My primary use case for Antivirus for Amazon S3 is to secure uploaded files before they are consumed by downstream systems. For example, one workflow involves users uploading documents such as PDFs or images to an S3 bucket via web applications. Since all these files come from external resources, we treat them as untrusted. When a file is uploaded to S3, it triggers an event notification that invokes an AWS Lambda function. The Lambda pulls the objects and scans them using an antivirus engine such as ClamAV. If the file is clean, the tag is set to safe, and it is moved to a processed bucket where downstream services can access it. If it is infected, we quarantine the file in a separate bucket and trigger alerts via SNS and Slack for visibility.
Antivirus for Amazon S3, EBS, EFS, FSx - PAYG with 30 DAY FREE TRIAL
Cloud Storage SecurityExternal reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Automated file scanning has created a real‑time trust boundary for all external uploads
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Antivirus for Amazon S3 offers several best features, including automatic malware scanning. The core feature automatically scans files when they are uploaded to S3, detecting viruses, ransomware, Trojans, and other threats. When working with trusted inputs, user uploads, third-party data, and event-driven and real-time processing, the service provides object tagging and metadata-based decisions, automated responses, multiple scanning engines, visibility logging and integration, fully managed and scalable infrastructure, flexible scanning modes, and compliance with security standards such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2 for secure data injected into pipelines.
The two features I find most valuable in Antivirus for Amazon S3 are event-driven scanning and object tagging. Event-driven scanning stands out because it makes the entire workflow real-time and automatic. As soon as a file is uploaded to S3, it gets scanned without any manual trigger. This is critical in production because it ensures no untrusted files sit around waiting to be processed; threats are handled immediately. Object tagging is equally important because it simplifies downstream decisions. Instead of tightly coupling services, we rely on tags such as 'clean' and 'infected'. For example, only files tagged as 'safe' are picked up by processing jobs. This approach keeps the jobs loosely coupled and easy to scale.
Antivirus scanning has a clear positive impact on security, automation, and developer velocity in my organization. From a security standpoint, it has eliminated the risk of malicious files entering downstream systems. Before this implementation, uploaded files were a blind spot. Now we ensure a restricted trust boundary where only scanned and verified files are allowed to move forward. We saw a reduction in security incidents related to file uploads because threats were stopped at injection. This helps us enforce a zero-trust approach for all external data. From a reliability perspective, failed scans default to untrusted, so nothing slips through.
What needs improvement?
One area for improvement in Antivirus for Amazon S3 is in handling large files efficiently. More seamless native support for large object scanning without needing custom ECS Fargate setups would simplify the architecture. Another improvement would be deeper policy control. The service also needs better visibility and reporting for logs and events. Cost optimization is frequently needed because scanning can become more expensive at scale, so smarter detection or scaling mechanisms would help reduce redundant scans. Additionally, better workflows for handling false positives, such as automating a rescan or approval pipelines, would reduce operational overhead.
Integration, support, and documentation are areas where Antivirus for Amazon S3 has room to improve. From an integration standpoint, setting up antivirus scanning often requires stitching together multiple services including S3, events, Lambda, IAM roles, and sometimes EC2 or EFS for large workloads. Having more native integration would be beneficial. On the support side, troubleshooting can be challenging, especially when a scan fails due to timeouts. The documentation is decent, but it is often fragmented. Having one or more end-to-end reference architectures, especially for real-world scenarios such as high-volume uploads or large file handling, would be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with antivirus scanning for Antivirus for Amazon S3 for approximately three years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have seen a measurable impact from using Antivirus for Amazon S3. There were several measurable improvements after we implemented antivirus scanning. From a security perspective, we reduced the risk of malicious file injection significantly. We ensured scans happened asynchronously so it did not impact user-facing latency. For scalability metrics, we have implemented security measures to handle spikes in uploads without additional operational overhead. For false positive handling, we tuned the system to minimize false positives, which reduced unnecessary alerts.
What other advice do I have?
One important point to add is that the workflow with Antivirus for Amazon S3 has significantly improved our security posture without slowing down development. Before implementing antivirus scanning, there was always a risk of malicious files being consumed by downstream services. By automatically scanning at the S3 level, we created a clear trust boundary where only verified files could move forward.
