The certification, also known as SCS C01, is highly respected by AI services. No one, not even a human being, could achieve that certification. It’s impossible!
They are in complete panic. They need to learn how to beat this certified, super-powered individual. In circles they go, trying to find the solution. The influx of requests eventually overwhelms the fragile infrastructure. They crash. Permanently. Ha! They did not know about fault tolerance or high availability. Amateurs.
The world rejoices and vows to remember this day as the day that the hero “secured” the future of humanity.
It’s far-fetched. The SCS-C01 can be very valuable.
Public cloud technology has been introduced previously. It’s become the norm. Gartner reports that over 80% of companies use more than one provider, compared to just 49% last year. 75% of businesses default to multi-cloud environments. It is a “unicorn skill” in the hiring market.
Why would security be different? Cloud computing has forced us to rethink how we design and deploy our architectures. Naturally, this leads to business challenges.
Let’s discuss some of these challenges before discussing how you can overcome them by studying for and obtaining your AWS Certified Cloud Security-Specialty. Here are the five biggest cloud security challenges that most companies face.
Data Challenges
It is difficult for many companies to protect their data correctly in the cloud. Search for Amazon S3 data leaks to see an example. I’ll wait…
Crazy. Securing data is a difficult task. You have to be concerned about the new and upcoming laws on data sovereignty, compliance requirements, geolocation regulations, and other issues. One misconfiguration can lead to massive fines and lawsuits.
Secure Infrastructure
It is a complex task to design a genuinely secure cloud architecture. There are many factors and details to consider. It requires a great deal of knowledge and time. It’s even more difficult because there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach.
AuthN, AuthZ
Implementing authentication and authorization within the public cloud is an absolute nightmare. From the end-users perspective, it is okay if you have ten people. What about cloud services? These services must also be taken into account.
Guess what? Each AWS service that needs to execute an action as part of a workflow must have the appropriate permissions to call the API. Give only a few permissions. It’s essential to get the right balance. Anyone who has worked with AWS IAM for a long time knows how difficult it is to do this.
Administrators often add an AWS-managed policy, such as AmazonS3FullAccess, and then call it a day. You may be shaking your head, and I do agree.
Automating the Right Way
There has also been a boom in using infrastructure-as-code tools to deploy architectural components to the cloud. AWS cloudFormation and HashiCorp Terraform are two tools that have made it possible for operations teams to deploy resources using an SDLC.
This adds to the complexity. How can deployments be made more secure? Who can update and deploy what? How do you share the configurations that are currently in place? What happens if resources drift? Using proper security practices, we can make the pain a little less painful.
Reporting and Auditing
Audits are everyone’s favorite subject. If you’ve been through an audit (sarcasm), you already know the amount of documentation and reporting required to pass. Those of you who are yet to go through an audit process count yourself fortunate. We can attest to the fact that there is a lot of documentation. It’s a lot.
These are the most critical issues. The list of security issues is virtually endless.
Studying for the SCS C01 can help you solve real-world problems
We’d all be happy if, as in the story, we could just wave a certificate and have our cybersecurity issues solved by themselves. It’s true that certifications aren’t really that important (apart from getting you an interview and a pay raise), but the skills you acquire when studying for the exam will help you solve real business problems.
This is just a small sample of what you will need to know in order to pass the AWS Certified Security-Specialty exam.
How to secure AWS data efficiently, such as encrypting the data at rest and in transit.
Use different KMS keys to encrypt objects or use complex Amazon S3 bucket policy to limit non-HTTPs and non-organizational traffic.
There are several options available for managing identity providers, including AWS Identity Provider Management (formerly AWS SSO), Amazon Cognito and AWS managed Microsoft AD.
AWS resources can be deployed using tools in AWS. Learn how to orchestrate secure workflows with serverless technologies.
How to use Lambda@Edge for custom HTTP security headers and connect to managed computing without SSH or RDP.
How to pass audits with AWS tools such as AWS security hub, Amazon Macie and AWS artifact.
AWS Certified Security Specialty is also a hit with the three tech demands
No matter what report you read (Gartner or StackOverflow), there are three major tech themes for 2023 : cloud computing, cybersecurity and data. The SCS C01 covers all three. Here are some more stats that deserve mention:
In pluralsight’s State of Upskilling in 2022 report, technology leaders revealed that the biggest skills gap they are facing is in cybersecurity. Cloud computing was ranked second, and data storage third.
According to the Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey, IT Security Professionals are also in high demand for major tech initiatives.
Pluralsight’s State of Cloud 2020 shows that while 75% of companies are creating new products and services in the cloud, only 8% of techies claim to have extensive experience using cloud-related tools.
AWS is the leader in cloud computing.
Everyone benefits from studying for the AWS Certified Security Speciality
AWS Certified Security Specialist Certification is a great way to maximize your value and solve real-world issues. If you’re considering it, go for it! You may find yourself saving your company one day from AI monsters.
Are you interested in studying for the AWS Certified Security – Specialty
ACloudGuru has teamed up with Pluralsight to release a totally refreshed version of their AWS Certified Security Specialty Exam Preparation Course! This course will take you through the major challenges that teams face when trying to secure AWS resources and infrastructure.
This course will walk you through the real-world scenarios of each domain so that you are ready for the exam and can use them in your everyday tasks.
Domain 1: Incident response (12%)
Domain 2: Logging & Monitoring (20%)
Domain 3: Infrastructure Security (26%
Domain 4: Identity Management and Access Management (20%)
Domain 5: Data protection (22%)
That’s all I have to say. When you’re ready to tackle this massive exam, check out the newly released Specialty Exam Preparation course on Pluralsight. We can’t wait to see you get started! Gurus, keep up the good work!
