AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Why AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is Important:
AWS IAM is a crucial service that enables you to manage access to AWS services and resources securely. It allows you to create and manage AWS users, groups, and roles and grant them specific permissions to access resources in your AWS account. IAM helps you maintain the principle of least privilege, ensuring that users and services have only the permissions they need to perform their tasks, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches.

What is AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)?
AWS IAM is a web service that helps you securely control access to AWS resources. It enables you to manage users, groups, and roles and define policies that determine what actions they can perform on specific AWS resources. IAM is a global service, meaning that it is not tied to a specific region, and it is offered at no additional charge.

How AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Works:
1. Users: IAM users are entities that represent people or applications that interact with AWS services. Each user has unique credentials and can be assigned permissions to access specific resources.
2. Groups: IAM groups are collections of IAM users. You can assign permissions to a group, and all users within that group inherit those permissions, simplifying user management.
3. Roles: IAM roles are similar to users but are intended to be assumed by trusted entities, such as AWS services, applications, or users from another AWS account. Roles help you grant temporary access to resources without sharing long-term credentials.
4. Policies: IAM policies are JSON documents that define permissions. They specify what actions are allowed or denied on specific AWS resources. Policies can be attached to users, groups, or roles.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM):
1. Understand the difference between users, groups, and roles and when to use each one.
2. Know how to create and manage IAM policies and the different types of policies available (e.g., identity-based, resource-based).
3. Be familiar with the concept of least privilege and how to apply it when granting permissions.
4. Understand how to use IAM roles for cross-account access and for granting permissions to AWS services.
5. Know how to set up and manage multi-factor authentication (MFA) for enhanced security.
6. Be aware of IAM best practices, such as regularly rotating access keys, using IAM roles instead of sharing access keys, and granting permissions at the group level.