Running a secure EC2 instance is critical to protecting your data and applications. There are a number of best practices you can follow to help keep your EC2 instances secure.
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Use IAM roles to give your EC2 instances access to AWS resources
IAM roles allow you to give your EC2 instances access to AWS resources without having to embed your AWS credentials in your application code. IAM roles are more secure than using access keys because they allow you to control exactly what permissions your EC2 instances have.
2. Configure security groups to control traffic to your EC2 instances
Security groups act as a firewall for your EC2 instances, controlling traffic both to and from your instances. By default, all traffic is denied and you must explicitly allow traffic that you want to allow.
When configuring security groups, you should only allow the traffic that your application needs. For example, if your application only needs to communicate with other instances in your VPC, you should only allow traffic from those instances.
3. Use key pairs to encrypt traffic to and from your EC2 instances
Key pairs allow you to encrypt traffic to and from your EC2 instances. By using a key pair, you can ensure that only authorized users can access your instances.
4. Use Amazon EBS encryption to encrypt data at rest
Amazon EBS encryption encrypts data at rest, ensuring that it is protected even if the underlying storage is compromised. Amazon EBS encryption is transparent to your applications and requires no changes to your application code.
5. Use Amazon S3 encryption to encrypt data in transit
Amazon S3 encryption encrypts data in transit, ensuring that it is protected as it travels between your EC2 instance and Amazon S3. Amazon S3 encryption is transparent to your applications and requires no changes to your application code.
6. Use Amazon CloudWatch to monitor activity in your AWS account
Amazon CloudWatch allows you to monitor activity in your AWS account, including activity on your EC2 instances. With Amazon CloudWatch, you can set up alarms that will notify you if there is unusual activity in your account.
7. Use AWS CloudTrail to log activity in your AWS account
AWS CloudTrail is a service that logs all activity in your AWS account. With AWS CloudTrail, you can see who made changes to your AWS resources, when they made those changes, and what those changes were.
8. Use Amazon Inspector to assess the security of your EC2 instances
Amazon Inspector is a security assessment service that can help you identify vulnerabilities in your EC2 instances. Amazon Inspector assesses your EC2 instances for compliance with security best practices and provides you with a report of findings.
9. Use AWS Config to track changes to your AWS resources
AWS Config is a service that allows you to track changes to your AWS resources. With AWS Config, you can see who made changes to your resources, when those changes were made, and what those changes were.
10. Use AWS Trusted Advisor to check for potential security issues
AWS Trusted Advisor is a service that checks for potential security issues in your AWS account. AWS Trusted Advisor can help you identify areas of your account that may need additional security.
By following these best practices, you can help keep your EC2 instances secure.
For more, see this video from SANS:
