Questions about security and confidentiality

[MarkAtHarvest]

My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it to DEV Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance on following

I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is not able to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
   The problem I see with that approach is,
   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3, without going through my server.
   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to expose links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my sever before user can download it.

Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..

[James Murty-3]

The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such a way that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of application the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.

If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a user's files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to access to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the data on your server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but not from your own server admins.

A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically encrypt data prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app could also be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed URLs to gain access to S3.

The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The combination of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close, but CockpitLite does not do any encryption.

Hope this helps,
James

---
http://www.jamesmurty.com

On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest <mark@...> wrote:

My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it to DEV
Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance on
following

I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is not able
to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
  The problem I see with that approach is,
  *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3, without
going through my server.
  *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to expose
links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my sever
before user can download it.

Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..

--
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[MarkAtHarvest]

Thank you for clearing my doubt!
But I see white papers saying Amazon AWS is HIPAA compliant, which is a stringent security standard.
The confusion I have is
1. I have a webcient build on JetS3 application,soon be adding a DevPay support.
2. I also want to sync S3 files on EC2 using something like Subcloud and provide access to the data
on clients windows explorer using SAMBA.

Now if I do not encrypt, and use ACL to control access on the S3, so that only the respective client has an access to it.
Subcloud will not be able to import the data , if it does not have permission, or it will be able to import the data using secret key.

As per what you say, I need to keep that secretKey really secret and only one Admin can know it and there should be policies to access that key.
 
So all the S3 products out there in market who use S3, administrator do have a access to data, which might be controlled by some measures. So how can be claim high security compliance

Thanks for addressing this question, I am not able to get a clean head path on it



Now is that acceptable in terms of Secu

James Murty-3 wrote:

The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such a way
that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of application
the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.

If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a user's
files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to access
to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the data on your
server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but not from
your own server admins.

A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically encrypt data
prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app could also
be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed URLs to
gain access to S3.

The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The combination
of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close, but
CockpitLite does not do any encryption.

Hope this helps,
James

---
http://www.jamesmurty.com


On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest <[e-mail]>wrote:

>
> My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it to DEV
> Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance on
> following
>
> I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is not
> able
> to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
> 1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
>   The problem I see with that approach is,
>   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3, without
> going through my server.
>   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to expose
> links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my sever
> before user can download it.
>
> Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..
>
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23735783.html
> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
>
>

[Jonathan Harlap]

Mark,

I suspect one source of confusion for you is the claim of HIPAA compliance.  Firstly, AWS itself is not HIPAA compliant nor does it try to be.  The whitepaper in question discusses some of the strategies that might be used by AWS customers to build HIPAA compliant systems that run on the AWS cloud.

As to crypto, high security, and so on - I don't find your need very clear, so I can't offer any specific advice other than to say that crypto is a very tricky thing to do right, and a very easy thing to do wrong, so for your clients' sake, do it carefully.  For a fun example of how the little details make a difference, see http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001267.html and http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001268.html

Cheers,
J

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:47 AM, MarkAtHarvest <mark@...> wrote:

Thank you for clearing my doubt!
But I see white papers saying Amazon AWS is HIPAA compliant, which is a
stringent security standard.
The confusion I have is
1. I have a webcient build on JetS3 application,soon be adding a DevPay
support.
2. I also want to sync S3 files on EC2 using something like Subcloud and
provide access to the data
on clients windows explorer using SAMBA.

Now if I do not encrypt, and use ACL to control access on the S3, so that
only the respective client has an access to it.
Subcloud will not be able to import the data , if it does not have
permission, or it will be able to import the data using secret key.

As per what you say, I need to keep that secretKey really secret and only
one Admin can know it and there should be policies to access that key.

So all the S3 products out there in market who use S3, administrator do have
a access to data, which might be controlled by some measures. So how can be
claim high security compliance

Thanks for addressing this question, I am not able to get a clean head path
on it



Now is that acceptable in terms of Secu

James Murty-3 wrote:
>
> The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such a way
> that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of application
> the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.
>
> If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a user's
> files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to access
> to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the data on
> your
> server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but not
> from
> your own server admins.
>
> A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically encrypt data
> prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app could
> also
> be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed URLs
> to
> gain access to S3.
>
> The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The
> combination
> of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close, but
> CockpitLite does not do any encryption.
>
> Hope this helps,
> James
>
> ---
> http://www.jamesmurty.com
>
>
> On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest
> <mark@...>wrote:
>
>>
>> My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it to
>> DEV
>> Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance on
>> following
>>
>> I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is not
>> able
>> to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
>> 1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
>>   The problem I see with that approach is,
>>   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3,
>> without
>> going through my server.
>>   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to expose
>> links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my sever
>> before user can download it.
>>
>> Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23735783.html
>> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@...
>> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@...
>>
>>
>
>

--
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[James Murty-3]

As John points out, the level of HIPAA compliance you can achieve using Amazon's services depends very much on how you use the services. You should read Amazon's whitepaper carefully to understand the recommended techniques.

Obviously, for a service to be useful someone must have access to the data somewhere. In many cases that will mean that admins have access to data. Whether or not this situation meets "high security compliance" depends on the kind of compliance being claimed, and the policies that control the admins access.

If you want to provide a certain level of security for your customers, you need to have a very clear policy of who can access data, when and why. Compliance is simply a measure of whether you keep to the stated policy.


