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Security and compliance automation

1. Security and compliance automation

AWS offers a few security and compliance tools which provide a comprehensive view and help automate the process. Let's dive in.

2. AWS Security and compliance tools

We looked at this list of AWS tools for compliance and security in the prior video. That's a long list! It can be a bit overwhelming to configure and manage so many tools!

3. Long checklist vs a dashboard

Managing all these tools individually can be quite an ordeal. It's similar to a long list of items to check in a car inspection checklist. Maybe there's a better way. Wouldn't it be nice to see the data from multiple sensors on a single dashboard? Modern cars have done exactly this; they now offer a single location to display alerts from multiple systems. Thankfully, AWS has something similar for compliance and security. AWS Security Hub and AWS Trusted Advisor are two tools which make this possible. Let's review them.

4. AWS Security Hub Overview

AWS Security Hub provides a quick overview into the security posture management, including specific non-compliant items. Checking compliance with a specific standard is as easy as enabling that specific standard in the Security Hub.

5. AWS Security Hub Overview

AWS Security Hub checks for security practices across multiple accounts. It aggregates alerts across 60+ AWS security services and partner integrations including AWS Inspector and GuardDuty. It also supports remediation by invoking a Lambda function.

6. AWS Trusted Advisor

Our other main security and compliance tool is AWS Trusted Advisor. AWS Trusted Advisor helps you observe best practices with an eye toward saving money, improving system performance and reliability, and closing security gaps.

7. AWS Trusted Advisor

Unlike Security Hub, Trusted Advisor helps you monitor multiple aspects of governance controls such as cost optimization, availability, and business continuity. We'll discuss a cost optimization example.

8. Cost optimization

Idle resources in the cloud add to the cost. In this example, Trusted advisor is displaying idle load balancers and under-utilized servers. Users can then change the capacity or the schedule to realize cost savings.

9. Limitations and differences

In summary, cloud governance and compliance requires input from multiple stakeholders and are implemented by subject matter experts. AWS Security Hub provides a holistic view into security while AWS Trusted Advisor provides recommendations on security, cost management, fault tolerance, and performance. These tools simplify the job of human experts but do not eliminate it. This is similar to driving a car on cruise-control which keeps a constant speed but the driver is required to pay attention. It's worth noting that Trusted Advisor checks are not customizable, you just get the checks AWS has added. If you are looking to check compliance with security standards and best practices, use AWS Security Hub.

10. GuardDuty

Finally, we'll touch on one more tool: GuardDuty. GuardDuty detects threats by monitoring your AWS accounts and workloads for malicious activity. It generates detailed findings to help you see and fix potential issues. GuardDuty works independently, without affecting your resources' performance or availability.

11. Let's practice!

Let's bring our Trusted Advisor and Security learnings to practice.

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