In consultation with Cornell IT Security Office and Cornell financial administrators, two "standard" configurations of AWS accounts have been defined, one for general uses and one for research. Each configuration follows AWS, Cornell, and security best practices. Not all best practices can be implemented by policy and configuration. Individual AWS users also need to follow best practices see the Cloudification Services Tech Blog and AWS IAM best practices documentation.
| Area | Configuration | Link/Description | General Configuration | Research Configuration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Security/Network | Cornell standard Virtual Private Network configured | See specifics below. | y | ? |
| Security/Network | AWS VPC connected to on-campus network | Private on-campus subnets are connected to AWS VPC subnets through a transparent secure connection (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/VPC_VPN.html). AWS Virtual Private Gateways and Customer (Cornell) Gateways are provisioned and configured appropriately. Ultimately this connectivity will be routed through an AWS Direct Connect connection from campus to AWS. http://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/Welcome.html Network traffic egress from AWS using the Direct Connect will be billed at a lower rate than egress over the public internet. | y | ? |
| Security/Network | AWS VPC subnets are assigned to managed, private IP spaces | This ensures that Cornell private subnets (on-campus and in AWS) do not overlap and that private subnets are transparently and securely routed to AWS VPC subnets. https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/CLOUD/10+Space+Allocation | y | ? |
| Security/Network | private AWS VPC subnets are provisioned with a NAT Gateway | This provides a secure route to the public internet so that AWS EC2 instances can retrieve software updates and remain un-exposed to the public internet. (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/vpc-nat-gateway.html) | y | ? |
| Security/Network | AWS VPC are provisioned with AWS Internet Gateways | This provides AWS EC2 instances running in public VPC subnets access to the internet and vice versa. http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/VPC_Internet_Gateway.html | y | ? |
| Security/Business | AWS account integrated with CloudCheckr | CloudCheckr reports provide suggestions for improving security, reducing costs. It also supports detailed reporting based on AWS labels to e.g., divide account charges to multiple Cornell financial accounts within a single Cornell unit. http://support.cloudcheckr.com/reports/best-practice-report/ | y | y |
| Security | AWS CloudTrail enabled for all activity in all regions | CloudTrail logs all AWS API calls in all regions for auditing purposes. (https://aws.amazon.com/documentation/cloudtrail/) | y | y |
| Security | AWS Config enabled | Config rules monitor infrastructure and will alarm if, e.g., CloudTrail becomes disabled for an account. (https://aws.amazon.com/documentation/config/) | y | y |
| Security | access to AWS account by ITSO in cases of security issues | y | y | |
| Security | AWS root account protected with multifactor authentication | root account should not be used for regular administration and the MFA key should be locked in secure location | y | y |
| Security | no access keys associated with root account | y | y | |
| Security | user access controlled by Cornell AD group membership and integrated with Cornell Shibboleth | http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/shibboleth/; Shibboleth at Cornell Page | y | ? |
| Security | access for users with administrative privileges utilize Cornell Duo for authentication | IAM users can be used for service/programmatic access. Cornell Duo (aka Two-Step Login): http://www.it.cornell.edu/cms/services/twostep/howto/twostep_login.cfm | y | y |