.
lob_risk_High_confidential– Contains confidential business reports only selected principals (e.g., head or leader of the line of business has access).
customers_PII_HPR_public – Contains customer data accessed by the principals with public clearance.
customers_PII_HPR– Contains personally identifiable information data accessed by HR principals with HPR certain principals.

Register the files into AWS Glue Data Catalog using crawlers

The following instructions demonstrate how to register files downloaded into the AWS Glue Data Catalog using crawlers. We organize files into databases and tables using AWS Glue Data Catalog, as per the following steps. It is recommended to review the documentation to learn how to properly set up an AWS Glue Database. Crawlers can automate the process of registering our downloaded files into the catalog rather than doing it manually. You’ll create the following databases in the AWS Glue Data Catalog:

lobrisk
lobmarket
hr

Example steps to create an AWS Glue database for lobrisk data are as follows:

Go to the AWS Glue Console.
Next, select Databases under Data Catalog.
Choose Add database and enter the name of databases as lobrisk.
Select Create database, as shown in the following screenshot.

Repeat the steps for creating other database like lobmarket and hr.

An AWS Glue Crawler scans the above files and catalogs metadata about them into the AWS Glue Data Catalog. The Glue Data Catalog organizes this Amazon S3 data into tables and databases, assigning columns and data types so the data can be queried using SQL that Amazon Redshift Spectrum can understand. Please review the AWS Glue documentation about creating the Glue Crawler. Once AWS Glue crawler finished executing, you’ll see the following respective database and tables:

lobrisk
- lob_risk_high_confidential_public
- lob_risk_high_confidential
lobmarket
- credit_card_transaction_pci
- credit_card_transaction_pci_public
hr
- customers_pii_hpr_public
- customers_pii_hpr

Example steps to create an AWS Glue Crawler for lobrisk data are as follows:

Select Crawlers under Data Catalog in AWS Glue Console.
Next, choose Create crawler. Provide the crawler name as lobrisk_crawler and choose Next.

Make sure to select the data source as Amazon S3 and browse the Amazon S3 path to the lob_risk_high_confidential_public folder and choose an Amazon S3 data source.

Crawlers can crawl multiple folders in Amazon S3. Choose Add a data source and include path S3://<<Your Bucket >>/ lob_risk_high_confidential.

After adding another Amazon S3 folder, then choose Next.

Next, create a new IAM role in the Configuration security settings.
Choose Next.

Select the Target database as lobrisk. Choose Next.

Next, under Review, choose Create crawler.
Select Run Crawler. This creates two tables : lob_risk_high_confidential_public and lob_risk_high_confidential under database lobrisk.

Similarly, create an AWS Glue crawler for lobmarket and hr data using the above steps.

Create AWS IAM roles

Using AWS IAM, create the following IAM roles with Amazon Redshift, Amazon S3, AWS Glue, and AWS Lake Formation permissions.

You can create AWS IAM roles in this service using this link. Later, you can attach a managed policy to these IAM roles:

iam_redshift_pcipii (AWS IAM role attached to Amazon Redshift cluster)
- AmazonRedshiftFullAccess
- AmazonS3FullAccess
- Add inline policy (Lakeformation-inline) for Lake Formation permission as follows:
```
{
   "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "RedshiftPolicyForLF",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "lakeformation:GetDataAccess"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
```
- iam_redshift_hpr (AWS IAM role attached to Amazon Redshift cluster): Add the following managed:
  - AmazonRedshiftFullAccess
  - AmazonS3FullAccess
  - Add inline policy (Lakeformation-inline), which was created previously.
- iam_redshift_public (AWS IAM role attached to Amazon Redshift cluster): Add the following managed policy:
  - AmazonRedshiftFullAccess
  - AmazonS3FullAccess
  - Add inline policy (Lakeformation-inline), which was created previously.
- LF_admin (Lake Formation Administrator): Add the following managed policy:
  - AWSLakeFormationDataAdmin
  - AWSLakeFormationCrossAccountManager
  - AWSGlueConsoleFullAccess

Use Lake Formation tag-based access control (LF-TBAC) to access control the AWS Glue data catalog tables.

LF-TBAC is an authorization strategy that defines permissions based on attributes. Using LF_admin Lake Formation administrator, you can create LF-tags, as mentioned in the following details:

Key	Value
Classification:HPR	no, yes
Classification:PCI	no, yes
Classification:PII	no, yes
Classifications	non-sensitive, sensitive

Follow the below instructions to create Lake Formation tags:

Log into Lake Formation Console (https://console.aws.amazon.com/lakeformation/) using LF-Admin AWS IAM role.
Go to LF-Tags and permissions in Permissions sections.
Select Add LF-Tag.