I am not sure what you are trying to achieve using both ACLs and Subcloud. Do your clients have direct access to their data in S3? If not, then there is no need for ACL controls as the Subcloud server should be the only entity accessing the storage. If your clients do have direct access to S3, I'm not sure how well this will work with Subcloud because multiple access points will be "fighting" over shared storage space. You will need to talk this through with the Subcloud vendor.

James

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 6:17 AM, Jon Harlap <jharlap@...> wrote:

Mark,

I suspect one source of confusion for you is the claim of HIPAA compliance.  Firstly, AWS itself is not HIPAA compliant nor does it try to be.  The whitepaper in question discusses some of the strategies that might be used by AWS customers to build HIPAA compliant systems that run on the AWS cloud.

As to crypto, high security, and so on - I don't find your need very clear, so I can't offer any specific advice other than to say that crypto is a very tricky thing to do right, and a very easy thing to do wrong, so for your clients' sake, do it carefully.  For a fun example of how the little details make a difference, see http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001267.html and http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001268.html

Cheers,
J

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:47 AM, MarkAtHarvest <mark@...> wrote:

Thank you for clearing my doubt!
But I see white papers saying Amazon AWS is HIPAA compliant, which is a
stringent security standard.
The confusion I have is
1. I have a webcient build on JetS3 application,soon be adding a DevPay
support.
2. I also want to sync S3 files on EC2 using something like Subcloud and
provide access to the data
on clients windows explorer using SAMBA.

Now if I do not encrypt, and use ACL to control access on the S3, so that
only the respective client has an access to it.
Subcloud will not be able to import the data , if it does not have
permission, or it will be able to import the data using secret key.

As per what you say, I need to keep that secretKey really secret and only
one Admin can know it and there should be policies to access that key.

So all the S3 products out there in market who use S3, administrator do have
a access to data, which might be controlled by some measures. So how can be
claim high security compliance

Thanks for addressing this question, I am not able to get a clean head path
on it



Now is that acceptable in terms of Secu

James Murty-3 wrote:
>
> The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such a way
> that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of application
> the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.
>
> If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a user's
> files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to access
> to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the data on
> your
> server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but not
> from
> your own server admins.
>
> A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically encrypt data
> prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app could
> also
> be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed URLs
> to
> gain access to S3.
>
> The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The
> combination
> of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close, but
> CockpitLite does not do any encryption.
>
> Hope this helps,
> James
>
> ---
> http://www.jamesmurty.com
>
>
> On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest
> <mark@...>wrote:
>
>>
>> My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it to
>> DEV
>> Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance on
>> following
>>
>> I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is not
>> able
>> to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
>> 1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
>>   The problem I see with that approach is,
>>   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3,
>> without
>> going through my server.
>>   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to expose
>> links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my sever
>> before user can download it.
>>
>> Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23735783.html
>> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@...
>> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@...
>>
>>
>
>

--
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[MarkAtHarvest]

Thanks Jonathan for the interesting links.

My requirement is very simple, just want to build a application based on S3 where I can store customers data, and give them a guarantee that your data is safe and secure, while at move and while at rest.
1. My JetS3t Web application will access the data for the customer as well as
2. S3 will get mounted on EC2 for a SAMBA access.

Data while at move can be protected with SSL, I am more concerned with data while at rest, also about accessKey, SecretKey, TokenIDs.

Questions which arise are
1. Do i need to encrypt the S3 data for such type of situations (If I encrypt, then i loose the JetS3t features like getSignedUrl, which creates a link to open the file directly from S3 instead of coming to our servers)
2. what are must must things I need to do.

Thanks again for your inputs

Jonathan Harlap wrote:

Mark,

I suspect one source of confusion for you is the claim of HIPAA compliance.
Firstly, AWS itself is not HIPAA compliant nor does it try to be.  The
whitepaper in question discusses some of the strategies that might be used
by AWS customers to build HIPAA compliant systems that run on the AWS cloud.

As to crypto, high security, and so on - I don't find your need very clear,
so I can't offer any specific advice other than to say that crypto is a very
tricky thing to do right, and a very easy thing to do wrong, so for your
clients' sake, do it carefully.  For a fun example of how the little details
make a difference, see http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001267.htmland
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001268.html

Cheers,
J

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:47 AM, MarkAtHarvest <[e-mail]>wrote:

