AWS Employee Data Exposure Prevention

Learn how to prevent exposure of employee data in AWS environments. Follow step-by-step guidance for GDPR compliance and data protection.

data exposure

GDPR

aws

Why It Matters

The core goal is to proactively secure every location where employee information is stored within your AWS environment, implementing robust controls to prevent unauthorized access before exposure occurs. Preventing employee data exposure in AWS is critical for organizations subject to GDPR, as it helps you maintain data protection by design and demonstrate proactive security measures that prevent costly breaches.

Primary Risk: Data exposure of sensitive employee information

Relevant Regulation: GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

A comprehensive prevention strategy delivers proactive security, establishing automated controls and continuous monitoring to maintain compliance and protect sensitive HR data.

Prerequisites

Permissions & Roles

  • AWS IAM admin or security role
  • S3, RDS, DynamoDB read/write permissions
  • KMS key management access
  • CloudTrail and Config service access

External Tools

  • AWS CLI
  • Cyera DSPM account
  • Terraform or CloudFormation
  • API credentials

Prior Setup

  • AWS account with proper billing
  • VPC and security groups configured
  • CloudTrail logging enabled
  • IAM roles and policies defined

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 using advanced AI and Named Entity Recognition (NER) models, Cyera automatically identifies employee data patterns in your AWS infrastructure and implements intelligent prevention controls that adapt to your data landscape, ensuring GDPR compliance through automated policy enforcement and real-time risk mitigation.

Step-by-Step Guide

1
Configure AWS security foundation

Enable AWS Config, CloudTrail, and GuardDuty across all regions. Set up KMS customer-managed keys for encrypting employee data and configure IAM policies with least-privilege access.

aws kms create-key --description "Employee-Data-Protection-Key"

2
Deploy Cyera prevention controls

In the Cyera portal, navigate to Prevention → AWS Integration. Configure automated policies that block public access, enforce encryption requirements, and set up real-time alerts for employee data exposure risks.

3
Implement data classification policies

Set up automated tagging for resources containing employee data, configure S3 bucket policies to prevent public access, and establish DLP rules that monitor data movement and sharing.

4
Enable continuous monitoring

Activate Cyera's continuous scanning to monitor new resources, validate security configurations, and automatically remediate policy violations. Set up dashboards to track prevention effectiveness and compliance posture.

Architecture & Workflow

AWS Services

S3, RDS, DynamoDB, and other data stores

Cyera AI Engine

NER models for employee data classification

Prevention Controls

Automated policies and access restrictions

Monitoring & Alerts

Real-time threat detection and response

Prevention Flow Summary

Discover Data → Classify with AI → Apply Controls → Monitor Continuously

Best Practices & Tips

Encryption Standards

  • Use customer-managed KMS keys for employee data
  • Enable encryption at rest and in transit
  • Implement key rotation policies

Access Control

  • Implement principle of least privilege
  • Use resource-based policies
  • Enable MFA for sensitive operations

Common Pitfalls

  • Overlooking cross-region data replication
  • Missing IAM policy conditions
  • Neglecting backup encryption requirements

References & Further Reading

Next Steps

🔍 Detect: Scan for existing employee data exposures 🔧 Fix: Remediate identified employee data risks