Getting set up with IAM

By Ashwin Venugopal -

 







Overview

AWS IAM offers secured control and access to your AWS and account resources while simultaneously keeping your account credentials private. As a well known fact IAM offers you a variety of advantages while without it, you either have to create an AWS account or the security credentials of an AWS account should be shared by your employees; moreover, you also can't control the tasks a particular user can do via particular AWS resources.

Using IAM to Give Users Access to Your AWS Resources

The following measures can be taken to control access to your AWS resources:

Type of Access

Why would I use it?

Access for users in your AWS account.

If you want to add/create users via IAM and manage their permissions.

Non-AWS user access via identity federation between your authorization system and AWS.

If you have non-AWS users who requires access to your AWS resources.

Cross-account access between AWS accounts.

If you want to share access to particular AWS resources with users having other AWS accounts.

 

Do I need to Sign Up for IAM?

Although it's unnecessary to sign up to use IAM as it is free of cost, it's necessary to create an AWS account in order to use it. IAM only works with AWS products that are integrated with IAM. Now, if you want to sign up for AWS, you have to:

  1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.
  2. Follow the online instructions.

You might also receive a phone call for a verification code. After signing up with AWS account, an AWS account root user is created who has access to all the AWS services and resources in the account and it's more secure to provide administrative access to an administrative user while using the root user for the tasks that requires root user only.


















































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deployment (Part 3)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 1, please click  here To read part 2, please click  here Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA) MMA is used across multiple Microsoft solutions and has undergone a few name changes as its features and functionality have evolved. If it is being considered to be used, then following areas should be covered during a Microsoft Sentinel deployment project: Consider the timelines and the strategy for a migration to AMA (Azure Monitor Agent) before the MMA end-of-life.  Consider the central deployment and management methodology for MMA. Determine which endpoints are in scope for deployment as these affect the log ingestion volume significantly.  Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) Organizations with MMA as the main Microsoft Sentinel agent should start planning the migration to AMA as soon as possible to avoid a rushed migration. One of the main advantages of AMA is the ability to control the log collection policy centrally and apply different policies against different...
Read more

Deployment (Part 1)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 2, please click  here To read part 3, please click  here Azure Resources Microsoft Sentinel needs following resources to be created: Subscription (if a dedicated subscription(s) will be used) Resource group(s) Log Analytics workspace(s) Automation rules/playbook Alert rules Workbooks Microsoft Sentinel offers hundreds of alert rules, workbooks, and automation playbook templates along with hunting scripts. The templates can be used to activate/deploy schedule alerts, create customized dashboards, create automation playbooks and perform threat-hunting activities. Generally, once deployed, the resources created have to be adjusted to match the existing environment, configure local credentials, etc. Methods of deployment: Manual- Administrator can manually configures the Microsoft Sentinel resources with the help of Azure portal. Any manual process has the inherent risks of human operator error, lack of compliance with potential change control procedures, and u...
Read more

Project Resourcing (Part 2)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 1, please click  here Engineering - SIEM The SIEM engineers configures Microsoft Sentinel, including Log Analytics, Logic Apps, workbooks, and playbooks. They are also responsible for the following high-level tasks: Initial configuration of Azure tenant, including provisioning required resources, assigning access roles, and configuring workspace parameters like log retention, resource tagging, and blueprints.  Deployment and configuration of syslog/CEF log collection agents in appropriate locations to collect logs from on-premises devices. Generally, it will be joint effort of both system engineer and SIEM engineer, involving configuration and potential troubleshooting.  Working with system owners to enable log forwarding and configuring any required parsing of log data in Log Analytics.  Working with security operations to create and deploy KQL analytic rules to offer detections for SOC/Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSRIT) use. Tuning...
Read more