Safely Storing Sensitive Data on EBS and S3

Sensitive data, such as customer information, payment details, and confidential business records, must be securely stored in AWS to prevent data breaches, unauthorized access, and compliance violations. AWS provides encryption, access control, and auditing mechanisms to ensure safe data storage on Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3).

✅ SecureCart Use Case

SecureCart, an e-commerce platform, processes and stores customer transactions, product inventory, and user analytics. These datasets are stored across:

• EBS volumes attached to EC2 instances for real-time order processing

• S3 buckets for long-term data retention and analytics

SecureCart must ensure that sensitive data is encrypted, access-controlled, and securely backed up.

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🔹 Securing Data on Amazon EBS

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent storage for EC2 instances, which may store databases, logs, and temporary files.

🔑 Security Features for EBS

Feature	Description
EBS Encryption	Encrypts data at rest, in transit between EC2 and EBS, and snapshots.
IAM Policies	Controls access to EBS snapshots and volumes.
KMS Key Policies	Ensures only authorized users/services can access encrypted volumes.
EBS Snapshot Encryption	Ensures backups remain encrypted when stored in S3.

✅ Best Practices for SecureCart’s EBS Data Security

✔ Enable EBS encryption for all sensitive workloads. ✔ Use AWS KMS Customer Managed Keys (CMKs) instead of AWS-Managed keys for enhanced control. ✔ Restrict IAM roles to limit access to EC2 instances and EBS volumes. ✔ Use EC2 Instance Profiles to avoid storing credentials directly on instances. ✔ Regularly create encrypted EBS snapshots for backup and disaster recovery. ✔ Monitor access logs using AWS CloudTrail for unusual activity.

🔹 How SecureCart Implements EBS Security

Step	Action
1️⃣ Enable EBS encryption	SecureCart enables encryption by default for all EBS volumes storing order transaction data.
2️⃣ Restrict IAM roles	IAM policies ensure that only EC2 instances running payment processing services can access encrypted volumes.
3️⃣ Secure snapshots	All EBS snapshots are encrypted and access is restricted to admin roles.
4️⃣ Monitor activity	AWS CloudTrail logs all access attempts to encrypted EBS volumes.

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🔹 Securing Data on Amazon S3

Amazon S3 is a highly durable object storage service that SecureCart uses for: ✔ Storing user-generated content (e.g., product images, receipts) ✔ Logging & monitoring files ✔ Data analytics and machine learning datasets

🔑 Security Features for S3

Feature	Description
S3 Encryption	Encrypts data at rest using SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, or SSE-C.
S3 Bucket Policies	Controls who can access the S3 bucket and its objects.
IAM Policies	Assigns permissions at the user or role level.
S3 Access Logs	Tracks requests and access patterns for security audits.
Block Public Access	Prevents unintended public exposure of sensitive data.
Versioning	Protects against accidental deletions by maintaining object history.
MFA Delete	Requires multi-factor authentication (MFA) to delete objects.

✅ Best Practices for SecureCart’s S3 Data Security

✔ Use AWS KMS for encryption (SSE-KMS) to control and audit key usage. ✔ Enable bucket-level policies to restrict access only to SecureCart’s application servers. ✔ Block public access to prevent accidental exposure. ✔ Use S3 Access Points for fine-grained control over bucket permissions. ✔ Enable CloudTrail logging to monitor data access and modifications. ✔ Implement object versioning to prevent accidental deletion. ✔ Use Amazon Macie to detect and classify sensitive data stored in S3.

🔹 How SecureCart Implements S3 Security

Step	Action
1️⃣ Encrypt S3 objects	SecureCart enables SSE-KMS encryption to protect all customer order receipts stored in S3.
2️⃣ Restrict access	SecureCart applies IAM policies and S3 bucket policies to ensure only authorized users/services can access data.
3️⃣ Enable MFA Delete	Protects against accidental or malicious deletions.
4️⃣ Monitor data access	SecureCart enables AWS Macie to scan S3 buckets for sensitive customer data exposure.

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🔹 Comparing S3 and EBS Security Measures

Security Measure	Amazon EBS	Amazon S3
Encryption	Default encryption using KMS CMK or AWS-managed keys	Object-level encryption with SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C
Access Control	IAM policies control access to volumes and snapshots	Bucket policies, IAM policies, ACLs for object-level access
Data Retention	Snapshots for backups and disaster recovery	Object versioning, lifecycle policies, S3 Glacier for archiving
Auditing	CloudTrail logs access to EBS volumes	S3 access logs, CloudTrail, Amazon Macie for sensitive data discovery
Network Security	Restrict access via Security Groups and IAM roles	Block public access, VPC Endpoints, S3 Access Points

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🚀 Summary

🔹 Amazon EBS is best for block storage and real-time compute workloads, while Amazon S3 is best for object storage and long-term data retention. 🔹 SecureCart ensures secure data storage by encrypting EBS volumes and S3 objects, restricting access via IAM, and monitoring for anomalies using AWS services. 🔹 Implementing KMS for key management, MFA Delete for S3, and CloudTrail logging ensures end-to-end security and compliance.