>
> Thank you for clearing my doubt!
> But I see white papers saying Amazon AWS is HIPAA compliant, which is a
> stringent security standard.
> The confusion I have is
> 1. I have a webcient build on JetS3 application,soon be adding a DevPay
> support.
> 2. I also want to sync S3 files on EC2 using something like Subcloud and
> provide access to the data
> on clients windows explorer using SAMBA.
>
> Now if I do not encrypt, and use ACL to control access on the S3, so that
> only the respective client has an access to it.
> Subcloud will not be able to import the data , if it does not have
> permission, or it will be able to import the data using secret key.
>
> As per what you say, I need to keep that secretKey really secret and only
> one Admin can know it and there should be policies to access that key.
>
> So all the S3 products out there in market who use S3, administrator do
> have
> a access to data, which might be controlled by some measures. So how can be
> claim high security compliance
>
> Thanks for addressing this question, I am not able to get a clean head path
> on it
>
>
>
> Now is that acceptable in terms of Secu
>
>
>
> James Murty-3 wrote:
> >
> > The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such a way
> > that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of
> application
> > the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.
> >
> > If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a user's
> > files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to
> access
> > to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the data on
> > your
> > server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but not
> > from
> > your own server admins.
> >
> > A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically encrypt
> data
> > prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app could
> > also
> > be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed URLs
> > to
> > gain access to S3.
> >
> > The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The
> > combination
> > of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close, but
> > CockpitLite does not do any encryption.
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> > James
> >
> > ---
> > http://www.jamesmurty.com
> >
> >
> > On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest
> > <[e-mail]>wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it to
> >> DEV
> >> Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance on
> >> following
> >>
> >> I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is not
> >> able
> >> to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
> >> 1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
> >>   The problem I see with that approach is,
> >>   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3,
> >> without
> >> going through my server.
> >>   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to expose
> >> links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my sever
> >> before user can download it.
> >>
> >> Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..
> >>
> >> --
> >> View this message in context:
> >>
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23735783.html
> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23741804.html
> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
>
>

[Jonathan Harlap]

Hi Mark,

First off, I'm leaving aside what I think is an obvious issue you'll need to resolve about the two access methods conflicting (ie, users manipulating the same data via your web app and smb simultaneously).  James already mentioned it and it's a property of your apparent design not of the AWS services.

What strikes me as particularly interesting your statement that S3 will be mounted in an EC2 instance to provide smb access.  If you're doing that, couldn't you just as well put your data in an EBS volume, mount that to your EC2 instance for smb access and *also* have your web app interact with the data which now appears to exist on a local mount point?  Then S3 (as an API) is out of the picture entirely and you have what sounds like a simpler problem to solve.  I put that aside now as well, as it's more a question of your design than anything S3 specific, which was the purpose of the question, I believe.

S3 signed urls are not related to jets3t, although jets3t does facilitate their creation.  However, I interpret your question to say that you lose the ability to point user's web browsers directly at a signed url, and this would be correct if you encrypt the data in S3.  If you encrypt the data you store, then you will need to provide a client (whether it be a web app or a thick client) that will perform the encryption/decryption for your clients.

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone outside your business can really answer the questions you're posing beyond what has already been said.  We don't know what your application does.  We can't tell you whether to encrypt your data and, if so, how, nor how to adapt your app design accordingly.

Good luck with your project.

Cheers,
Jonathan

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 1:58 PM, MarkAtHarvest <mark@...> wrote:

Thanks Jonathan for the interesting links.

My requirement is very simple, just want to build a application based on S3
where I can store customers data, and give them a guarantee that your data
is safe and secure, while at move and while at rest.
1. My JetS3t Web application will access the data for the customer as well
as
2. S3 will get mounted on EC2 for a SAMBA access.

Data while at move can be protected with SSL, I am more concerned with data
while at rest, also about accessKey, SecretKey, TokenIDs.

Questions which arise are
1. Do i need to encrypt the S3 data for such type of situations (If I
encrypt, then i loose the JetS3t features like getSignedUrl, which creates a
link to open the file directly from S3 instead of coming to our servers)
2. what are must must things I need to do.

Thanks again for your inputs

Jonathan Harlap wrote:
>
> Mark,
>
> I suspect one source of confusion for you is the claim of HIPAA
> compliance.
> Firstly, AWS itself is not HIPAA compliant nor does it try to be.  The
> whitepaper in question discusses some of the strategies that might be used
> by AWS customers to build HIPAA compliant systems that run on the AWS
> cloud.
>
> As to crypto, high security, and so on - I don't find your need very
> clear,
> so I can't offer any specific advice other than to say that crypto is a
> very
> tricky thing to do right, and a very easy thing to do wrong, so for your
> clients' sake, do it carefully.  For a fun example of how the little
> details
> make a difference, see
> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001267.htmland
> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001268.html
>
> Cheers,
> J
>
> On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:47 AM, MarkAtHarvest
> <mark@...>wrote:
>
>>
>> Thank you for clearing my doubt!
>> But I see white papers saying Amazon AWS is HIPAA compliant, which is a
>> stringent security standard.
>> The confusion I have is
>> 1. I have a webcient build on JetS3 application,soon be adding a DevPay
>> support.
>> 2. I also want to sync S3 files on EC2 using something like Subcloud and
>> provide access to the data
>> on clients windows explorer using SAMBA.
>>
>> Now if I do not encrypt, and use ACL to control access on the S3, so that
>> only the respective client has an access to it.
>> Subcloud will not be able to import the data , if it does not have
>> permission, or it will be able to import the data using secret key.
>>
>> As per what you say, I need to keep that secretKey really secret and only
>> one Admin can know it and there should be policies to access that key.
>>
>> So all the S3 products out there in market who use S3, administrator do
>> have
>> a access to data, which might be controlled by some measures. So how can
>> be
>> claim high security compliance
>>
>> Thanks for addressing this question, I am not able to get a clean head
>> path
>> on it
>>
>>
>>
>> Now is that acceptable in terms of Secu
>>
>>
>>
>> James Murty-3 wrote:
>> >
>> > The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such a
>> way
>> > that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of
>> application
>> > the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.
>> >
>> > If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a
>> user's
>> > files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to
>> access
>> > to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the data on
>> > your
>> > server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but not
>> > from
>> > your own server admins.
>> >
>> > A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically encrypt
>> data
>> > prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app could
>> > also
>> > be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed
>> URLs
>> > to
>> > gain access to S3.
>> >
>> > The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The
>> > combination
>> > of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close, but
>> > CockpitLite does not do any encryption.
>> >
>> > Hope this helps,
>> > James
>> >
>> > ---
>> > http://www.jamesmurty.com
>> >
>> >
>> > On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest
>> > <mark@...>wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it to
>> >> DEV
>> >> Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance on
>> >> following
>> >>
>> >> I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is
>> not
>> >> able
>> >> to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
>> >> 1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
>> >>   The problem I see with that approach is,
>> >>   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3,
>> >> without
>> >> going through my server.
>> >>   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to
>> expose
>> >> links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my
>> sever
>> >> before user can download it.
>> >>
>> >> Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> View this message in context:
>> >>
>> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23735783.html
>> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@...
>> >> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@...
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23741804.html
>> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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>> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@...
>>
>>
>
>

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[MarkAtHarvest]

Thank you Jonathan , James.
I think I need to work more on IT Standards which acceptable. Will comeback on it

About dual access, I need to use S3, I am very comfortable with it, rather than going for a new solution. I think with Subcloud I can use Jets3t (need to confirm on it though)

Jonathan Harlap wrote:

Hi Mark,

First off, I'm leaving aside what I think is an obvious issue you'll need to
resolve about the two access methods conflicting (ie, users manipulating the
same data via your web app and smb simultaneously).  James already mentioned
it and it's a property of your apparent design not of the AWS services.

What strikes me as particularly interesting your statement that S3 will be
mounted in an EC2 instance to provide smb access.  If you're doing that,
couldn't you just as well put your data in an EBS volume, mount that to your
EC2 instance for smb access and *also* have your web app interact with the
data which now appears to exist on a local mount point?  Then S3 (as an API)
is out of the picture entirely and you have what sounds like a simpler
problem to solve.  I put that aside now as well, as it's more a question of
your design than anything S3 specific, which was the purpose of the
question, I believe.

S3 signed urls are not related to jets3t, although jets3t does facilitate
their creation.  However, I interpret your question to say that you lose the
ability to point user's web browsers directly at a signed url, and this
would be correct if you encrypt the data in S3.  If you encrypt the data you
store, then you will need to provide a client (whether it be a web app or a
thick client) that will perform the encryption/decryption for your clients.

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone outside your business can really answer
the questions you're posing beyond what has already been said.  We don't
know what your application does.  We can't tell you whether to encrypt your
data and, if so, how, nor how to adapt your app design accordingly.

Good luck with your project.

Cheers,
Jonathan


On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 1:58 PM, MarkAtHarvest <[e-mail]>wrote:

>
> Thanks Jonathan for the interesting links.
>
> My requirement is very simple, just want to build a application based on S3
> where I can store customers data, and give them a guarantee that your data
> is safe and secure, while at move and while at rest.
> 1. My JetS3t Web application will access the data for the customer as well
> as
> 2. S3 will get mounted on EC2 for a SAMBA access.
>
> Data while at move can be protected with SSL, I am more concerned with data
> while at rest, also about accessKey, SecretKey, TokenIDs.
>
> Questions which arise are
> 1. Do i need to encrypt the S3 data for such type of situations (If I
> encrypt, then i loose the JetS3t features like getSignedUrl, which creates
> a
> link to open the file directly from S3 instead of coming to our servers)
> 2. what are must must things I need to do.
>
> Thanks again for your inputs
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Jonathan Harlap wrote:
> >
> > Mark,
> >
> > I suspect one source of confusion for you is the claim of HIPAA
> > compliance.
> > Firstly, AWS itself is not HIPAA compliant nor does it try to be.  The
> > whitepaper in question discusses some of the strategies that might be
> used
> > by AWS customers to build HIPAA compliant systems that run on the AWS
> > cloud.
> >
> > As to crypto, high security, and so on - I don't find your need very
> > clear,
> > so I can't offer any specific advice other than to say that crypto is a
> > very
> > tricky thing to do right, and a very easy thing to do wrong, so for your
> > clients' sake, do it carefully.  For a fun example of how the little
> > details
> > make a difference, see
> > http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001267.htmland
> > http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001268.html
> >
> > Cheers,
> > J
> >
> > On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:47 AM, MarkAtHarvest
> > <[e-mail]>wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Thank you for clearing my doubt!
> >> But I see white papers saying Amazon AWS is HIPAA compliant, which is a
> >> stringent security standard.
> >> The confusion I have is
> >> 1. I have a webcient build on JetS3 application,soon be adding a DevPay
> >> support.
> >> 2. I also want to sync S3 files on EC2 using something like Subcloud and
> >> provide access to the data
> >> on clients windows explorer using SAMBA.
> >>
> >> Now if I do not encrypt, and use ACL to control access on the S3, so
> that
> >> only the respective client has an access to it.
> >> Subcloud will not be able to import the data , if it does not have
> >> permission, or it will be able to import the data using secret key.
> >>
> >> As per what you say, I need to keep that secretKey really secret and
> only
> >> one Admin can know it and there should be policies to access that key.
> >>
> >> So all the S3 products out there in market who use S3, administrator do
> >> have
> >> a access to data, which might be controlled by some measures. So how can
> >> be
> >> claim high security compliance
> >>
> >> Thanks for addressing this question, I am not able to get a clean head
> >> path
> >> on it
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Now is that acceptable in terms of Secu
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> James Murty-3 wrote:
> >> >
> >> > The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such a
> >> way
> >> > that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of
> >> application
> >> > the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.
> >> >
> >> > If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a
> >> user's
> >> > files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to
> >> access
> >> > to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the data
> on
> >> > your
> >> > server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but
> not
> >> > from
> >> > your own server admins.
> >> >
> >> > A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically encrypt
> >> data
> >> > prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app could
> >> > also
> >> > be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed
> >> URLs
> >> > to
> >> > gain access to S3.
> >> >
> >> > The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The
> >> > combination
> >> > of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close, but
> >> > CockpitLite does not do any encryption.
> >> >
> >> > Hope this helps,
> >> > James
> >> >
> >> > ---
> >> > http://www.jamesmurty.com
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest
> >> > <[e-mail]>wrote:
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it
> to
> >> >> DEV
> >> >> Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance on
> >> >> following
> >> >>
> >> >> I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is
> >> not
> >> >> able
> >> >> to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
> >> >> 1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
> >> >>   The problem I see with that approach is,
> >> >>   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3,
> >> >> without
> >> >> going through my server.
> >> >>   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to
> >> expose
> >> >> links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my
> >> sever
> >> >> before user can download it.
> >> >>
> >> >> Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..
> >> >>
> >> >> --
> >> >> View this message in context:
> >> >>
> >>
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23735783.html
> >> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> >> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >> --
> >> View this message in context:
> >>
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23741804.html
> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23747665.html
> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
>
>

[James Murty-3]

Mark, to make your objectives achievable I think you need to simplify things as much as you can. You say that your requirements are simple, but I don't think they are.

Here are some things you need to think about:

- If you want to protect your customer's data "at rest" from Amazon staff, or from your AWS account being compromised, you must encrypt the data. You have no choice, even though it makes everything more complicated.

- If you encrypt data, you need to decide where the encryption/decryption will take place.
* You get the most security if client-side software does this, in which case no-one but your clients can read the data. However the clients then need to deal with the complexity of installing/managing software, and you need to provide this software.
* If you want to provide web access to the data without any client-side software, you will need to encrypt/decrypt on your server. This is less secure but more user-friendly. You will also need to trust your admins.

- Trying to have multiple access points for writing to the same storage space is a bad idea. Only do this if you will have some very smart software/processes to manage (or avoid) data writing collisions, or if the Cloudfront and JetS3t components use completely different S3 buckets. This isn't an issue of compatibility between Cloudfront and JetS3t

- Providing SAMBA access to S3 objects sounds very difficult indeed. Are you going to cache all or some of your S3 objects on an EC2 instance to make it available via SAMBA? If not, how will you mediate between the SAMBA server on EC2 and your S3 storage? If so, how and where will you handle encryption/decryption of the data?

- Jon's comment on using EC2's Elastic Block Store drives is worth considering.

James

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 1:40 PM, MarkAtHarvest <mark@...> wrote:

Thank you Jonathan , James.
I think I need to work more on IT Standards which acceptable. Will comeback
on it

About dual access, I need to use S3, I am very comfortable with it, rather
than going for a new solution. I think with Subcloud I can use Jets3t (need
to confirm on it though)

Jonathan Harlap wrote:
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> First off, I'm leaving aside what I think is an obvious issue you'll need
> to
> resolve about the two access methods conflicting (ie, users manipulating
> the
> same data via your web app and smb simultaneously).  James already
> mentioned
> it and it's a property of your apparent design not of the AWS services.
>
> What strikes me as particularly interesting your statement that S3 will be
> mounted in an EC2 instance to provide smb access.  If you're doing that,
> couldn't you just as well put your data in an EBS volume, mount that to
> your
> EC2 instance for smb access and *also* have your web app interact with the
> data which now appears to exist on a local mount point?  Then S3 (as an
> API)
> is out of the picture entirely and you have what sounds like a simpler
> problem to solve.  I put that aside now as well, as it's more a question
> of
> your design than anything S3 specific, which was the purpose of the
> question, I believe.
>
> S3 signed urls are not related to jets3t, although jets3t does facilitate
> their creation.  However, I interpret your question to say that you lose
> the
> ability to point user's web browsers directly at a signed url, and this
> would be correct if you encrypt the data in S3.  If you encrypt the data
> you
> store, then you will need to provide a client (whether it be a web app or
> a
> thick client) that will perform the encryption/decryption for your
> clients.
>
> Unfortunately, I don't think anyone outside your business can really
> answer
> the questions you're posing beyond what has already been said.  We don't
> know what your application does.  We can't tell you whether to encrypt
> your
> data and, if so, how, nor how to adapt your app design accordingly.
>
> Good luck with your project.
>
> Cheers,
> Jonathan
>
>
> On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 1:58 PM, MarkAtHarvest
> <mark@...>wrote:
>
>>
>> Thanks Jonathan for the interesting links.
>>
>> My requirement is very simple, just want to build a application based on
>> S3
>> where I can store customers data, and give them a guarantee that your
>> data
>> is safe and secure, while at move and while at rest.
>> 1. My JetS3t Web application will access the data for the customer as
>> well
>> as
>> 2. S3 will get mounted on EC2 for a SAMBA access.
>>
>> Data while at move can be protected with SSL, I am more concerned with
>> data
>> while at rest, also about accessKey, SecretKey, TokenIDs.
>>
>> Questions which arise are
>> 1. Do i need to encrypt the S3 data for such type of situations (If I
>> encrypt, then i loose the JetS3t features like getSignedUrl, which
>> creates
>> a
>> link to open the file directly from S3 instead of coming to our servers)
>> 2. what are must must things I need to do.
>>
>> Thanks again for your inputs
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Jonathan Harlap wrote:
>> >
>> > Mark,
>> >
>> > I suspect one source of confusion for you is the claim of HIPAA
>> > compliance.
>> > Firstly, AWS itself is not HIPAA compliant nor does it try to be.  The
>> > whitepaper in question discusses some of the strategies that might be
>> used
>> > by AWS customers to build HIPAA compliant systems that run on the AWS
>> > cloud.
>> >
>> > As to crypto, high security, and so on - I don't find your need very
>> > clear,
>> > so I can't offer any specific advice other than to say that crypto is a
>> > very
>> > tricky thing to do right, and a very easy thing to do wrong, so for
>> your
>> > clients' sake, do it carefully.  For a fun example of how the little
>> > details
>> > make a difference, see
>> > http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001267.htmland
>> > http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001268.html
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> > J
>> >
>> > On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:47 AM, MarkAtHarvest
>> > <mark@...>wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> Thank you for clearing my doubt!
>> >> But I see white papers saying Amazon AWS is HIPAA compliant, which is
>> a
>> >> stringent security standard.
>> >> The confusion I have is
>> >> 1. I have a webcient build on JetS3 application,soon be adding a
>> DevPay
>> >> support.
>> >> 2. I also want to sync S3 files on EC2 using something like Subcloud
>> and
>> >> provide access to the data
>> >> on clients windows explorer using SAMBA.
>> >>
>> >> Now if I do not encrypt, and use ACL to control access on the S3, so
>> that
>> >> only the respective client has an access to it.
>> >> Subcloud will not be able to import the data , if it does not have
>> >> permission, or it will be able to import the data using secret key.
>> >>
>> >> As per what you say, I need to keep that secretKey really secret and
>> only
>> >> one Admin can know it and there should be policies to access that key.
>> >>
>> >> So all the S3 products out there in market who use S3, administrator
>> do
>> >> have
>> >> a access to data, which might be controlled by some measures. So how
>> can
>> >> be
>> >> claim high security compliance
>> >>
>> >> Thanks for addressing this question, I am not able to get a clean head
>> >> path
>> >> on it
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Now is that acceptable in terms of Secu
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> James Murty-3 wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> > The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such
>> a
>> >> way
>> >> > that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of
>> >> application
>> >> > the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.
>> >> >
>> >> > If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a
>> >> user's
>> >> > files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to
>> >> access
>> >> > to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the data
>> on
>> >> > your
>> >> > server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but
>> not
>> >> > from
>> >> > your own server admins.
>> >> >
>> >> > A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically
>> encrypt
>> >> data
>> >> > prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app
>> could
>> >> > also
>> >> > be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed
>> >> URLs
>> >> > to
>> >> > gain access to S3.
>> >> >
>> >> > The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The
>> >> > combination
>> >> > of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close, but
>> >> > CockpitLite does not do any encryption.
>> >> >
>> >> > Hope this helps,
>> >> > James
>> >> >
>> >> > ---
>> >> > http://www.jamesmurty.com
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest
>> >> > <mark@...>wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >>
>> >> >> My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade it
>> to
>> >> >> DEV
>> >> >> Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance
>> on
>> >> >> following
>> >> >>
>> >> >> I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator is
>> >> not
>> >> >> able
>> >> >> to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
>> >> >> 1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
>> >> >>   The problem I see with that approach is,
>> >> >>   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3,
>> >> >> without
>> >> >> going through my server.
>> >> >>   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to
>> >> expose
>> >> >> links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my
>> >> sever
>> >> >> before user can download it.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..
>> >> >>
>> >> >> --
>> >> >> View this message in context:
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23735783.html
>> >> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@...
>> >> >> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@...
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> View this message in context:
>> >>
>> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23741804.html
>> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@...
>> >> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@...
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23747665.html
>> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@...
>> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@...
>>
>>
>
>

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[MarkAtHarvest]

Thanks James, for making things crystal clear. The more I think of it more things get complex..

I have the big picture now, here is what I am planning to do..
-- I do not have a choice but keep the data encrypted all times..
-- Rules to keep different buckets for different access points
-- Use s3fs/subcloud to mount S3 on EC2
-- Samba uses the Mount Point (how will samba decrypt and show the data to client needs to be formulated, I guess the decrypion will happen on Server..)
-- Put some 3rdParty/softwares , proper access controls and procedures to make sure admins accidently
do not access the data. but are aware with the hurdles, and logging, that they are accessing on purpose.
-- EBS is worth looking, but S3 webservices on JetS3T is so easy, and with new features getting added it makes life easier for programmers, with same code can be resused and extend to create different type of clients.
   * I am not aware of any ready made APIs, of the opinion that there is lot of work from ground up to create a web application on top of it. And have to repeat the same..

Does Jets3t plans to have any APIs to encrypt/decrypt users data based on AES256 standards/..

