In my previous blog, we discussed on the importance of CSPM, the tools available in the market and the real-world use cases. Today, let's deep dive into the AWS native architecture to deploy Cloud security posture management framework for your organization.

CSPM Architecture

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High-Level Overview

This architecture provides continuous monitoring and cloud security posture evaluation framework for AWS workloads. Security Hub serves as the central security intelligence hub, gathering findings from AWS Config Rules. Amazon Event Bridge automates responses - action (remediation) or email notification based on the requirement. 
Security Hub provides dashboard to view organization's security posture. It provides a set of AWS managed insights and ability to create contextual views by specific criteria. Optionally, for customizations and specific requirement Quick Sight along with Amazon Q can be used to enhance security visibility.

Architectural Breakdown

  • AWS Config: Resource Compliance & Configuration Management
    AWS Config monitors and records changes in AWS resource configurations. Predefined and custom Config Rules are enforced to check compliance with security best practices (e.g.: Ebs volumes without encryption, Snapshots which are publicly exposed, S3 buckets with public access). Non-compliant resources generate findings that are forwarded to Security Hub.

  • AWS Security Hub: Security Posture Management
    Security Hub aggregates security findings from AWS Config, Guard Duty, Inspector, Macie, and other security services. It provides a centralized security dashboard showing findings across multiple AWS accounts. Security Hub normalizes findings into AWS Security Finding Format (ASFF). Findings are passed on to Amazon EventBridge for remediation or notifications. Security Hub provides dashboard to view organization's security posture. It provides a set of AWS managed insights.

  • Amazon Event Bridge: Auto Remediation & notification
    Event bridge triggers alerts or automated workflows based on security findings. It can invoke AWS Lambda for automated remediation (e.g., revoke IAM roles with excessive privileges/ delete S3 buckets which are exposed to public). Amazon SNS/ SES can be integrated to send notifications to resource owners. ServiceNow or external security tools can be integrated for incident tracking.

  • Amazon S3: Logging & Data Storage
    Security findings, audit logs, and compliance reports are stored in Amazon S3. S3 provides scalable and cost-effective storage for large volumes of CSPM logs, ensuring that you can retain and analyze historical data without incurring high costs.

  • Amazon Quick Sight: Security Dashboards & Analytics
    Quick Sight provides the flexibility to create custom dashboards and reports based on specific metrics or KPIs relevant to your organization's security posture. Quick Sight reads security findings stored in S3 and visualizes trends, such as Most violated security policies. High-risk resources across regions/accounts. Trend analysis of security events over time.

  • Amazon Q: Enhances dashboards by enabling generative AI, it provides automated recommendations to improve security posture. Helps explain anomalies in security trends. Assists in generating security reports dynamically.

Conclusion

By leveraging the AWS native architecture and services, organizations can enhance their security posture, ensure compliance, and gain comprehensive visibility and control over their cloud infrastructure.
Let's deep dive into practical deployment of this architecture in the upcoming articles …….Stay Tuned….