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IPSec VPN - Fundamentals

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A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a way to establish a tunnel between two endpoints, like two routers or two endpoints. VPN’s are used to provide a way of secure communication over an unsecure medium. A simple example would be secure communication between two branch offices over the unsecure internet. This is important because we need secure communication so that people can’t eavesdrop and steal important company information. Oftentimes, people misunderstand VPN's and think just because "private" is in the name that it's secure. This is not always the case, especially in the service provider world where there are different types of VPN's that do not provide any sort of encryption. IPSec VPN's do however provide encryption and other features. There are several different types of VPN’s that can be deployed. The most common ones are Site-To-Site and Remote Access, although there are many more and depending on the use case, the most common could be differe
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Risk Management Fundamentals

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Risk Management Risk management is a critical function within enterprises, serving as the compass that guides organizations through the complex landscape of uncertainties and potential threats. In today's interconnected and rapidly evolving business world, enterprises are exposed to an array of risks, ranging from cybersecurity threats to financial volatility, regulatory changes, supply chain disruptions, and more. The ability to identify, assess, mitigate, and respond to these risks is fundamental to the success and resilience of any modern enterprise. Effective risk management not only safeguards an organization's assets but also enhances its decision-making capabilities, enabling it to seize opportunities and navigate challenges with confidence. This introduction explores the pivotal role of risk management in modern enterprises, shedding light on the methods, tools, and strategies that empower organizations to proactively address risks and foster a culture of adaptabili
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AWS Identity and Access Management(IAM)

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 IAM   With the cloud becoming more and more prevalent, how do we secure who can access cloud resources and which resources can speak to each other. This very important problem is solved with AWS Identity and Access Management(IAM) resource.  IAM enables you to control who can access your AWS environment, what actions they can perform, and which resources they can interact with. It allows you to set fine-grained permissions and policies to meet your security and compliance requirements. So what are the parts that make up Identity and Access Management(IAM) ? - User groups - Users - Roles - Policies - Identity Provider Lets go into more detail about each resource that makes up IAM. User groups are groups you can define to logically group users together that perform similar functions in job. This is kind of like having different groups for different job roles. Users are just the manually configured users created for use on the management console. This is where you define all the diffe
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AWS Virtual Private Clouds(VPCs)

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   In the spirit of my last blog on cloud computing, we will discuss VPC's in this blog.  What are VPC's ? Before I answer this question I need to explain this picture and the terms used. In AWS(and other cloud providers) we have several things that make up the global cloud infrastructure. Those things are Regions, Availability Zones, and Edge Locations(not pictured). A region is a geographical area around the world that consist of multiple availability zones. An availability zone can be thought of as multiple discrete data centers that have separate power, cooling, networking, and housed in separate buildings. Edge locations are places where CloudFront caches your content to provide ultra-low latency delivery of your content. According to AWS they currently have 32 regions, 102 availability zones, and more than 550 PoP's(points of presence). These things together make it possible to create global resources in minutes that serve millions of customers.  A VPC or Virtual Pri
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