Amazon offers training & MFA to boost cybersecurity

Amazon has announced two security initiatives that will help protect organisations and individuals from increasing cybersecurity threats. From October, it will make training materials it developed to keep its employees and sensitive information safe from cyberattacks available to the public.

In addition, Amazon will offer qualified Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers a free multi-factor authentication (MFA) device designed to further secure their environments and protect their most sensitive assets from cyberattacks.

The training materials were designed as a digestible and succinct curriculum, including videos and online assessments. The materials follow proven neuroscience and adult learning principles to enhance content retention and are regularly updated as digital attack techniques evolve. Businesses and organisations can build their own solutions on top of the training to suit their needs.

For highly sensitive information (such as personal documents, proprietary customer information and companies’ technology infrastructure assets), stronger tools are needed to protect the data.

AWS customers with access to the AWS Management Console can authenticate themselves by typing their passwords and then simply touching the MFA security token plugged into their computer’s USB port. The free MFA token adds a layer of security to protect against phishing, session hijacking, man-in-the-middle and malware attacks. The device can also be used to safely access multiple AWS accounts and other token-enabled applications such as GitHub, Gmail and Dropbox.