Category: Security, Identity, & Compliance

You can now enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for users of AWS services such as Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon QuickSight and their on-premises credentials by using your AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory directory, also known as AWS Microsoft AD. MFA adds an extra layer of protection to a user name and password (the first “factor”) […]

AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory (Enterprise Edition), also known as Microsoft AD, now enables your users to log on with just their on-premises Active Directory (AD) user name—no domain name is required. This new domainless logon feature makes it easier to set up connections to your on-premises AD for use with applications such […]

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles enable your applications running on Amazon EC2 to use temporary security credentials that AWS creates, distributes, and rotates automatically. Using temporary credentials is an IAM best practice because you do not need to maintain long-term keys on your instance. Using IAM roles for EC2 also eliminates the need […]

May 31, 2022: The updated blog post is available here. June 18, 2020: This solution no longer works, and the Lambda runtime this code is relying on has been deprecated. When we have an updated blog, we’ll add a link to it here. Updated on November 27, 2018: We added a policy to the instructions […]

As with everything at Amazon, the success of our security and compliance program is primarily measured by one thing: our customers’ success. Our customers drive our portfolio of compliance reports, attestations, and certifications that support their efforts in running a secure and compliant cloud environment. As a result of our engagement with key customers across […]

Today, AWS launched AWS Organizations: a new way for you to centrally manage all the AWS accounts your organization owns. Now you can arrange your AWS accounts into groups called organizational units (OUs) and apply policies to OUs or directly to accounts. For example, you can organize your accounts by application, environment, team, or any […]

Today, we updated the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) console to make it easier for you to create and manage your IAM users. These improvements include an updated user creation workflow and new ways to assign and manage permissions. The new user workflow guides you through the process of setting user details, including enabling […]

Some Active Directory (AD) integrated applications require custom changes to the directory schema. Today, we have added the ability for an administrator to extend the schema of AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory (Enterprise Edition), also known as Microsoft AD. Specifically, you can modify the AD schema and enable many more applications. This feature […]

Today, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) made 10 AWS managed policies available that align with common job functions. AWS managed policies enable you to set permissions using policies that AWS creates and manages, and with a single AWS managed policy for job functions, you can grant the permissions necessary for network or database administrators, […]

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides an additional layer of security for sensitive API calls, such as terminating Amazon EC2 instances or deleting important objects stored in an Amazon S3 bucket. In some cases, you may want to require users to authenticate with an MFA code before performing specific API requests, and by using AWS Identity and […]