Cloud platforms are desirable targets for cybercriminals, and with more than 60% of business data hosted within the cloud as of 2022, it is easy to see why. Regardless of whichever platform your business uses, you ought to invest in cloud-centric cybersecurity solutions to protect your sensitive data from cyber threats.
For organizations whose cloud infrastructure is provided by Amazon, Amazon GuardDuty is a tool that they can use to implement threat detection measures. But, like when investing in all IT solutions, it is essential to consider whether or not the solution is right for you.
In this article, we will explore the pros and cons of GuardDuty to demystify it and help you decide if it should be included within your company’s cloud security framework.
What is Amazon GuardDuty?
Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection solution that provides real-time alerts when malicious activity is detected in your Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment. It uses machine learning, anomaly detection, threat intelligence feeds (for example, catalogs of malevolent IP addresses), and more to detect potential security risks within your AWS platform and respond to them quickly with automatic responses.
GuardDuty examines data from sources, such as:
- Amazon VPC flow logs
- DNS logs
- Amazon S3 logs
- Kubernetes audit logs
- Elastic Block Storage (EBS) volume
- AWS CloudTrail data events for S3
In other words, AWS GuardDuty is an Amazon-developed cybersecurity solution that is designed to help you keep your AWS environment secure. With the solution in place, you and your team can feel reassured knowing that your company’s data has another security layer surrounding it, further increasing the integrity and safety of the information that enables your organization’s services, products, and reputation.
3 pros of using AWS GuardDuty
The cybersecurity tools your business uses ought to be developed with the latest technologies in place for a better-secured IT environment. Anything less can open your organization’s digital doors to the cyber threat landscape, potentially resulting in more cyber-attacks, data loss, and reputational damage.
But with the AWS GuardDuty solution, AWS users can take advantage of the following benefits for a stronger IT security posture:
1. Fast deployment
Whether you launch it using AWS’s Management Console or another way, GuardDuty can be quickly enabled for one account or multiple accounts (depending on your needs). Regardless of how you and your IT security team deploy it, GuardDuty will automatically begin monitoring activity within your AWS accounts and network in close to real time. And as the solution does not require extra tools to implement it, users will be able to launch the threat detection solution with little-to-no disruption to their daily workflows.
2. Highly effective threat detection
Amazon GuardDuty routinely monitors AWS accounts to detect signs of them being compromised or attempted compromise, a feat that would typically require you or your business’s IT staff to manually assess your data stores in real time. GuardDuty does this for you, identifying unusual behavior within your AWS environment (for example, logging when someone attempts to access your resources from an abnormal location) to keep you updated on the security posture of your AWS accounts.
3. Automated responses for faster incident response
With Amazon GuardDuty, users can create automated responses to potentially malicious security events to protect their AWS accounts. It can also be taken a step further when used with CloudWatch Events—a security solution that informs users of changes to their AWS resources. When GuardDuty is enabled with CloudWatch Events, it gives you the ability to send security alerts to a centralized space for greater viewership of GuardDuty’s identified risks.
3 cons of AWS GuardDuty
As useful as GuardDuty is, it also does not come without its cons. They are:
1. Pricing can be confusing
While Amazon does its best to make GuardDuty’s pricing as relevant and clear as possible (such as with a calculator and breakdown to help you estimate what your costs would be), the range of prices for different services and their quantities can be confusing for business owners that may not be used to these types of pricing structures.
2. It can generate false positives
Like with all security systems, GuardDuty—particularly when used with its Malware Protection feature—has been known to wrongfully flag uncorrupted files as malware, resulting in illegitimate findings (the term Amazon uses to refer to prospective security risks identified by GuardDuty). This can lead to unnecessary stress and anxiety for business owners, as well as wasted time and resources investigating the false positive issue.
3. The volume of alerts may be overwhelming
Business owners who are using AWS GuardDuty may find themselves overwhelmed by the number of alerts. In the chance that this is not an issue, resolving alerts takes time and expertise that organizations and their staff may not have. While an in-house IT department could help, their energy may be better spent on enhancing the company’s technology for greater productivity, not working on smaller issues.
Should you enable GuardDuty for your business? Ask the AWS experts
AWS GuardDuty is a powerful threat-detection tool for overseeing your AWS environment and monitoring it for malicious activity. With its wide coverage and findings logs, GuardDuty, despite its setbacks, is more than capable of securing your Amazon platform.
The AWS consultants at Skynet MTS can leverage their expertise in Amazon’s cloud security solutions to configure and deploy GuardDuty into your business to protect your AWS platform with comprehensive threat detection and incident response. They can also answer any questions you may have while offering trustworthy advice on how to make the most of GuardDuty.
If you are eager to secure your AWS accounts while maintaining their health with ongoing support, contact Skynet MTS’s Amazon security analysts and advisors today.