Category: Security, Identity, & Compliance

Is your key chain too full for yet another key fob? Ever find yourself locked out of AWS because you didn’t have your key chain on hand? Gemalto, a third-party provider, has just released a new multi-factor authentication (MFA) device in a convenient “credit card” form factor that fits comfortably into a wallet. It works […]

On May 21, AWS launched encryption for EBS volumes, a frequently requested feature, which can help you meet stricter security and encryption compliance requirements. You can now create an encrypted EBS volume and attach it to an EC2 instance. Data on the volume, disk I/O, and snapshots created from the volume are all encrypted. The […]

July 26, 2017, update: We recommend that you use cross-account access by switching roles in the AWS Management Console. Also see the related documentation: Switching to a Role (AWS Management Console). Last December we described how you can delegate access to your AWS account using IAM roles. Using IAM roles, you can take advantage of […]

Update from January 17, 2018: The techniques demonstrated in this blog post relate to traditional SAML federation for AWS. These techniques are still valid and useful. However, AWS Single Sign-On (AWS SSO) provides analogous capabilities by way of a managed service. If you are just getting started with federating access to your AWS accounts, we recommend […]

Keeping your AWS keys secure is one of the most important things you can do. This week Will Kruse, Security Engineer on the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) team, explains the steps to safeguard your account in the event you inadvertently expose your AWS access key. Your AWS credentials (access key ID and secret access […]

As part of our ongoing efforts to help keep your resources secure, on April 21, 2014, AWS removed the ability to retrieve existing secret access keys for your AWS (root) account. See the updated blog post Where’s My Secret Access Key? for more information about access keys and secret access keys. -Kai

We have reviewed all AWS services for impact by CVE-2014-0160 (also known as the Heartbleed bug) and have either determined that the services were unaffected or we’ve applied mitigations that do not require customer action. In a few cases, we are recommending that customers rotate SSL certificates or secret keys. For additional detail see AWS […]

Today, AWS updated the sign-in experience for IAM users accessing AWS websites such as the AWS Management Console, Support, or Forums. As previously announced, the new sign-in experience continues to provide the same functionality as the previous one, it but provides a more consistent experience for IAM users when signing in to AWS account whether it […]

AWS is excited to announce that Amazon Redshift has successfully completed the FedRAMP assessment and authorization process and has been added to our list of services covered under our US East/West FedRAMP Agency Authority to Operate (ATO) granted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This is the first new service we’ve […]

I’m very excited to share that AWS has received a DISA Provisional Authorization under the DoD Cloud Security Model’s impact levels 1-2 for all four of AWS’s Infrastructure Regions in the U.S., including AWS GovCloud (US). With this distinction, AWS has shown it can meet the DoD’s stringent security and compliance requirements; and as a […]