Running your WordPress, WooCommerce, or SaaS application on AWS provides exceptional scalability and reliability — but with great flexibility comes great responsibility.
A single misconfigured S3 bucket or overly permissive IAM policy can put your data and uptime at risk.
This AWS Security practices outlines actionable best practices to help you harden your environment and maintain a 99.9% uptime standard.
1. Identity & Access Management (IAM)
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for every AWS account.
- Create individual IAM users — avoid sharing root credentials.
- Apply least-privilege policies to reduce risk exposure.
- Assign IAM roles to EC2, Lambda, and S3 for controlled access.
- Rotate access keys at least every 90 days.
- Enable AWS CloudTrail for tracking all account activity.
💡 Tip: Use AWS IAM Access Analyzer to detect unused or risky permissions.
2. Network & Firewall Security
- Restrict open ports to only 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS), and 22 (SSH) from whitelisted IPs.
- Use AWS Security Groups and VPC Network ACLs to isolate traffic.
- Deploy AWS WAF or Cloudflare for DDoS protection.
- Disable insecure protocols; enforce SFTP/FTPS only.
⚙️ Secure internal data by using private VPC endpoints where possible.
3. Data Protection & Encryption
- Enable encryption at rest with AWS KMS for EBS, RDS, and S3.
- Enforce SSL/TLS for all in-transit data using ACM or Let’s Encrypt.
- Restrict access to encryption keys and separate key management duties.
- Ensure HTTPS is enforced across all endpoints.
📘 Resource: AWS Encryption SDK Documentation
4. Server & Application Hardening
- Use key-based SSH access; disable password login.
- Apply regular OS and package updates.
- Disable file editing and XML-RPC in WordPress.
- Enforce secure file permissions: folders (755), files (644).
🔍 Use Amazon Inspector for continuous vulnerability scanning.
5. Monitoring & Logging
- Enable CloudWatch monitoring and set alarms for critical metrics.
- Activate AWS Config and CloudTrail for change and configuration tracking.
- Retain logs for at least 90 days.
- For WordPress, consider WP Activity Log and Wordfence for app-level monitoring.
🛠️ Pro tip: Stream logs to S3 for long-term retention and centralized analysis.
6. Backup & Disaster Recovery
- Automate daily EC2 and RDS snapshots with encryption enabled.
- Keep at least 7 days of backups in secure storage.
- Test restore procedures quarterly.
- Enable S3 versioning to protect against deletions and overwrites.
🧩 Use AWS Backup for a unified, policy-driven backup strategy.
7. Incident Response & Alerts
- Set up CloudWatch alarms for anomalies and failed health checks.
- Establish an incident response plan and define escalation procedures.
- Use SNS or email alerts for immediate notification of critical events.
🧭 Review your incident response workflow quarterly to ensure readiness.
Outcome: High Uptime, Low Risk
Following this AWS security checklist helps you reduce vulnerabilities, maintain compliance, and deliver a reliable experience to your users — whether you’re hosting a content-heavy WordPress site, a WooCommerce store, or a SaaS platform.
