NCC Group reviews Amazon EKS security architecture

Learn how to handle sensitive log data securely using Amazon CloudWatch, with best practices for data protection and compliance via Jyothi Madanlal and Pratima Singh on Amazon Web Services (AWS) https://lnkd.in/dr8Ndkfn #aws #AWSCloud #CloudWatch #Security #Logging #Compliance #CloudComputing

Identity, access, and security in AWS ☁️ - Part 4 - Key security and monitoring tools in AWS. Like we proposed in the last post, on this last post on Identity, Access and Security within AWS, we will go through a breakdown of the core essentials and the specialised supporting services that round out a strong cloud security posture. 🛡️ Core Security & Monitoring Essentials These are the foundational services that almost every AWS environment should leverage. 🌟 IAM (Identity & Access Management) – Enforce least-privilege access and manage permissions. 🌟KMS (Key Management Service) – Create and control encryption keys for data protection. 🌟AWS Shield – DDoS protection at the network and application layers. 🌟AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) – Defend against common web exploits like SQL injection. 🌟Amazon Macie – Discover and protect sensitive data (e.g., PII) in S3. 🌟AWS Security Hub – Centralised dashboard for compliance and risk visibility. 🌟Amazon CloudWatch – Metrics, logs, and alarms for real-time monitoring. 🌟AWS CloudTrail – Audit API calls and user activity. 🌟Amazon GuardDuty – Intelligent threat detection powered by ML. 🌟AWS Config – Track configuration changes and evaluate compliance. 🌟AWS X-Ray – Trace requests across distributed applications for debugging. 🔧 Specialised & Supporting Services These tools are context-driven. They are invaluable in the right scenarios, but not always part of the “day one” toolkit. 🌠 Amazon Inspector – Automated vulnerability management for workloads. 🌠 AWS STS (Security Token Service) – Issues temporary credentials for secure, federated access. 🌠 Amazon Cognito – Authentication and user management for web/mobile apps. 🌠 AWS Secrets Manager – Secure storage and rotation of credentials and API keys. 👉 Remember:  Think of AWS security as a layered ecosystem. Start with the essentials, then extend with specialised services as your architecture and compliance needs evolve. We will be moving onto the cloud service management side of things within AWS starting from the next post, so keep in touch and keep up the cram! 👇 Ari 💙 🙏 ☀️ #AWS #CloudComputing #CloudArchitecture #DevOps #awscertification #CloudArchitecture #SolutionsArchitect #CloudEngineering #cloudlearning #cloudservices #ContinuousLearning #ProfessionalGrowth #CloudSecurity #Compliance #Monitoring #Observability

Amazon has published a major update: EKS has been independently validated by NCC Group for its “Zero Operator Access” architecture. ⭐ Key Takeaways • Zero human access to your control plane AWS operators cannot read, modify, or interact with customer Kubernetes control-plane data. • Independently affirmed NCC Group reviewed EKS architecture and confirmed there are no technical paths for AWS personnel to access customer control-plane data. • Strong encryption everywhere Control-plane data (including etcd backups) is encrypted with envelope encryption, and AWS staff have no access to plaintext keys. • Restricted, audited administrative APIs Any internal AWS actions use highly restricted non-interactive APIs with: ✔️ Multi-party approval ✔️ Authentication ✔️ Full audit logging • Built on AWS Nitro The EKS control plane runs on the Nitro System, providing confidential compute isolation. • Consistent security across all node types Whether you use managed node groups, self-managed nodes, Auto Mode, or Fargate — the same zero-operator-access guarantee applies. This is a big win for teams running Kubernetes in regulated industries, security-conscious organizations, and anyone who wants managed Kubernetes without compromising data isolation. #AWS #AmazonEKS #Kubernetes #CloudSecurity #ZeroTrust #DevOps #CloudComputing #CyberSecurity #AWSSecurity #EKS #Containers #CloudArchitecture #InfoSec #PlatformEngineering #NitroSystem https://lnkd.in/ep3KdKxU

