Recommendations for configuring an AWS linked account

Initial account settings

• Login to the Amazon management console: https://<AWS_Account_ID>.signin.aws.amazon.com/console

Note: Replace AWS Account ID with your actual account ID or DNS name.

• From the upper right pane, click on account name -> choose “My account”:

• Write down the “AWS Account ID” (it will be used in the next sections)
• Make sure the Contact information is up to date
• Under “Alternate Contacts” -> specify contact details for “Billing”, “Operations” and “Security”
• Configure “Security Challenge Questions”

Configuring the IAM policies and IAM administrator account

• Login to the IAM console:

https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/

• From the left pane, click on “Account settings” and set the following password policy:

• Minimum password length: 8 characters
• Require at least one uppercase letter (Selected)
• Require at least one lowercase letter (Selected)
• Require at least one number (Selected)
• Allow users to change their own password (Selected)
• Enable password expiration (Selected)

• Password expiration period in days: 90

• Prevent password reuse (Selected)

• Number of passwords to remember: 24

• Click on “Apply password policy”
• From the left pane click on “Users” -> review each and every account member of “admin” / “administrators” group -> click on “Security credentials” tab -> click on the pencil icon near “Assigned MFA device” -> select the MFA device to activate and follow the steps to active the MFA device
• It is strongly recommended that each and every privileged account will be configured with “AWS Management Console access” only – in case privileged account has Access keys, it is strongly recommended to make all keys inactive and create separate accounts for programmatic access

Configure S3 buckets for auditing

• Login to the S3 console:

https://s3.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/

• Click on “Create bucket” -> specify bucket name <AWS_Account_ID>-auditlogs (Replace AWS Account ID with your actual account ID) -> select a region close to your location -> click Next

• Click on “Server access logging” -> click “Enable” -> click Save
• Click on “Tags” -> specify key: AccountName, Value – specify here the AWS account name or ID -> click Save
• Click on “Default encryption” -> select “AES-256” -> click Save

• Click Next
• Leave the default settings “Do not grant public read access to this bucket” -> click Next -> click “Create bucket”
• Login to the AWS CloudTrail console:

https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/

• From the left pane, click on “Dashboard” -> click on “Create trail” -> specify trail name <AWS_Account_ID>-audit-trail (Replace AWS Account ID with your actual account ID)

• “Apply trail to all regions” should be set to “Yes”
• “Read/Write events” should be set to “All”
• Configure “Storage location”:

• Create a new S3 bucket – No
• S3 bucket – specify <AWS_Account_ID>-auditlogs

Note: Replace AWS Account ID with your actual account ID

• Click on “Create”

Note: AWS CloudTrail is not free. See the pricing information:

https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/pricing/

Configure Trusted Advisor

• Login to the Trusted Advisor management console:

https://console.aws.amazon.com/trustedadvisor/

• From the left pane, click on “Preferences” -> select all recipients and set email addresses for “Billing contact”, “Operations Contact” and “Security contact” (similar to the addresses you set up under “My Account” settings)
• It is strongly recommended to review from time to time, the AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations in each of the sections (Cost, performance, security, fault tolerance and service limits) in-order to optimize your AWS environment, save money and raise performance, etc.