How can you secure AWS Elastic Load Balancers as a system architect?

1 Choose the right type of ELB

AWS offers three types of ELBs: Application Load Balancer (ALB), Network Load Balancer (NLB), and Classic Load Balancer (CLB). Each type has different features, performance, and security implications. As a system architect, you should choose the type of ELB that best suits your application needs and security requirements. For example, ALBs support advanced routing rules, HTTP/2, and WebSocket protocols, but they also expose more information in the HTTP headers. NLBs are fast, scalable, and transparent, but they do not support SSL termination or path-based routing. CLBs are the oldest and simplest type of ELBs, but they have limited functionality and are not recommended for new applications.

3 Enable SSL/TLS encryption

SSL/TLS encryption is a protocol that secures the communication between your clients and your ELBs, and between your ELBs and your targets. SSL/TLS encryption prevents eavesdropping, tampering, and spoofing of the data in transit. As a system architect, you should enable SSL/TLS encryption on your ELBs by uploading or importing your own certificates, or by using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to provision and manage your certificates. You should also use HTTPS or SSL protocols for the listeners and the target groups of your ELBs, and configure the security policies and cipher suites that match your security standards.

4 Monitor and audit your ELBs

Monitoring and auditing your ELBs are essential for detecting and responding to any security issues or anomalies. As a system architect, you should use AWS CloudWatch to collect and analyze metrics and logs from your ELBs, such as request count, latency, error rate, and health status. You should also use AWS CloudTrail to track and record the API calls made to your ELBs, such as creation, deletion, modification, or configuration changes. You should also use AWS Config to assess and verify the compliance of your ELBs with your security policies and best practices.

5 Use AWS WAF and Shield

AWS WAF and Shield are two services that help you protect your ELBs from web attacks, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, denial of service, and bot traffic. AWS WAF is a web application firewall that allows you to define custom rules and filters to block or allow traffic based on the request attributes, such as the IP address, the header, the body, or the query string. AWS Shield is a managed service that provides basic and advanced protection against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, such as SYN floods, UDP reflection, or DNS query floods. As a system architect, you should use AWS WAF and Shield to enhance the security and availability of your ELBs and your applications.

6 Review and update your ELBs regularly

Security is not a one-time event, but a continuous process that requires regular review and update. As a system architect, you should review and update your ELBs regularly to ensure that they are following the latest security best practices and recommendations from AWS and other sources. You should also test and validate your ELBs for any vulnerabilities or misconfigurations, using tools such as AWS Trusted Advisor, AWS Inspector, or AWS Security Hub. You should also apply any patches or updates to your ELBs and your targets as soon as possible, to avoid any security risks or performance issues.