# Identity and Access Management for Amazon SDK for Ruby
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Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) is an Amazon Web Services (Amazon) service that helps an administrator securely control access to Amazon resources. IAM administrators control who can be *authenticated* (signed in) and *authorized* (have permissions) to use resources Amazon Web Services services. IAM is an Amazon Web Services service that you can use with no additional charge.

To use Amazon SDK for Ruby to access Amazon, you need an Amazon account and Amazon credentials. To increase the security of your Amazon account, we recommend that you use an *IAM user* to provide access credentials instead of using your Amazon account credentials.

For details about working with IAM, see [IAM](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/IAM/latest/UserGuide/).

For an overview of IAM users and why they are important for the security of your account, see [Amazon Security Credentials](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/general/latest/gr/aws-security-credentials.html) in the [Amazon Web Services General Reference](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/general/latest/gr/).

Amazon SDK for Ruby follows the [shared responsibility model](http://www.amazonaws.cn/compliance/shared-responsibility-model) through the specific Amazon Web Services (Amazon) services it supports. For Amazon Web Services service security information, see the [Amazon Web Services service security documentation page](http://www.amazonaws.cn/security/?id=docs_gateway#aws-security) and [Amazon Web Services services that are in scope of Amazon compliance efforts by compliance program](http://www.amazonaws.cn/compliance/services-in-scope/).