Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers solutions at scale for virtually everything from file storage to machine learning, and everything in between. As part of its many services, AWS provides comprehensive security, compliance, and governance services to help businesses mitigate risk, improve security posture, and meet regulatory requirements. One such service is AWS Security Hub. In this guide, we will delve deep into a significant update to AWS Security Hub – the support for findings consolidation in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions.
What is AWS Security Hub?¶
Before we get into the specifics, let’s make sure we understand what we’re talking about. AWS Security Hub is a service provided by AWS that gives you a comprehensive view of your security alerts and security posture across all your AWS accounts. This service is designed to provide users with extensive visibility into their security and compliance status across multiple AWS accounts, in a single, centralized dashboard.
Findings Consolidation – A Boon for Efficiency¶
Constantly evolving and stepping up their game to provide the best for their customers, AWS has recently introduced the support for findings consolidation in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions.
Findings consolidation is a feature that allows you to consolidate findings for controls included in more than one standard. Prior to this release, Security Hub generated one finding for each security check in each standard it is mapped to. It essentially resulted in multiple copies of findings referring to the same compliance or security misconfiguration.
But with the new update, when you activate consolidated control findings, AWS Security Hub will generate a new consolidated finding, across multiple standards, for every check. AWS Security Hub will now simplify the way you triage, investigate, and remediate findings. No more will you be required to sift through various copies of the same findings – thus greatly simplifying security management.
Activating Consolidated Control Findings¶
To further simplify your AWS security management workflow, activating consolidated control findings is quite straightforward. Once activated, it will help you streamline how you manage and respond to security issues in your AWS environment.
Keep in mind that if you use an AWS Security Hub organization, consolidated control findings will be switched on for members only if the administrator has enabled it. This feature is designed to help you maintain a uniform and consistent approach to managing and resolving security findings across your entire organization.
Benefits of Findings Consolidation¶
Let’s talk about why this update is significant and what the benefits are.
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Simplified Triage and Investigation: With findings consolidation, all findings related to one check can be viewed consecutively in a single location. This saves security teams buckets of time, allowing their energies to be focused elsewhere. No longer will you deal with duplicity and redundancy.
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Efficient Remediation: This new feature also simplifies the remediation process. Instead of addressing multiple findings referring to the same issue but reported in different standards, you can now fix the issue in a more streamlined and efficient manner.
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Maintained Consistency: If your organization uses AWS Security Hub, enables consolidated controls findings ensures that all members have the same view and can follow a consistent workflow.
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Reduced Noise: With the elimination of duplicate findings, security teams can prioritize true risks and avoid being overwhelmed by a flood of repeated information.
In conclusion, AWS Security Hub’s support for findings consolidation in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions is designed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your team in managing security findings. This feature simplifies the workflow, reduces redundancy, and maintains a consistent approach to handling and resolving security issues, making this a significant update for organizations heavily relying on AWS for their cloud security needs.
Keep in mind though, AWS requires businesses to understand and effectively manage these tools and settings to realize their full benefits. So, make sure to stay updated with any new updates or features, understand their proper usage, and implement them as per your specific requirements. AWS Security Hub, with an array of settings and features including the latest findings consolidation update, aims at simplifying and strengthening your security posture, making your cloud journey more secure and manageable.