Create the remaining LF-Tags as directed in table earlier. Once created you find the LF-Tags as show below.

Assign LF-TAG to the AWS Glue catalog tables

Assigning Lake Formation tags to tables typically involves a structured approach. The Lake Formation Administrator can assign tags based on various criteria, such as data source, data type, business domain, data owner, or data quality. You have the ability to allocate LF-Tags to Data Catalog assets, including databases, tables, and columns, which enables you to manage resource access effectively. Access to these resources is restricted to principals who have been given corresponding LF-Tags (or those who have been granted access through the named resource approach).

Follow the instruction in the give link to assign LF-TAGS to Glue Data Catalog Tables:

Glue Catalog Tables	Key	Value
`customers_pii_hpr_public`	Classification	non-sensitive
`customers_pii_hpr`	Classification:HPR	yes
`credit_card_transaction_pci`	Classification:PCI	yes
`credit_card_transaction_pci_public`	Classifications	non-sensitive
`lob_risk_high_confidential_public`	Classifications	non-sensitive
`lob_risk_high_confidential`	Classification:PII	yes

Follow the below instructions to assign a LF-Tag to Glue Tables from AWS Console as follows:

To access the databases in Lake Formation Console, go to the Data catalog section and choose Databases.
Select the lobrisk database and choose View Tables.
Select lob_risk_high_confidential table and edit the LF-Tags.
Assign the Classification:HPR as Assigned Keys and Values as Yes. Select Save.

Similarly, assign the Classification Key and Value as non-sensitive for the lob_risk_high_confidential_public table.

Follow the above instructions to assign tables to remaining tables for lobmarket and hr databases.

Grant permissions to resources using a LF-Tag expression grant to Redshift IAM Roles

Grant select, describe Lake Formation permission to LF-Tags and Redshift IAM role using Lake Formation Administrator in Lake formation console. To grant, please follow the documentation.

Use the following table to grant the corresponding IAM role to LF-tags:

IAM role	LF-Tags Key	LF-Tags Value	Permission
`iam_redshift_pcipii`	Classification:PII	yes	Describe, Select
.	Classification:PCI	yes	.
`iam_redshift_hpr`	Classification:HPR	yes	Describe, Select
`iam_redshift_public`	Classifications	non-sensitive	Describe, Select

Follow the below instructions to grant permissions to LF-tags and IAM roles:

Choose Data lake permissions in Permissions section in the AWS Lake Formation Console.
Choose Grants. Select IAM users and roles in Principals.
In LF-tags or catalog resources select Key as Classifications and values as non-sensitive.

Next, select Table permissions as Select & Describe. Choose grants.

Follow the above instructions for remaining LF-Tags and their IAM roles, as shown in the previous table.

Map the IdP user groups to the Redshift roles

In Redshift, use Native IdP federation to map the IdP user groups to the Redshift roles. Use Query Editor V2.

create role aad:rs_lobrisk_pci_role;
create role aad:rs_lobrisk_public_role;
create role aad:rs_hr_hpr_role;
create role aad:rs_hr_public_role;
create role aad:rs_lobmarket_pci_role;
create role aad:rs_lobmarket_public_role;

Create External schemas

In Redshift, create External schemas using AWS IAM roles and using AWS Glue Catalog databases. External schema’s are created as per data classification using iam_role.

create external schema external_lobrisk_pci
from data catalog
database 'lobrisk'
iam_role 'arn:aws:iam::571750435036:role/iam_redshift_pcipii';

create external schema external_hr_hpr
from data catalog
database 'hr'
iam_role 'arn:aws:iam::571750435036:role/iam_redshift_hpr';

create external schema external_lobmarket_pci
from data catalog
database 'lobmarket'
iam_role 'arn:aws:iam::571750435036:role/iam_redshift_pcipii';

create external schema external_lobrisk_public
from data catalog
database 'lobrisk'
iam_role 'arn:aws:iam::571750435036:role/iam_redshift_public';

create external schema external_hr_public
from data catalog
database 'hr'
iam_role 'arn:aws:iam::571750435036:role/iam_redshift_public';

create external schema external_lobmarket_public
from data catalog
database 'lobmarket'
iam_role 'arn:aws:iam::571750435036:role/iam_redshift_public';

Verify list of tables

Verify list of tables in each external schema. Each schema lists only the tables Lake Formation has granted to IAM_ROLES used to create external schema. Below is the list of tables in Redshift query edit v2 output on top left hand side.