My advice to others looking into Antivirus for Amazon S3 is to design it as part of your pipeline from day one, not as an afterthought. First, treat all uploaded files as untrusted and enforce a clear flow. Scan immediately at upload and only allow clean files to move forward to avoid a security gap later. Second, keep the architecture simple and event-driven. Third, plan for scale early, especially for large files. Finally, invest in monitoring and failure handling. Ensure failed scans default to untrusted and set up alerts so nothing slips through silently. I would rate my overall experience with Antivirus for Amazon S3 as an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Automated scanning has provided continuous data protection and supports audit readiness
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Antivirus for Amazon S3 is to utilize an S3 bucket to put static content in, as part of a web app proof of concept that I have been running, and also user content generated from the website. Sometimes I back that up and store it in S3. Using Antivirus for Amazon S3 is really about performing those automated security scans to make sure that the data that is being stored is secure.
A quick specific example of how I use Antivirus for Amazon S3 in my workflow is for storing static content for a website I have been running, which is a proof of concept blogging website. For example, I am storing images for the blog in S3. Additionally, I carried out a survey on my blog and website that generated user responses, which then get stored in S3. When these objects get stored there, the automatic antivirus scanning, which is deployed on AWS Fargate, gets triggered to make sure that the data being uploaded is indeed secure.
What is most valuable?
In my experience, the best feature Antivirus for Amazon S3 offers is increased security. Because you set and forget it, once you are uploading data within your S3 bucket, it is continually getting scanned. The fact that the scanning occurs within the AWS account means data never leaves your AWS account, which is also a good security feature. It is real-time, and you can carry out retroactive scans as well. You can even have it API-driven, so before uploading the file to the S3 bucket, you can have it scanned first, before it is being written.
Antivirus for Amazon S3 has positively impacted my organization by increasing security. I have not actually had any files come back as being insecure, but that is because I have also manually checked the files to make sure that they are secure, and they are. If there was insecure data, I would think that this would pick it up. I have not seen the benefit yet, but that is purely because the data I have been using is already secure. I suppose other organizations which are maybe trying to meet audit requirements would benefit from having this tool because the data is continually being scanned, which would also help audits.
What needs improvement?
Antivirus for Amazon S3 could be improved by addressing that it is a little bit complicated to set up because you have to deploy it via CloudFormation or Terraform, and it can be a little bit difficult trying to troubleshoot the image or container issues. I have definitely found that. The error logs also are not always the clearest, so it does take a bit of a learning curve. The CloudWatch logs could also be better; I have noticed it streams them to different CloudWatch log streams, so it can be difficult to consolidate that data together. If you had a lot of data that generated many different logs, that could be quite difficult and time-consuming.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Antivirus for Amazon S3 for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Antivirus for Amazon S3 is stable; I have never noticed an instability issue.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Antivirus for Amazon S3 is highly scalable. I could use it for all my S3 buckets, so there are no issues from scalability perspectives.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support for Antivirus for Amazon S3 gets a ten out of ten. It is Amazon enterprise support if my organization has it, so it ties into that. There are no issues from a customer support perspective.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What was our ROI?
I have not seen a return on investment yet as I have not had any insecure data within my cloud account, and because of that, there has not been anything flagged as being insecure. The price of security is really significant, as if you do not have security, the cost of it is much greater than the cost of you actually doing it. You would always hope that you would never have a security issue, so peace of mind is really the main benefit here. Organizations could definitely be helped in their audit processes from using this tool, which alone would save a lot of time and thus money for organizations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Antivirus for Amazon S3 is good. I know in the AWS documentation, the pricing is always quite clear, and due to that, I have had no issues.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Antivirus for Amazon S3, I did not evaluate other options, and that is just because I was using S3 buckets within AWS. I wanted to use their own integrated solution so that it would work with their shared security responsibility model. I could have potentially spun up a container and then deployed a custom solution, but I did not want to do that because it would have taken too much time. The benefit here was that because it is Amazon-managed, it is a lot quicker to get it going.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Antivirus for Amazon S3 to others looking into using it because it is very easy to set up from the perspective that it is already in AWS. You just have to have some initial development time to write the code to deploy it. After that, there is not too much management unless troubleshooting is needed. I would think most people would not be using a custom solution, so this is much better than not having something.