Hot off the press! 🔐 Runtime Security for Amazon EKS Auto Mode. Excited to share my latest blog post on enhancing container security in Amazon EKS Auto Mode! While EKS Auto Mode streamlines cluster management, securing workloads at runtime remains critical. 🎯 The Challenge: Traditional security tools struggle with granular visibility at the container runtime level. Zero-day exploits, privilege escalation, and container escapes require defense mechanisms beyond network policies and RBAC. 💡 The Solution: KubeArmor—an open-source, container-aware security enforcement system—provides system-call-level protection using Linux Security Modules (LSMs). This creates defense-in-depth by combining EKS Auto Mode infrastructure security with container runtime protection. 🔧 Key Capabilities: • System call-level monitoring and control to prevent privilege escalation • Granular process and file access control at the application level • Runtime protection against supply chain vulnerabilities • Zero-day mitigation through behavioral boundaries • PCI-DSS and HIPAA compliance support with detailed audit trails 📊 Real-World Impact: A financial services company using KubeArmor achieved: ✅ Contained Log4Shell vulnerability while patching ✅ 60% reduction in PCI-DSS audit prep time ✅ Significant decrease in MTTD for suspicious activities ✅ Zero impact on development velocity 🔗 AWS Integration: KubeArmor seamlessly integrates with Amazon CloudWatch for centralized logging and AWS GuardDuty for automated threat response—creating a closed-loop security system where threat intelligence directly enhances container protection. This is particularly valuable for EKS Auto Mode environments where custom AMIs aren't supported. KubeArmor delivers essential runtime hardening directly at the workload level. Read the full technical deep-dive, including deployment steps, policy examples, and integration patterns: https://lnkd.in/gP5ghSna Special thanks to Rahul Jadhav from Accuknox for co-authoring this post! 🙏 #AWS #EKS #Kubernetes #ContainerSecurity #CloudSecurity #DevSecOps #RuntimeSecurity #KubeArmor #CloudNative #CNCF Amazon Web Services (AWS) Sai Vennam AccuKnox

⚠️ One Amazon Web Services (AWS) Region Glitched. The Internet Flinched. Earlier this week, AWS US-EAST-1 — the beating heart of Amazon’s global cloud experienced DNS resolution issues that rippled across the internet. ChatGPT, WhatsApp, Venmo, Alexa, Ring, Epic Games, and even government portals went dark or degraded. All because the internet’s “phonebook” #DNS briefly stopped resolving correctly. Think about that: One API endpoint in one region malfunctioned… and half the internet paused. 💡 What This Outage Really Exposes 1️⃣ Cloud Centralization = Single Points of Global Failure US-EAST-1 is more than a data center. It’s where countless production workloads, APIs, and identity services converge. When that region hiccups, services everywhere feel it. 👉 Resilience starts with architectural diversity — multi-region, multi-cloud, or at least cross-zone failover. 2️⃣ DNS Isn’t “Just Networking”, It’s a Security Boundary DNS resolution failures mimic the same patterns we see in DNS hijacking or poisoning. Whether accidental or malicious, the outcome is the same: broken trust. 👉 Implement DNSSEC, caching layers, and validation monitoring, treat DNS as a critical part of your threat surface. 3️⃣ Integrity Is the New Availability Uptime means nothing if your data is inconsistent or misrouted. 👉 Every security strategy needs to validate integrity, not just keep services online. 4️⃣ Shared Responsibility ≠ Shared Impact AWS mitigated quickly. But downstream applications, workflows, and users still paid the price. 👉 This is why chaos engineering, automated failover, and robust incident response drills matter. 🔍 The Bigger Picture This wasn’t a #cyberattack but it demonstrates how an outage can have the same operational impact as one. When a core dependency fails, it tests more than your cloud configuration, it tests your security posture, observability, and recovery maturity. The next outage may not be accidental. Are we ready for that? #Resilience is the new security. In the cloud era, availability, integrity, and trust must fail or survive together. #AWS #CloudSecurity #CyberResilience #DNS #IncidentResponse #DevSecOps #InfrastructureSecurity #DataIntegrity #CloudComputing #RiskManagement #ResilienceEngineering #CyberSecurity #Infrastructure

