Mastering AWS Security Hub: A Comprehensive Guide

Article 3: Setting Up AWS Security Hub in a Multi-Account Environment

In the previous articles, we introduced AWS Security Hub and explored its integration with other AWS services. Now, it’s time to dive into the practical side of things. In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of setting up AWS Security Hub in a multi-account environment. This setup ensures that your entire organization benefits from centralized security management, providing a unified view of security across all your AWS accounts.

Why Use a Multi-Account Setup?

As organizations grow, it’s common to use multiple AWS accounts to isolate resources for different departments, projects, or environments (e.g., development, staging, production). While this separation enhances security and management, it also introduces complexity. AWS Security Hub’s multi-account capabilities address this by aggregating security findings across all accounts into a single, unified dashboard.

Understanding the AWS Organizations Integration

Before setting up AWS Security Hub in a multi-account environment, it’s important to understand how it integrates with AWS Organizations. AWS Organizations is a service that allows you to manage multiple AWS accounts centrally. By linking your AWS accounts under a single organization, you can apply policies, consolidate billing, and, importantly, enable AWS Security Hub across all accounts simultaneously.

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up AWS Security Hub in a Multi-Account Environment

Set Up AWS Organizations If you haven’t already, start by setting up AWS Organizations:

Create an Organization: In the AWS Management Console, navigate to AWS Organizations and create a new organization. This will designate your current account as the management (or master) account.
Invite Accounts: Invite your existing AWS accounts to join the organization, or create new accounts as needed. Once an account accepts the invitation, it becomes part of your organization and can be managed centrally.

Designate a Security Hub Administrator Account In a multi-account environment, one account serves as the Security Hub administrator account. This account has the ability to manage Security Hub settings and view security findings for all member accounts.

Assign the Administrator Account: In the AWS Organizations console, designate one of your accounts (preferably the management account) as the Security Hub administrator. This account will enable and configure Security Hub across the organization.

Enable AWS Security Hub Across All Accounts With the administrator account set, you can now enable Security Hub across your organization:

Access Security Hub from the Administrator Account: Log in to the designated administrator account and navigate to the AWS Security Hub console.
Enable Security Hub for the Organization: In the Security Hub dashboard, choose the option to enable Security Hub for all accounts in your organization. This action will automatically activate Security Hub across all member accounts.

Configure Security Standards and Integrations Once Security Hub is enabled, configure the security standards and integrations that are most relevant to your organization:

Select Security Standards: Choose which security standards (e.g., CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark, AWS Foundational Security Best Practices) you want to apply across all accounts.
Enable Service Integrations: Ensure that key services like Amazon GuardDuty, AWS Config, and Amazon Inspector are integrated with Security Hub to centralize findings from these services.

Set Up Cross-Account Permissions To allow the administrator account to view and manage findings across all member accounts, set up the necessary cross-account permissions:

Create a Cross-Account Role: In each member account, create a role that grants the administrator account permissions to access Security Hub findings.
Configure Trust Relationships: Modify the trust relationship for the role to allow the administrator account to assume it. This setup enables the administrator account to pull findings from all member accounts into a single dashboard.

Monitor and Manage Security Findings With Security Hub fully set up, you can now monitor and manage security findings across all your AWS accounts:

Access the Centralized Dashboard: From the administrator account, access the Security Hub dashboard to view aggregated findings across your organization.
Customize Insights and Automated Responses: Use custom insights to filter findings by account, region, or resource type. Additionally, configure automated responses using AWS Lambda and Amazon EventBridge to streamline your security operations.

Best Practices for Managing Security Hub in a Multi-Account Environment

Regularly Review and Update Configurations: Ensure that security standards and integrations are kept up-to-date as your organization evolves. Regularly review and update Security Hub configurations to reflect any changes in your security requirements.
Implement Least Privilege Access: Ensure that cross-account roles and permissions follow the principle of least privilege. Only grant access to the necessary resources and actions to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
Centralize Security Operations: Consider centralizing your security operations in the administrator account by setting up dedicated teams or automation tools to manage and respond to security findings across the organization.

Conclusion

Setting up AWS Security Hub in a multi-account environment may seem daunting, but the benefits of centralized security management far outweigh the initial effort. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can ensure that your entire organization is protected and that your security operations are streamlined and effective.

In the next article, we’ll explore advanced customization options in AWS Security Hub, including creating custom insights, automating responses, and integrating third-party tools for enhanced security monitoring. Stay tuned!

This article provides a detailed, step-by-step guide for setting up AWS Security Hub in a multi-account environment, laying the groundwork for more advanced topics in future articles.