Amazon S3 is often used for critical data such as backups and business-critical files. Protecting these files from accidental or malicious overwriting or deletion is crucial to avoid data loss and security issues.

In this post, I'll discuss four measures to ensure the protection of your S3 objects.

1. Enable versioning on your S3 bucket

By enabling versioning, every time an object is updated or overwritten, a new version of that object will be created, and the previous versions will be retained. This ensures that you have a complete history of all the changes made to your objects, and you can always revert to a previous version if needed.

2. Use S3 Object Lock

S3 Object Lock allows you to lock the current version of an object to prevent it from being overwritten or deleted for a specified period of time. There are two types of Object Locks: Governance mode and Compliance mode. Governance mode allows you to enforce retention policies and prevent object deletion, while Compliance mode provides Write Once Read Many (WORM) functionality, ensuring that objects can't be deleted or modified for a specified retention period.

3. Restrict access using IAM policies

By using IAM policies, you can restrict access to specific users or roles, limiting who can modify or delete your S3 objects.

4. Enable MFA Delete

MFA Delete requires multi-factor authentication (MFA) before allowing a user to delete an object. By enabling MFA Delete, you can add an extra layer of security to prevent accidental or unauthorized deletions.

Summary

Protecting critical data stored in Amazon S3 is crucial for avoiding data loss and security issues.

Enabling versioning and using S3 Object Lock provide robust protection against accidental or malicious overwriting or deletion. Restricting access using IAM policies and enabling MFA Delete add an extra layer of security, preventing unauthorized deletions.

By following these best practices, you can secure your S3 objects and ensure the safety of your critical data stored in Amazon S3.