Thanks for making things clear..

James Murty-3 wrote:

Mark, to make your objectives achievable I think you need to simplify things
as much as you can. You say that your requirements are simple, but I don't
think they are.

Here are some things you need to think about:

- If you want to protect your customer's data "at rest" from Amazon staff,
or from your AWS account being compromised, you must encrypt the data. You
have no choice, even though it makes everything more complicated.

- If you encrypt data, you need to decide where the encryption/decryption
will take place.
* You get the most security if client-side software does this, in which case
no-one but your clients can read the data. However the clients then need to
deal with the complexity of installing/managing software, and you need to
provide this software.
* If you want to provide web access to the data without any client-side
software, you will need to encrypt/decrypt on your server. This is less
secure but more user-friendly. You will also need to trust your admins.

- Trying to have multiple access points for writing to the same storage
space is a bad idea. Only do this if you will have some very smart
software/processes to manage (or avoid) data writing collisions, or if the
Cloudfront and JetS3t components use completely different S3 buckets. This
isn't an issue of compatibility between Cloudfront and JetS3t

- Providing SAMBA access to S3 objects sounds very difficult indeed. Are you
going to cache all or some of your S3 objects on an EC2 instance to make it
available via SAMBA? If not, how will you mediate between the SAMBA server
on EC2 and your S3 storage? If so, how and where will you handle
encryption/decryption of the data?

- Jon's comment on using EC2's Elastic Block Store drives is worth
considering.

James

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 1:40 PM, MarkAtHarvest <[e-mail]>wrote:

