Introduction
Amazon Macie is a fully managed data protection and privacy service that uses pattern matching and machine learning to retrieve and protect your sensitive data in Amazon Web Services (AWS).
As organizations control the growing amount of data, identifying and protecting their sensitive data on a scale can be extremely difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Amazon Macie automatically scans sensitive data and lowers the cost of protecting your data. Macie automatically provides Amazon S3 bucket lists, including a list of unencrypted buckets, publicly accessible buckets, and buckets assigned with AWS accounts other than those you specified in AWS Organizations. Then, Macie uses pattern matching and machine learning techniques in the buckets you choose to identify and alert you with sensitive data, such as information that can be identified personally known as personally identifiable information (PII).
Examples of suspicious activity that Macie can identify are:
- An account that downloads a large amount of sensitive data;
- Unusual activity from unfamiliar IP address;
- The user who downloads source code rarely interacts with it; and
- Sensitive data is given worldwide access indirectly.
Macie can detect any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Protected Health Information (PHI) available in your S3 buckets. Macie also monitors S3 buckets for security and access control. This can help you comply with regulations, such as the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or continue to achieve the protection you need in the AWS Cloud environment.
Macie's findings can be searched and filtered through the AWS Management Console and sent to Amazon EventBridge, formerly known as Amazon CloudWatch Events, to be easily integrated with existing workflows or event management systems, or used in conjunction with AWS resources, such as AWS Step Functions to take automatic correction steps.
Benefits of using Macie
There are three main features of using Amazon Macie, which are as follows:-
Sensitive data discovery on the scale
Amazon Macie uses pattern matching and machine learning to discover sensitive data on scales cost-efficiently. Macie automatically detects a large and growing list of sensitive data types, including personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses, and credit card numbers. The service also allows you to define your customer's sensitive data types to access and protect sensitive data unique to your business or operating environment.
Easy to set up and manage
Getting started with Amazon Macie is quick and easy with a single click on the AWS Management Console or one API call. Macie provides multi-account support using AWS Associations so that you can enable Macie across all of your accounts with just a few clicks. Macie maintains a fully managed set of sensitive data types, so no customization is required.
Visibility of the security status of your data
Amazon Macie gives you regular visibility of data security and privacy of your data stored on Amazon S3. Macie automatically and continuously scans your S3 buckets and notifies you of any unwrapped buckets, publicly accessible buckets, or buckets assigned to AWS accounts other than those specified in AWS Organizations. Macie provides native multi-account support to view your data security status throughout your S3 location from a single Macie administrator account.