Unveiling the Power of AWS Security: Amazon EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint, Detective, Dual Layer Encryption, and Verified Permissions

Last updated on March 24th, 2024 at 06:20 pm

This week, I’m excited to share with you the highlights from AWS partner’s Live event in Amsterdam. We will be showcasing the incredible capabilities of Amazon EC2 Mac, which allows you to deploy your remote developer workstations and configure your iOS CI/CD pipelines in the cloud. With Amazon EC2 Mac, you can harness the power of Mac instantly and take your development workflows to new heights.

Let’s take a look back at some of the noteworthy launches from last week’s AWS News:

1. Amazon EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint: The introduction of the EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint revolutionizes secure access to Amazon EC2 instances. You can now access instances using their private IP addresses, eliminating the need for bastion hosts. With EC2 Instance Connect, you can manage SSH access using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies and principals, eliminating the hassle of sharing and managing SSH keys. The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) has also been updated to simplify connecting to instances or opening secured tunnels using instance IDs. While AWS Systems Manager Session Manager offers similar capabilities, the advantage of EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint lies in its compatibility with existing SSH-based tools and libraries like the scp command.
2. Amazon Inspector Code Scanning for AWS Lambda: Amazon Inspector now supports code scanning for AWS Lambda functions, providing an additional layer of security. This expansion enables scanning of Lambda functions and associated layers for software vulnerabilities in application package dependencies. Furthermore, Amazon Detective extends its finding groups to Amazon Inspector, integrating findings from Inspector, GuardDuty, AWS Security Hub, and other security services to enhance situational awareness of security events.
3. Amazon Verified Permissions: This service is now generally available and offers a centralized approach to managing application permissions. If you’re building business applications that require user-based permissions, Verified Permissions simplifies and scales permission management. By centralizing permissions in a policy store, developers can easily authorize user actions within their applications. Think of it as an authentication identity provider, but for authorization. For more details, check out Danilo’s post on this exciting feature.
4. Amazon S3 Dual-Layer Server-Side Encryption (DSSE-KMS): To meet the stringent security requirements of heavily regulated industries, Amazon S3 introduces DSSE-KMS. This new encryption option provides double encryption for data at rest, leveraging two layers of encryption using different keys and implementations of the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard with Galois Counter Mode (AES-GCM) algorithm. If you want to dive deeper into this topic, my colleague Irshad has published a comprehensive post with all the details.
5. AWS CloudTrail Lake Dashboards: Enhancing visibility and insights into audit and security data, AWS CloudTrail Lake now offers out-of-the-box dashboards directly within the CloudTrail Lake console. These curated dashboards enable you to quickly access top insights without the need for detailed dashboard setup or SQL expertise. It’s a seamless way to gain valuable information from your audit and security data.
6. AWS IAM Identity Center and Google Workspace Integration: Good news for those using Google Workspace! AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS Single Sign-On) now supports automated user provisioning from Google Workspace. This integration allows you to connect your Google Workspace to IAM Identity Center, enabling centralized management of access to AWS accounts and applications.
7. AWS CloudShell Expansion: AWS CloudShell, the browser-based shell for managing and interacting with your AWS resources, is now available in 12 additional regions. This expansion ensures that users in more regions can benefit from the convenience and security of CloudShell. You can find the full list of the 12 new regions in the official launch announcement.

These recent launches demonstrate AWS’s ongoing commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction. Stay tuned for more exciting developments in the future as AWS continues to push the boundaries of cloud computing.

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