re:Invent 2020 – Your guide to AWS Identity and Data Protection sessions

August 16, 2021: We’ve updated this post to include links to recordings of the sessions.

AWS re:Invent will certainly be different in 2020! Instead of seeing you all in Las Vegas, this year re:Invent will be a free, three-week virtual conference. One thing that will remain the same is the variety of sessions, including many Security, Identity, and Compliance sessions. As we developed sessions, we looked to customers—asking where they would like to expand their knowledge. One way we did this was shared in a recent Security blog post, where we introduced a new customer polling feature that provides us with feedback directly from customers. The initial results of the poll showed that Identity and Access Management and Data Protection are top-ranking topics for customers. We wanted to highlight some of the re:Invent sessions for these two important topics so that you can start building your re:Invent schedule. Each session is offered at multiple times, so you can sign up for the time that works best for your location and schedule.

Managing your Identities and Access in AWS

Getting started with AWS identity services
Becky Weiss, Senior Principal Engineer, AWS

Dec 1, 2020 | 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM PST
Dec 1, 2020 | 9:30 PM – 10:00 PM PST
Dec 2, 2020 | 5:30 AM – 6:00 AM PST

The number, range, and breadth of AWS services are large, but the set of techniques that you need to secure them is not. Your journey as a builder in the cloud starts with this session, in which practical examples help you quickly get up to speed on the fundamentals of becoming authenticated and authorized in the cloud, as well as on securing your resources and data correctly.

AWS identity: Ten identity health checks to improve security in the cloud
Cassia Martin, Senior Security Solutions Architect, AWS

Dec 2, 2020 | 9:30 AM – 10:00 AM PST
Dec 2, 2020 | 5:30 PM – 6:00 PM PST
Dec 3, 2020 | 1:30 AM – 2:00 AM PST

Get practical advice and code to help you achieve the principle of least privilege in your existing AWS environment. From enabling logs to disabling root, the provided checklist helps you find and fix permissions issues in your resources, your accounts, and throughout your organization. With these ten health checks, you can improve your AWS identity and achieve better security every day.

AWS identity: Choosing the right mix of AWS IAM policies for scale
Josh Du Lac, Principal Security Solutions Architect, AWS

Dec 2, 2020 | 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST
Dec 2, 2020 | 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM PST
Dec 3, 2020 | 3:00 AM – 3:30 AM PST

This session provides both a strategic and tactical overview of various AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies that provide a range of capabilities for the security of your AWS accounts. You probably already use a number of these policies today, but this session will dive into the tactical reasons for choosing one capability over another. This session zooms out to help you understand how to manage these IAM policies across a multi-account environment, covering their purpose, deployment, validation, limitations, monitoring, and more.

Zero Trust: An AWS perspective
Quint Van Deman, Principal WW Identity Specialist, AWS

Dec 2, 2020 | 12:30 PM – 1:00 PM PST
Dec 2, 2020 | 8:30 PM – 9:00 PM PST
Dec 3, 2020 | 4:30 AM – 5:00 AM PST

AWS customers have continuously asked, “What are the optimal patterns for ensuring the right levels of security and availability for my systems and data?” Increasingly, they are asking how patterns that fall under the banner of Zero Trust might apply to this question. In this session, you learn about the AWS guiding principles for Zero Trust and explore the larger subdomains that have emerged within this space. Then the session dives deep into how AWS has incorporated some of these concepts, and how AWS can help you on your own Zero Trust journey.

AWS identity: Next-generation permission management
Brigid Johnson, Senior Software Development Manager, AWS

Dec 3, 2020 | 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM PST
Dec 3, 2020 | 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM PST
Dec 4, 2020 | 3:00 AM – 3:30 AM PST

This session is for central security teams and developers who manage application permissions. This session reviews a permissions model that enables you to scale your permissions management with confidence. Learn how to set your organization up for access management success with permission guardrails. Then, learn about granting workforce permissions based on attributes, so they scale as your users and teams adjust. Finally, learn about the access analysis tools and how to use them to identify and reduce broad permissions and give users and systems access to only what they need.

How Goldman Sachs administers temporary elevated AWS access
Harsha Sharma, Solutions Architect, AWS
Chana Garbow Pardes, Associate, Goldman Sachs
Jewel Brown, Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Dec 16, 2020 | 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM PST
Dec 16, 2020 | 10:00 PM – 10:30 PM PST
Dec 17, 2020 | 6:00 AM – 6:30 AM PST

Goldman Sachs takes security and access to AWS accounts seriously. While empowering teams with the freedom to build applications autonomously is critical for scaling cloud usage across the firm, guardrails and controls need to be set in place to enable secure administrative access. In this session, learn how the company built its credential brokering workflow and administrator access for its users. Learn how, with its simple application that uses proprietary and AWS services, including Amazon DynamoDB, AWS Lambda, AWS CloudTrail, Amazon S3, and Amazon Athena, Goldman Sachs is able to control administrator credentials and monitor and report on actions taken for audits and compliance.

