AWS Financial Records Detection
Learn how to detect financial records in AWS environments. Follow step-by-step guidance for PCI-DSS compliance.
Why It Matters
The core goal is to identify every location where financial records are stored within your AWS environment, so you can remediate unintended exposures before they become breaches. Scanning for financial data in AWS is a priority for organizations subject to PCI-DSS, as it helps you prove you've discovered and accounted for all sensitive financial assets—mitigating the risk of data exposure through misconfigured services.
A thorough scan delivers immediate visibility, laying the foundation for automated policy enforcement and ongoing compliance.
Prerequisites
Permissions & Roles
- AWS IAM admin or cross-account role
- S3:GetObject, S3:ListBucket permissions
- RDS:DescribeDBInstances access
External Tools
- AWS CLI
- Cyera DSPM account
- API credentials
Prior Setup
- AWS account provisioned
- CloudTrail enabled
- CLI authenticated
- Network ACLs configured
Introducing Cyera
Cyera is a modern Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) platform that discovers, classifies, and continuously monitors your sensitive data across cloud services. By leveraging advanced AI and Named Entity Recognition (NER) models, Cyera automatically identifies financial records, payment card data, and banking information across your AWS infrastructure, ensuring you stay ahead of accidental exposures and meet PCI-DSS audit requirements in real time.
Step-by-Step Guide
Set up cross-account IAM roles with the minimum required privileges for data discovery across S3 buckets, RDS instances, and other AWS data stores.
In the Cyera portal, navigate to Integrations → DSPM → Add new. Select AWS, provide your account ID and IAM role ARN, then define the scan scope to include relevant regions and services.
Configure webhooks or streaming exports to push scan results into your SIEM or AWS Security Hub. Link findings to existing ticketing systems like Jira or ServiceNow for remediation workflows.
Review the initial detection report, prioritize S3 buckets and databases with large volumes of financial data, and adjust detection rules to reduce false positives. Schedule recurring scans to maintain visibility.
Architecture & Workflow
AWS Services
Source of data across S3, RDS, DynamoDB, and Redshift
Cyera Connector
Pulls metadata and samples data for classification
Cyera Back-end
Applies AI detection models and risk scoring
Reporting & Remediation
Dashboards, alerts, and playbooks
Data Flow Summary
Best Practices & Tips
Performance Considerations
- Start with incremental or scoped scans
- Use sampling for very large datasets
- Prioritize high-risk regions and services
Tuning Detection Rules
- Maintain allowlists for test financial data
- Adjust confidence thresholds for card numbers
- Match rules to your PCI-DSS scope
Common Pitfalls
- Forgetting EBS snapshots and AMIs
- Over-scanning CloudTrail logs
- Neglecting to rotate access keys regularly