Securing the Cloud #31

Welcome to the 31st edition of the Securing the Cloud Newsletter! We've taken two weeks off while travelling for two different conferences. The week of June 3rd we were in Las Vegas for Cisco Live. This week we were in Philadelphia for AWS re:Inforce 2024. Both events were amazing and we were able to spend a lot of time with the community talking networking, cloud, security, and Gen AI. So, in this issue, we dive into the latest trends and insights in cloud security with a bit of what came out of re:Inforce. Plus, we explore career development and share some valuable learning resources. Additionally, we feature insightful perspectives from our community members. Let's go!

Technical Stuff From CiscoLive and re:Inforce

• Unleashing Cloud Power with Cisco and AWS - Du'An and I presented this 20 minute talk at the AWS booth last week in Las Vegas. We were really excited to help people like us, with a background in Cisco Networking, to bridge that knowledge to the Cloud. Enjoy the video!
• Introducing Amazon GuardDuty Malware Protection for Amazon S3 | AWS News Blog - Amazon GuardDuty Malware Protection for Amazon S3 now detects malicious file uploads, adding to its existing capabilities for Amazon EBS volumes. This was an announcement made at re:Inforce this week in case you missed it. Users can easily enable this service in the GuardDuty console and configure advanced malware protection measures such as object tagging and event-based actions. For more details on how to enhance your organization's security with GuardDuty Malware Protection for Amazon S3. Check out the article for the full details.

Career Corner

• AWS re:Invent 2024 All Builders Welcome | Amazon Web Services - Ok, this share is in the Career Corner today because I realized many of you may not be familiar with the program. At AWS re:Inforce we had several builders early in their career that were mentored and brought to re:Inforce with the All Builders Welcome program. This is a program where AWS is empowering underrepresented technologists in the early stages of their careers by providing grants to attend certain events. AWS is also doing this for AWS re:Invent in December 2024, offering opportunities to learn, network, and grow in the tech industry. Read the landing page for the re:Invent specific program where it describes the AWS commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion while bridging the gap in the tech space, inviting those interested to apply for the grant and join the next generation of technical leaders. It's a pretty cool opportunity that you might want to give a shot.

Learning and Education

• Exam Updates, Beta Exams, and New Certifications | Coming Soon to AWS Certification | AWS - Ok, this normally wouldn't be in this section because it's not really an article that teaches you something. It's here because it shows the two new certifications that AWS announced at re:Inforce and I couldn't find an article that went into more details. Anyhow, check them out. They aren't availabe yet, but keep them on your radar.
  • AWS Certified AI Practitioner beta exam
  • AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate beta exam

Community Voice

Here are a few things going on in the community.

1. Incognito Authentication | CarriageReturn.Nl - Learn how to implement a shared password authentication for a web service using ALB and Lambda from this article, which details the challenges faced and solutions adopted in a step-by-step manner. Explore the author's journey in setting up secure authentication in the cloud and the insights gained along the way.

2. MITRE ATT&CK Cloud Matrix: New Techniques & Why You Should Care. Part I | Mitigant - The MITRE ATT&CK Framework v.14, released in October 2023, introduces over 18 new techniques crucial for modern cybersecurity defenses, with two notable additions in the IaaS section for enterprises. Exploring these techniques sheds light on how attackers exploit vulnerabilities in cloud systems and emphasizes the importance of staying updated and implementing effective detection strategies. For a deeper dive into cloud threat detection and mitigation strategies, read more at https://www.mitigant.io/sign-up.

3. MITRE ATT&CK Cloud Matrix: New Techniques & Why You Should Care - Part II | Mitigant - The MITRE ATT&CK Framework v.14 introduces new techniques like Log Enumeration to address challenges in cloud attack detection. Explore how the framework, along with suggested mitigation strategies, can help defend against evolving threats in cloud environments in the full article.

4. Learn to Build RAG Application using AWS Bedrock and LangChain - Explore the world of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) in natural language processing and machine learning. Discover how RAG enhances language models by bridging gaps in data sources, offering accurate responses, and fostering innovation, as demonstrated through a step-by-step guide to building an RAG application in this insightful article.

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