Data Protection

Do you need an AWS KMS custom key store?
Tracy Pierce, Senior Consultant, AWS

Dec 15, 2020 | 9:45 AM – 10:15 AM PST
Dec 15, 2020 | 5:45 PM – 6:15 PM PST
Dec 16, 2020 | 1:45 AM – 2:15 AM PST

AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) has integrated with AWS CloudHSM, giving you the option to create your own AWS KMS custom key store. In this session, you learn more about how a KMS custom key store is backed by an AWS CloudHSM cluster and how it enables you to generate, store, and use your KMS keys in the hardware security modules that you control. You also learn when and if you really need a custom key store. Join this session to learn why you might choose not to use a custom key store and instead use the AWS KMS default.

Using certificate-based authentication on containers & web servers on AWS
Ram Ramani, Security Solutions Architect, AWS
Josh Rosenthol, Senior Product Manager, AWS
Kevin Rioles, Manager, Infrastructure & Security, BlackSky

Dec 8, 2020 | 12:45 PM – 1:15 PM PST
Dec 8, 2020 | 8:45 PM – 9:15 PM PST
Dec 9, 2020 | 4:45 AM – 5:15 AM PST

In this session, BlackSky talks about its experience using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) end-entity certificates for the processing and distribution of real-time satellite geospatial intelligence and monitoring. Learn how BlackSky uses certificate-based authentication on containers and web servers within its AWS environment to help make TLS ubiquitous in its deployments. The session details the implementation, architecture, and operations best practices that the company chose and how it was able to operate ACM at scale across multiple accounts and regions.

The busy manager’s guide to encryption
Spencer Janyk, Senior Product Manager, AWS

Dec 9, 2020 | 11:45 AM – 12:15 PM PST
Dec 9, 2020 | 7:45 PM – 8:15 PM PST
Dec 10, 2020 | 3:45 AM – 4:15 AM PST

In this session, explore the functionality of AWS cryptography services and learn when and where to deploy each of the following: AWS Key Management Service, AWS Encryption SDK, AWS Certificate Manager, AWS CloudHSM, and AWS Secrets Manager. You also learn about defense-in-depth strategies including asymmetric permissions models, client-side encryption, and permission segmentation by role.

Building post-quantum cryptography for the cloud
Alex Weibel, Senior Software Development Engineer, AWS

Dec 15, 2020 | 12:45 PM – 1:15 PM PST
Dec 15, 2020 | 8:45 PM – 9:15 PM PST
Dec 16, 2020 | 4:45 AM – 5:15 AM PST

This session introduces post-quantum cryptography and how you can use it today to secure TLS communication. Learn about recent updates on standards and existing deployments, including the AWS post-quantum TLS implementation (pq-s2n). A description of the hybrid key agreement method shows how you can combine a new post-quantum key encapsulation method with a classical key exchange to secure network traffic today.

Data protection at scale using Amazon Macie
Neel Sendas, Senior Technical Account Manager, AWS

Dec 17, 2020 | 7:15 AM – 7:45 AM PST
Dec 17, 2020 | 3:15 PM – 3:45 PM PST
Dec 17, 2020 | 11:15 PM – 11:45 PM PST

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a common topic among companies that work with sensitive data. If an organization can’t identify its sensitive data, it can’t protect it. Amazon Macie is a fully managed data security and data privacy service that uses machine learning and pattern matching to discover and protect your sensitive data in AWS. In this session, we will share details of the design and architecture you can use to deploy Macie at large scale.

Data lake security in Amazon S3: Perimeters and fine-grained controls
Becky Weiss, Senior Principal Engineer, AWS
Rajeev Sharma, Chief Security Architect, Vanguard

Dec 15, 2020 | 1:30 PM – 2:00 PM PST
Dec 15, 2020 | 9:30 PM – 10:00 PM PST
Dec 16, 2020 | 5:30 AM – 6:00 AM PST

As you build a data lake on Amazon S3, managing security and access is essential. You require granular access control for your data with strong controls around authentication, authorization, encryption, and auditing. At the same time, you require strong guardrails that protect your data from outside access, at scale. Amazon S3 provides enhanced data security features in the cloud, on both ends of this spectrum. In this session, get guidance on the mechanisms you use on AWS, from identity to encryption to networking, to maintain tight control over your data.

While sessions are virtual this year, they will be offered at multiple times with live moderators and “Ask the Expert” sessions available to help answer any questions that you may have. We look forward to “seeing” you in these sessions. Please see the re:Invent agenda for more details and to build your schedule.

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