🔒 The 7 AWS Services That Secure Your Cloud Data (Beyond IAM) Security in AWS isn’t a one-time setup — it’s a continuous, multi-layered practice. Here’s how AWS weaves security into every layer of the cloud 👇 1️⃣ Identity & Data Protection 🔐 AWS Secrets Manager Manages API keys, passwords, and credentials — automatically rotates them before they become risks. → No more hard-coded secrets in your scripts. 🧠 AWS Key Management Service (KMS) Encrypts data across S3, EBS, RDS, and more — all with centralized key control. → The single brain behind AWS encryption. 2️⃣ Application & Network Defense 🧩 AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) Inspects every request to your app — blocks malicious traffic before it hits your backend. → Integrated with CloudFront and ALB for real-time filtering and rate-limiting. 🛡️ AWS Shield (Standard & Advanced) Provides managed protection against large-scale DDoS attacks. → Shield + CloudFront = resilient edge defense. 🌐 Built-in DDoS Protection Layers AWS automatically embeds defense mechanisms across multiple layers: Route 53 → DNS-level resilience against volumetric attacks. CloudFront → Global edge filtering before traffic reaches applications. Application Load Balancer (ALB) → Distributes load evenly, minimizing single points of failure. 💡 AWS doesn’t wait for you to configure protection — it’s woven into the infrastructure itself. 3️⃣ Governance & Continuous Compliance 📘 Shared Responsibility Model AWS secures the cloud — you secure what’s in it. → Clear boundaries, clear accountability. ⚙️ 7 Foundations of Security Identity, Detection, Infrastructure, Data, Incident Response, Application, and Compliance — → Covering every layer, from login to lifecycle. ✅ Key Takeaway Security in AWS isn’t a checkbox — it’s continuous architecture. By mastering these tools, you’re not just deploying infrastructure — You’re building trust at scale. 💬 Question for you: Which of these AWS Security layers do you find most critical in real-world projects? #AWS #CloudSecurity #DevOps #AWSWAF #AWSShield #SecretsManager #CloudArchitecture

🔐 Securing Data in AWS: At Rest vs In Transit In today’s cloud-first world, data security isn’t optional — it’s essential. Whether you’re storing customer information, application data, or logs — ensuring data confidentiality, integrity, and availability is a shared responsibility between you and AWS. AWS provides built-in mechanisms to protect data in two key states: At Rest and In Transit 1️⃣ Encryption at Rest Encryption at rest means your data is protected while stored in AWS services. This ensures that even if someone gains unauthorized access to your storage, they cannot read your data without decryption keys. 🔸 Common services & options: Amazon S3: SSE-S3 → AWS manages encryption keys. SSE-KMS → You control keys via AWS Key Management Service (KMS). SSE-C → You manage your own encryption keys. Amazon RDS: Enable encryption for database storage and snapshots using KMS keys. Amazon EBS: Encrypt your EC2 volumes and snapshots by default. AWS Backup & DynamoDB: Both support encryption with KMS. 2️⃣ Encryption in Transit Encryption in transit protects data while it’s moving — between client and server, or between AWS services — ensuring that no one can intercept or tamper with it. 🔸 Common mechanisms: HTTPS / TLS: Secure your web traffic (used by services like CloudFront, API Gateway, ALB). AWS Private Link: Keeps communication within AWS private networks, avoiding exposure to the public internet. VPN or Direct Connect with MACsec: For encrypted connections between on-prem and AWS. SMTP over TLS, SSH, and SSL tunnels: For application-level security. Example: Amazon S3 supports HTTPS by default. AWS API Gateway and CloudFront enforce SSL/TLS for all public endpoints. 3️⃣ Why Both Matter Using encryption only at rest protects stored data but not data while it travels. Using only in transit encryption prevents interception but leaves stored data exposed. ➡️ Together, they provide end-to-end security. #AWS #Security #CloudSecurity #KMS #DataEncryption #DevSecOps #BestPractices #CloudComputing

