Share resources securely within your organization

Managing permissions is critical to securing access to AWS resources. Sharing resources securely helps reduce operational overhead, fosters consistency across teams, and minimizes configuration errors, allowing organizations to scale without sacrificing security.

Best Practices

Implement Fine-Grained Access Control

• Define roles and responsibilities clearly within your organization to ensure that only authorized individuals and services have access to specific resources.
• Utilize AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies to create fine-grained permissions that are tailored to the specific actions users and machines can perform.
• Regularly review and update these policies to adapt to changing organizational needs and to ensure that permissions are not overly permissive.

Utilize Resource Sharing Features

• Leverage AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) to share resources across different AWS accounts securely.
• Create resource shares for specific teams or projects, which helps manage who has access to what while minimizing duplication of resources.
• Regularly audit resource sharing configurations to ensure they still meet the security and operational needs of your organization.

Establish Best Practices for Multi-Account Environments

• Adopt a multi-account strategy to isolate workloads and environments, which can help limit the blast radius in case of a security issue.
• Implement AWS Organizations to manage and govern your accounts centrally, leveraging service control policies (SCPs) to enforce permission boundaries.
• Encourage consistent tagging of resources to better manage access and identify where access needs to be shared or restricted across accounts.

Implement Monitoring and Logging for Access Events

• Enable AWS CloudTrail to log all API calls across your AWS infrastructure, allowing you to monitor who accessed what resources and when.
• Set up Amazon CloudWatch Alarms based on CloudTrail events to alert your security team of any unauthorized access attempts or suspicious activity.
• Regularly review logs and alarms to ensure compliance with access control policies and to identify any anomalies.

Educate and Train Your Teams

• Provide ongoing training to your teams about best practices for managing permissions and securing AWS resources.
• Conduct regular workshops on IAM and resource sharing features to ensure all team members understand how to effectively manage access.
• Foster a security-conscious culture by regularly sharing security updates and lessons learned from any incidents that may have occurred.

Questions to ask your team

• How do you determine which resources need to be shared within your organization?
• What processes do you have in place to review and audit shared permissions regularly?
• How do you ensure that access is only granted to those who truly need it?
• What mechanisms do you use to manage cross-account access to shared resources?
• How do you handle permission changes when a user’s role or responsibility changes?
• What tools or services do you utilize to automate the management of permissions?
• How do you verify that shared resources are being accessed according to your security policies?
• What training or guidelines do you provide to teams regarding resource sharing and permission management?

Who should be doing this?

Cloud Security Architect

• Design and implement security architectures to manage permissions effectively.
• Establish guidelines for identity and access management (IAM) policies.
• Ensure compliance with organizational security standards and best practices.
• Conduct regular security audits and access reviews.

IAM Administrator

• Create and manage IAM roles, groups, and policies for users and machines.
• Configure secure access to resources and monitor permissions usage.
• Respond to requests for access and ensure proper documentation.
• Educate team members on IAM best practices and security protocols.

DevOps Engineer

• Implement secure practices while deploying workloads across multiple accounts.
• Collaborate with the IAM Administrator to ensure proper access controls are in place.
• Automate resource provisioning while maintaining compliance and security.
• Monitor any changes to permissions and report potential security risks.

Compliance Officer

• Review IAM policies for compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Coordinate with the Cloud Security Architect to assess risks associated with permissions.
• Oversee audits and prepare reports for management regarding access control measures.
• Stay up-to-date on security compliance standards and best practices.

Training Coordinator

• Develop and deliver training programs related to security and IAM best practices.
• Ensure all employees understand their roles in managing permissions.
• Create documentation and resources for ongoing reference on security and permissions.
• Evaluate training effectiveness and make improvements as necessary.

What evidence shows this is happening in your organization?

• Access Control Policy Template: A structured template for defining access control policies that govern how permissions are assigned to individuals and machines within the organization, ensuring secure access to shared resources.
• Resource Sharing Best Practices Guide: A comprehensive guide outlining best practices for securely sharing resources across different accounts, focusing on minimizing operational overhead while maintaining strict access controls.
• Permissions Management Dashboard: A visual dashboard that displays real-time data on permissions granted to users and machines, enabling oversight and management of access within the organization.
• Access Review Checklist: A checklist to ensure regular reviews of access permissions, ensuring they remain aligned with operational needs and security policies.
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Model Diagram: A diagram illustrating the role-based access control model implemented in the organization, detailing user roles and corresponding permissions for various resources.

Cloud Services

AWS

• AWS IAM: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) allows you to control access to AWS services and resources securely. You can manage permissions for both people and machine identities through policies attached to IAM users, groups, and roles.
• AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM): AWS RAM enables the sharing of AWS resources across different accounts and organizational units, reducing management overhead while keeping security controls intact.
• AWS Organizations: AWS Organizations lets you create groups of AWS accounts and manage permissions and policies across them, facilitating secure resource sharing.

Azure

• Azure Active Directory (AAD): AAD provides identity and access management capabilities for Azure services, allowing you to manage permissions securely for users and applications across your organization.
• Azure Resource Manager: Azure Resource Manager enables you to manage your Azure resources through a centralized management layer with role-based access controls for resource sharing within your organization.

Google Cloud Platform

• Google Cloud Identity: Google Cloud Identity offers identity and access management for Google Cloud resources, allowing you to manage access permissions for users and service accounts securely.
• Google Cloud IAM: Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) provides fine-grained access control to manage who (users) has what access (roles) to which resources in your Google Cloud environment.

Question: How do you manage permissions for people and machines?
Pillar: Security (Code: SEC)