Data protection in Amazon FSx for Windows File Server - Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
Data encryption
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Data protection in Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

The Amazon shared responsibility model applies to data protection in Amazon FSx for Windows File Server. As described in this model, Amazon is responsible for protecting the global infrastructure that runs all of the Amazon Web Services Cloud. You are responsible for maintaining control over your content that is hosted on this infrastructure. You are also responsible for the security configuration and management tasks for the Amazon Web Services services that you use. For more information about data privacy, see the Data Privacy FAQ.

For data protection purposes, we recommend that you protect Amazon Web Services account credentials and set up individual users with Amazon IAM Identity Center or Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM). That way, each user is given only the permissions necessary to fulfill their job duties. We also recommend that you secure your data in the following ways:

  • Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) with each account.

  • Use SSL/TLS to communicate with Amazon resources. We require TLS 1.2 and recommend TLS 1.3.

  • Set up API and user activity logging with Amazon CloudTrail. For information about using CloudTrail trails to capture Amazon activities, see Working with CloudTrail trails in the Amazon CloudTrail User Guide.

  • Use Amazon encryption solutions, along with all default security controls within Amazon Web Services services.

  • Use advanced managed security services such as Amazon Macie, which assists in discovering and securing sensitive data that is stored in Amazon S3.

  • If you require FIPS 140-3 validated cryptographic modules when accessing Amazon through a command line interface or an API, use a FIPS endpoint. For more information about the available FIPS endpoints, see Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-3.

We strongly recommend that you never put confidential or sensitive information, such as your customers' email addresses, into tags or free-form text fields such as a Name field. This includes when you work with FSx for Windows File Server or other Amazon Web Services services using the console, API, Amazon CLI, or Amazon SDKs. Any data that you enter into tags or free-form text fields used for names may be used for billing or diagnostic logs. If you provide a URL to an external server, we strongly recommend that you do not include credentials information in the URL to validate your request to that server.

Data encryption in FSx for Windows File Server

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server supports encryption of data at rest and encryption of data in transit. Encryption of data at rest is automatically enabled when creating an Amazon FSx file system. Encryption of data in transit is supported on file shares that are mapped on a compute instance that supports SMB protocol 3.0 or newer. Amazon FSx automatically encrypts data in transit using SMB encryption as you access your file system without the need for you to modify your applications.

When to use encryption

If your organization is subject to corporate or regulatory policies that require encryption of data and metadata at rest, we recommend creating an encrypted file system mounting your file system using encryption of data in transit.

If your organization is subject to corporate or regulatory policies that require encryption of data and metadata at rest, your data is automatically encrypted at rest. We also recommend that you enable encryption of data in transit by mounting your file system using encryption of data in transit.