AWS Outage: Unexpected Interaction Between Automated Systems ☁️⚠️ In the cloud world, disruptions can have massive impacts, and the recent AWS outage is a clear example of how an improbable combination of automated events can escalate quickly. According to the official report, this incident affected key services in regions like US East, disrupting operations for thousands of customers for hours. What were the main causes? 🔍 - Routine update in the network control software that unexpectedly interacted with an automated error mitigation process, generating a chain reaction of failures ⚙️❌ - Overload in routing systems that amplified the problem, affecting the availability of services like EC2, S3, and Lambda, leading to widespread degradation in the infrastructure ☁️📉 - Lack of early detection due to the rarity of this interaction, highlighting the need for more exhaustive testing in automated environments 🔬 Key lessons for IT professionals 🔑 - Automation is powerful, but unforeseen interactions between systems require advanced simulations and proactive monitoring to avoid global outages 🛡️ - AWS has implemented improvements in its resilience, such as additional reviews in updates, reminding us of the importance of redundancy in cloud architectures 📈 - For businesses, this underscores the relevance of multi-cloud strategies and robust backups to mitigate similar risks 💼 This case highlights how even cloud giants face unpredictable challenges, driving innovations in security and reliability. For more information visit: https://lnkd.in/efg_CAtY #AWS #CloudComputing #CyberSecurity #OutageAnalysis #DevOps #CloudSecurity If this analysis was useful to you, consider donating to the Enigma Security community to continue supporting with more technical news: https://lnkd.in/er_qUAQh Connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss more about cybersecurity and cloud: https://lnkd.in/eKynt-sy 📅 Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:09:00 +1000 🔗Subscribe to the Membership: https://lnkd.in/eh_rNRyt

AWS Outage: Unexpected Interaction Between Automated Systems ☁️⚠️ In the cloud world, disruptions can have massive impacts, and the recent AWS outage is a clear example of how an improbable combination of automated events can escalate quickly. According to the official report, this incident affected key services in regions like US East, disrupting operations for thousands of customers for hours. What were the main causes? 🔍 - Routine update in the network control software that unexpectedly interacted with an automated error mitigation process, generating a chain reaction of failures ⚙️❌ - Overload in routing systems that amplified the problem, affecting the availability of services like EC2, S3, and Lambda, leading to widespread degradation in the infrastructure ☁️📉 - Lack of early detection due to the rarity of this interaction, highlighting the need for more exhaustive testing in automated environments 🔬 Key lessons for IT professionals 🔑 - Automation is powerful, but unforeseen interactions between systems require advanced simulations and proactive monitoring to avoid global outages 🛡️ - AWS has implemented improvements in its resilience, such as additional reviews in updates, reminding us of the importance of redundancy in cloud architectures 📈 - For businesses, this underscores the relevance of multi-cloud strategies and robust backups to mitigate similar risks 💼 This case highlights how even cloud giants face unpredictable challenges, driving innovations in security and reliability. For more information visit: https://lnkd.in/ec9vPcdZ #AWS #CloudComputing #CyberSecurity #OutageAnalysis #DevOps #CloudSecurity If this analysis was useful to you, consider donating to the Enigma Security community to continue supporting with more technical news: https://lnkd.in/evtXjJTA Connect with me on LinkedIn to discuss more about cybersecurity and cloud: https://lnkd.in/eVfce3YM 📅 Fri, 24 Oct 2025 17:09:00 +1000 🔗Subscribe to the Membership: https://lnkd.in/eh_rNRyt