Grant usage on external schemas to different Redshift local Roles

In Redshift, grant usage on external schemas to different Redshift local Roles as follows:

grant usage on schema external_lobrisk_pci to role aad:rs_lobrisk_pci_role;
grant usage on schema external_lobrisk_public to role aad:rs_lobrisk_public_role;

grant usage on schema external_lobmarket_pci to role aad:rs_lobmarket_pci_role;
grant usage on schema external_lobmarket_public to role aad:rs_lobmarket_public_role;

grant usage on schema external_hr_hpr_pci to role aad:rs_hr_hpr_role;
grant usage on schema external_hr_public to role aad:rs_hr_public_role;

Verify access to external schema

Verify access to external schema using user from Lob Risk team. User lobrisk_pci_user federated into Amazon Redshift local role rs_lobrisk_pci_role. Role rs_lobrisk_pci_role only has access to external schema external_lobrisk_pci.

set session_authorization to creditrisk_pci_user;
select * from external_lobrisk_pci.lob_risk_high_confidential limit 10;

On querying table from external_lobmarket_pci schema, you’ll see that your permission is denied.

set session_authorization to lobrisk_pci_user;
select * from external_lobmarket_hpr.lob_card_transaction_pci;

BMO’s automated access provisioning

Working with the bank, we developed an access provisioning framework that allows the bank to create a central repository of users and what data they have access to. The policy file is stored in Amazon S3. When the file is updated, it is processed, messages are placed in Amazon SQS. AWS Lambda using Data API is used to apply access control to Amazon Redshift roles. Simultaneously, AWS Lambda is used to automate tag-based access control in AWS Lake Formation.

Benefits of adopting this model were:

Created a scalable automation process to allow dynamically applying changing policies.
Streamlined the user accesses on-boarding and processing with existing enterprise access management.
Empowered each line of business to restrict access to sensitive data they own and protect customers data and privacy at enterprise level.
Simplified the AWS IAM role management and maintenance by greatly reduced number of roles required.

With the recent release of Amazon Redshift integration with AWS Identity center which allows identity propagation across AWS service can be leveraged to simplify and scale this implementation.

Conclusion

In this post, we showed you how to implement robust access controls for sensitive customer data in Amazon Redshift, which were challenging when trying to define many distinct AWS IAM roles. The solution presented in this post demonstrates how organizations can meet data security and compliance needs with a consolidated approach—using a minimal set of AWS IAM roles organized by data classification rather than business lines.

By using Amazon Redshift’s native integration with External IdP and defining RBAC policies in both Redshift and AWS Lake Formation, granular access controls can be applied without creating an excessive number of distinct roles. This allows the benefits of role-based access while minimizing administrative overhead.

Other financial services institutions looking to secure customer data and meet compliance regulations can follow a similar consolidated RBAC approach. Careful policy definition, aligned to data sensitivity rather than business functions, can help reduce the proliferation of AWS IAM roles. This model balances security, compliance, and manageability for governance of sensitive data in Amazon Redshift and broader cloud data platforms.

In short, a centralized RBAC model based on data classification streamlines access management while still providing robust data security and compliance. This approach can benefit any organization managing sensitive customer information in the cloud.

About the Authors

Amy Tseng is a Managing Director of Data and Analytics(DnA) Integration at BMO. She is one of the AWS Data Hero. She has over 7 years of experiences in Data and Analytics Cloud migrations in AWS. Outside of work, Amy loves traveling and hiking.

Jack Lin is a Director of Engineering on the Data Platform at BMO. He has over 20 years of experience working in platform engineering and software engineering. Outside of work, Jack loves playing soccer, watching football games and traveling.

Regis Chow is a Director of DnA Integration at BMO. He has over 5 years of experience working in the cloud and enjoys solving problems through innovation in AWS. Outside of work, Regis loves all things outdoors, he is especially passionate about golf and lawn care.

Nishchai JM is an Analytics Specialist Solutions Architect at Amazon Web services. He specializes in building Big-data applications and help customer to modernize their applications on Cloud. He thinks Data is new oil and spends most of his time in deriving insights out of the Data.

Harshida Patel is a Principal Solutions Architect, Analytics with AWS.

Raghu Kuppala is an Analytics Specialist Solutions Architect experienced working in the databases, data warehousing, and analytics space. Outside of work, he enjoys trying different cuisines and spending time with his family and friends.

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