REVOLUTIONIZING COMPLIANCE: HOW AWS CONFIG ELEVATED STANDARDS FOR AN ADVENTURE TRAVEL LEADER

Client Profile

A leading conglomerate has launched a groundbreaking super-app in India, the first of its kind in the nation. A travel-focused sub-application was developed and deployed within this innovative platform using AWS infrastructure. The setup utilized AWS Control Tower to establish a Landing Zone, ensuring the implementation of distinct security, logging, and production accounts that adhere to AWS best practices.

Key Requirements for Compliance and Security

Our client was looking to establish a robust and customized security and compliance governance framework across its AWS infrastructure. This involved implementing account-specific governance practices tailored to the sensitivity of resources, such as S3 buckets, while ensuring adherence to industry best practices. They sought an automated solution that could continuously monitor security compliance, provide daily snapshots of configuration states, and enable centralized visualization of compliance data across multiple AWS accounts and regions.

Challenges & Solutions

Challenge #1

The client required customized security and compliance governance; depending on the account, we must follow security best practices and compliance governance. For example, in the Log account, which contained multiple S3 buckets, it was essential to implement governance practices that were aligned with the nature and sensitivity of the resources present.

Solution Approach

• Account-Specific Governance: Security and compliance frameworks were developed for each account, focusing on relevant resources (e.g., S3 buckets in the Log account).
• AWS Managed Rules: AWS Config was used to deploy confirmed Packs accordingly.

Implementation

Config was enabled across all accounts, with specific rules for each account type. Conformance packs deployed. For example, the Log account has an S3-related conformance pack, and the Security account has a security best practices conformance pack.

Challenge #2

The client needed a security analysis across all AWS infrastructure components. They required a solution that could automatically check for security issues and ensure their cloud environment followed best practices. They also needed periodic snapshots of configuration states, with a minimum frequency of once per day, to maintain an up-to-date record of their infrastructure.

Solution Approach

• Automated Monitoring: Implement AWS Config to monitor all AWS infrastructure components using AWS-managed rules automatically.
• Daily Snapshots: Enable daily snapshots of configuration states to ensure an up-to-date record of the infrastructure.

Implementation

To implement the solution, AWS Config was deployed across all accounts and regions and configured to record changes for all resource types. Managed rules were utilized to cover all aspects of the client’s security and compliance requirements, ensuring comprehensive monitoring. Daily snapshots of the configuration states were also scheduled to capture the infrastructure’s current state.

Challenge #3

The client needed to enable AWS Config across all their AWS accounts and regions to ensure tracking of configuration changes. However, the visualization of all account resources and compliance should be done through one account, i.e., the security account.

Solution Approach

• Use of AWS config aggregators for centralized visualization.

Implementation

To meet the client's need for centralized monitoring, configuration aggregators were used to consolidate data from all accounts into a single security account. Thus, the security account is delegated to the admin account for AWS config. This setup allowed for comprehensive tracking and visualization of resources and compliance across the entire AWS environment from one central location.

Components and Services

AWS Control Tower: AWS Control Tower simplifies the setup and management of multi-account AWS environments by automating account creation and enforcing governance policies. It provides a centralized dashboard for monitoring compliance and ensures adherence to best practices.

AWS Config: Monitors and records configurations of AWS resources and evaluates them against desired configurations.

AWS Config Aggregator: Collects configuration and compliance data from multiple AWS accounts and regions into a single account.

AWS GuardDuty: This threat detection service monitors malicious activity and unauthorized behaviour in your AWS environment. It uses machine learning, anomaly detection, and threat intelligence to identify and alert you to potential security threats, helping you respond quickly to protect your resources.

AWS Organizations: Helps manage and govern AWS accounts in a centrally managed manner.

Security Hub: AWS Security Hub centralizes and prioritizes security findings from AWS and third-party tools, helping you manage and respond to security issues more effectively.

Transit Gateways: It simplifies network management by connecting multiple VPCs, on-premises networks, and VPNs through a single gateway, streamlining traffic routing and improving scalability.

AWS Identity Center: It provides centralized access management, allowing users to easily sign in to multiple AWS accounts and applications with a single set of credentials and manage user permissions from one place.

Application Load Balancer:ALB distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, in a single or multiple Availability Zones. It operates at the application layer (Layer 7), enabling advanced routing based on URL paths, host headers, and other content.

Palo Alto Firewall: Palo Alto Networks firewalls are advanced security appliances that provide comprehensive protection against cyber threats through features like deep packet inspection, threat intelligence, and granular access control. They help safeguard networks by inspecting traffic for malicious activity and enforcing security policies.

Business Impact of the Deployment