>
> Thank you Jonathan , James.
> I think I need to work more on IT Standards which acceptable. Will comeback
> on it
>
> About dual access, I need to use S3, I am very comfortable with it, rather
> than going for a new solution. I think with Subcloud I can use Jets3t (need
> to confirm on it though)
>
>
>
> Jonathan Harlap wrote:
> >
> > Hi Mark,
> >
> > First off, I'm leaving aside what I think is an obvious issue you'll need
> > to
> > resolve about the two access methods conflicting (ie, users manipulating
> > the
> > same data via your web app and smb simultaneously).  James already
> > mentioned
> > it and it's a property of your apparent design not of the AWS services.
> >
> > What strikes me as particularly interesting your statement that S3 will
> be
> > mounted in an EC2 instance to provide smb access.  If you're doing that,
> > couldn't you just as well put your data in an EBS volume, mount that to
> > your
> > EC2 instance for smb access and *also* have your web app interact with
> the
> > data which now appears to exist on a local mount point?  Then S3 (as an
> > API)
> > is out of the picture entirely and you have what sounds like a simpler
> > problem to solve.  I put that aside now as well, as it's more a question
> > of
> > your design than anything S3 specific, which was the purpose of the
> > question, I believe.
> >
> > S3 signed urls are not related to jets3t, although jets3t does facilitate
> > their creation.  However, I interpret your question to say that you lose
> > the
> > ability to point user's web browsers directly at a signed url, and this
> > would be correct if you encrypt the data in S3.  If you encrypt the data
> > you
> > store, then you will need to provide a client (whether it be a web app or
> > a
> > thick client) that will perform the encryption/decryption for your
> > clients.
> >
> > Unfortunately, I don't think anyone outside your business can really
> > answer
> > the questions you're posing beyond what has already been said.  We don't
> > know what your application does.  We can't tell you whether to encrypt
> > your
> > data and, if so, how, nor how to adapt your app design accordingly.
> >
> > Good luck with your project.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Jonathan
> >
> >
> > On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 1:58 PM, MarkAtHarvest
> > <[e-mail]>wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Thanks Jonathan for the interesting links.
> >>
> >> My requirement is very simple, just want to build a application based on
> >> S3
> >> where I can store customers data, and give them a guarantee that your
> >> data
> >> is safe and secure, while at move and while at rest.
> >> 1. My JetS3t Web application will access the data for the customer as
> >> well
> >> as
> >> 2. S3 will get mounted on EC2 for a SAMBA access.
> >>
> >> Data while at move can be protected with SSL, I am more concerned with
> >> data
> >> while at rest, also about accessKey, SecretKey, TokenIDs.
> >>
> >> Questions which arise are
> >> 1. Do i need to encrypt the S3 data for such type of situations (If I
> >> encrypt, then i loose the JetS3t features like getSignedUrl, which
> >> creates
> >> a
> >> link to open the file directly from S3 instead of coming to our servers)
> >> 2. what are must must things I need to do.
> >>
> >> Thanks again for your inputs
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Jonathan Harlap wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Mark,
> >> >
> >> > I suspect one source of confusion for you is the claim of HIPAA
> >> > compliance.
> >> > Firstly, AWS itself is not HIPAA compliant nor does it try to be.  The
> >> > whitepaper in question discusses some of the strategies that might be
> >> used
> >> > by AWS customers to build HIPAA compliant systems that run on the AWS
> >> > cloud.
> >> >
> >> > As to crypto, high security, and so on - I don't find your need very
> >> > clear,
> >> > so I can't offer any specific advice other than to say that crypto is
> a
> >> > very
> >> > tricky thing to do right, and a very easy thing to do wrong, so for
> >> your
> >> > clients' sake, do it carefully.  For a fun example of how the little
> >> > details
> >> > make a difference, see
> >> > http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001267.htmland
> >> > http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001268.html
> >> >
> >> > Cheers,
> >> > J
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:47 AM, MarkAtHarvest
> >> > <[e-mail]>wrote:
> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> Thank you for clearing my doubt!
> >> >> But I see white papers saying Amazon AWS is HIPAA compliant, which is
> >> a
> >> >> stringent security standard.
> >> >> The confusion I have is
> >> >> 1. I have a webcient build on JetS3 application,soon be adding a
> >> DevPay
> >> >> support.
> >> >> 2. I also want to sync S3 files on EC2 using something like Subcloud
> >> and
> >> >> provide access to the data
> >> >> on clients windows explorer using SAMBA.
> >> >>
> >> >> Now if I do not encrypt, and use ACL to control access on the S3, so
> >> that
> >> >> only the respective client has an access to it.
> >> >> Subcloud will not be able to import the data , if it does not have
> >> >> permission, or it will be able to import the data using secret key.
> >> >>
> >> >> As per what you say, I need to keep that secretKey really secret and
> >> only
> >> >> one Admin can know it and there should be policies to access that
> key.
> >> >>
> >> >> So all the S3 products out there in market who use S3, administrator
> >> do
> >> >> have
> >> >> a access to data, which might be controlled by some measures. So how
> >> can
> >> >> be
> >> >> claim high security compliance
> >> >>
> >> >> Thanks for addressing this question, I am not able to get a clean
> head
> >> >> path
> >> >> on it
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> Now is that acceptable in terms of Secu
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> James Murty-3 wrote:
> >> >> >
> >> >> > The only way to allow clients to store encrypted data in S3 in such
> >> a
> >> >> way
> >> >> > that administrators cannot read it, is to provide some kind of
> >> >> application
> >> >> > the client can run on his/her own machine to do this work.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > If you don't trust your admins, there is little point encrypting a
> >> >> user's
> >> >> > files on your own server because admins will have simply be able to
> >> >> access
> >> >> > to the data there, rather than from S3 directly. Encrypting the
> data
> >> on
> >> >> > your
> >> >> > server would protect it from the Amazon admins who maintain S3, but
> >> not
> >> >> > from
> >> >> > your own server admins.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > A custom client app would allow your clients to automatically
> >> encrypt
> >> >> data
> >> >> > prior to uploading, and to decrypt it when downloading. This app
> >> could
> >> >> > also
> >> >> > be designed to interact with your server component to obtain signed
> >> >> URLs
> >> >> > to
> >> >> > gain access to S3.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > The problem is, such an app doesn't exist as far as I know. The
> >> >> > combination
> >> >> > of JetS3t's CockpitLite and Gatekeeper applications comes close,
> but
> >> >> > CockpitLite does not do any encryption.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Hope this helps,
> >> >> > James
> >> >> >
> >> >> > ---
> >> >> > http://www.jamesmurty.com
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 9:24 PM, MarkAtHarvest
> >> >> > <[e-mail]>wrote:
> >> >> >
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> My jets3t client is working fine, current I am trying to upgrade
> it
> >> to
> >> >> >> DEV
> >> >> >> Pay account. I would like to ask if I can get little bit guidance
> >> on
> >> >> >> following
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> I am using Amazon Dev Pay, then so as that an evil administrator
> is
> >> >> not
> >> >> >> able
> >> >> >> to see the S3 files of customers, what exactly do I need to do
> >> >> >> 1. can be to encrypt all the files stored in S3.
> >> >> >>   The problem I see with that approach is,
> >> >> >>   *. I cannot use Amazon HTTP Post to directly upload files on S3,
> >> >> >> without
> >> >> >> going through my server.
> >> >> >>   *. I cannot use createSignedGetUrl(), to create signed URLs to
> >> >> expose
> >> >> >> links for a temporary time, as the files need to be brought to my
> >> >> sever
> >> >> >> before user can download it.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Is there a way I can solve the above two problems..
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> --
> >> >> >> View this message in context:
> >> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23735783.html
> >> >> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> >> >> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> --
> >> >> View this message in context:
> >> >>
> >>
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23741804.html
> >> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> >> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >> --
> >> View this message in context:
> >>
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23747665.html
> >> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> >>
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >> For additional commands, e-mail: [e-mail]
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/Questions-about-security-and-confidentiality-tp23735783p23750391.html
> Sent from the JetS3t Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
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>
>

[James Murty-3]

Hi Mark,
 

Does Jets3t plans to have any APIs to encrypt/decrypt users data based on
AES256 standards/..

JetS3t includes support for encryption, and combined with the BouncyCastle encryption library that is packaged with the distribution you can use the AES cipher.

There is a section called "Encryption properties" on the configuration page that details how to configure service-wide encryption:
http://jets3t.s3.amazonaws.com/toolkit/configuration.html#jets3t

See also the documentation for the EncryptUtil utility class, which provides more fine-grained tools for encrypting/decrypting byte arrays and input streams:
http://jets3t.s3.amazonaws.com/api/org/jets3t/service/security/EncryptionUtil.html

The ObjectUtils class pulls everything together and makes it easy to prepare objects whose data will be encrypted prior to upload:
http://jets3t.s3.amazonaws.com/api/org/jets3t/service/utils/ObjectUtils.html

 

Thanks for making things clear..:-)

You're welcome, good luck with it.

James