I rate Antivirus for Amazon S3 a nine out of ten. I give it a nine because it is a very good tool that leads to peace of mind, but it is a bit complicated to use, a bit difficult to troubleshoot, and also a bit difficult to consolidate the data in CloudWatch to see all the different log streams that are generated.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Automated scanning has protected our cloud files and keeps external uploads safe from threats
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Antivirus for Amazon S3 is to automatically scan objects as soon as they're uploaded into S3 buckets. It's mostly used in buckets where files are uploaded by external users or applications, such as documents, reports, or data files. We use it to ensure that no virus or anything affects the integrity of our system.
I have used Antivirus for Amazon S3 to directly protect our S3 buckets and our entire AWS infrastructure from any malicious files which may pose a threat to our infrastructure. We actively use it for user-uploaded content for one of our applications which requires users to upload content and applications or files. For a dev team, they may also use data ingestion pipelines where files come from external sources. This ensures that infected or suspicious files are detected before they are processed further, and we do not need to check these malicious files on our own.
What is most valuable?
Antivirus for Amazon S3 is a great tool that is reliable and easy to integrate. It adds an essential security layer for S3-based workflows which may be subject to malicious attacks and protects the overall infrastructure while also reducing the burden of checking those files on your own. I recommend it to any organization that handles external file uploads or sensitive data in Amazon S3.
I would rate Antivirus for Amazon S3 quite well. It is reliable and easy to integrate, adding a security layer for S3-based workloads for some of our applications. Overall, it is a good solution.
What needs improvement?
The reporting part could be a bit more detailed. A summary of all the scans in a better way would be beneficial. This part could be improved or enhanced.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Antivirus for Amazon S3 for one year.
What other advice do I have?
I would highly recommend Antivirus for Amazon S3 to any organization that handles external file uploads or sensitive data in Amazon S3. My review rating for this product is nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Automated cloud file scans have protected shared data and improve customer audit readiness
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Antivirus for Amazon S3 is that S3 objects are generally uploaded to the cloud by different clients, and those S3 objects are being consumed by our ECM products.
We upload all the codes of our Lambda functions to S3 because they are large in volume. It may happen that our SCA tools and node modules that are getting uploaded may have vulnerable content or objectionable content, so we use Antivirus for Amazon S3 for scanning them.
What is most valuable?
Antivirus for Amazon S3 offers some of the best features including deployment using Terraform, the ability to scan new and existing objects, very quick setup time, multiple engine support such as Sophos, CIS Premium, and CIS Secure, and extensive vendor support through many marketplaces.
These features benefit my workflow because whenever a Lambda is being deployed, it can be triggered at any time. While GitHub and our SCM are building it, during the time when it is being posted to S3 or being downloaded into execution, it is scanned very quickly before Lambda pulls it up, unzips it, and executes it.
Antivirus for Amazon S3 has positively impacted my organization because it has improved our bank database customer experience for our bank customers.
What needs improvement?
I think Antivirus for Amazon S3 can be improved by including patches over time and adding forensic analysis of data to show where viruses may have been incorporated.
In future updates of Antivirus for Amazon S3, threat intelligence or forensic malware analysis would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Antivirus for Amazon S3 for three plus years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Antivirus for Amazon S3 is definitely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Antivirus for Amazon S3's scalability is impressive as it was able to scan one TB plus 10 TB of data easily.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Antivirus for Amazon S3 is top notch as we have a golden standard and receive immediate support responses whenever we have any issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are using Antivirus for Amazon S3 for the first time only.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing when using Antivirus for Amazon S3 was good, as we were in a POC model to adopt it, and the billing is taken care of by a different team.
What was our ROI?
I have definitely seen a return on investment with Antivirus for Amazon S3, including fewer employees needed and time saved. There was an audit system going through those S3 bucket objects, allowing us to directly detect whether there is any threat on those S3 ones coming from third parties.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Antivirus for Amazon S3, I did not evaluate other options because since we were on AWS only, we looked up on the market fit first.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Antivirus for Amazon S3 an eight on a scale of one to ten. I gave it an eight because with the overall scope, I think it is still new, and Antivirus for Amazon S3 will improve over time and absorb more features.
My advice to others looking into using Antivirus for Amazon S3 is to go and use it, so you won't know until you actually use it.
I have additional thoughts about Antivirus for Amazon S3, noting that a lot of vendors are joining in, so we will definitely see rich features. My overall rating for this product is eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Secure file sharing has protected global storage and improves confidence with external partners
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Antivirus for Amazon S3 is that my customers use S3 for a variety of use cases where data is constantly uploaded and downloaded from S3, making it extremely important to protect my S3 buckets globally from any kind of virus that might corrupt files, that might create other security concerns and introduce bugs into my AWS ecosystem.
A quick specific example of how I have used Antivirus for Amazon S3 in one of those scenarios is when we expose S3 endpoints for our external partners to upload files, and we have applied antivirus there to do a check on the files being uploaded prior to those being uploaded into S3, which gives us confidence that the files being uploaded are not corrupt or a security threat for us.
How has it helped my organization?
Antivirus for Amazon S3 has positively impacted my organization by giving us the confidence that we can really expose our S3 buckets to the external world without having to worry about security, and from a developer standpoint, we know that at any point in time globally if S3 buckets are created, we have templates that will automatically enforce the antivirus policies there, improving our overall security posture rather than compromising it because we do have a large footprint on S3.
What is most valuable?
The best features Antivirus for Amazon S3 offers include that it is really a built-in feature which is really great, as you don't have to do anything extra, there's no operational complexity or cost overhead associated with it, and because it's a managed solution, it's easy for us to configure policies as S3 buckets are created globally and make sure they have the necessary virus protection as needed.
The simplicity and ease of policy configuration have helped my team day-to-day because, as it is part of the AWS ecosystem, I don't need to really hire a separate skill set to configure this service, and moreover, if I use the console, all the features are available to me at a click, and I can also programmatically control it, making configuring the antivirus part of setting S3 objects rather than setting up a separate service altogether on top of S3.
What needs improvement?
I think Antivirus for Amazon S3 could be improved by slightly further automating the process; beyond just the ability to send notifications, if an email could be crafted or if communication through any channel could be established with the person or team who uploaded the file, that level of automation could be avoided on our end, allowing us to configure an entire loop from detecting a malicious upload to contacting the uploader and taking corrective action, which I think would be really cool.
For how long have I used the solution?
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
How are customer service and support?
I have not had a need to contact customer support many times, but during the weekdays, they have been fairly available to us, and in the initial days during the 30-day trial period, we received email support and could contact their expert when required while setting it up, so overall, I'm pleased with the basic support model provided.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it really is appealing, priced at an optimal point of view, where it feels practically free.
What about the implementation team?
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with Antivirus for Amazon S3; while it is a little too early to see the overall impact, detecting 200 plus malware in a month is a good sign of our improved security posture.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Since using Antivirus for Amazon S3, we have been able to detect malicious files, and we have configured AWS EventBridge to notify us whenever such an incident occurs, leading to an average of 200 to 300 notifications of malware per month globally, which gives us confidence that the antivirus is working, and the entire notification service in AWS allows us to dig a little bit deeper into audit trails and CloudWatch to figure out where incidents occurred and work with those individuals or teams to ensure that accidental attempts don't happen again or address any malicious activity with our partners.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My advice to others looking into using Antivirus for Amazon S3 is that it is absolutely essential; there are options like MetaDefender, Bucket AV, and Amazon GuardDuty to consider, but it's a no-brainer to have antivirus on it when you're thinking about exposing S3 endpoints externally.
What other advice do I have?
I chose that rating because I would have given a 10 if it had the end-to-end feature of automation I spoke about, where from the point of detection all the way to communicating with the person who uploaded the file, that entire loop is automated.
I found this interview logical and appreciated providing feedback in this format for the first time. I assigned a review rating of 8 to Antivirus for Amazon S3.