AWS will start offering some customers free USB security keys
Free giveaway isn’t open for all
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Amazon’scloud computingdivisionAWSwill be handing outUSB security keysto select customers, according to reports.
The move is one of the initiatives by the company, following Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’sengagement with US President Joe Bidenoncybersecurity, along with several of his peers, earlier this week.
The White House released afact sheetfollowing the meeting, listing the announcements by the companies who were present in the meeting, including Amazon. It said AWS will offer “a multi-factor authentication (MFA) device to protect against cybersecurity threats like phishing and password theft.”
MFA or even2FAis no-longer touted as an additional add-on, but rather security professionals believe that it should be a mandatory access control mechanism that’ll add a much-needed extra layer of protection in addition to passwords.
Under lock and key
While the fact sheet mentioned the keys will be offered for free,CNBCreports the giveaway comes with certain conditions.
An Amazon spokesperson toldCNBCthat root account owners of AWS’ US-based customers, who consume cloud services of over $100/month, will be able to request the USB security keys starting in October.
However, users who already subscribe to Identity and Access Management (IAM) services are not eligible for receiving the keys.
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AWSsupports keysfromthree vendors including Gemalto, SurePassID, andYubico. While the Amazon spokesperson declined to name the vendor that will produce the keys for the giveaway, SurePassID was the only one that confirmed toCNBCthat it hasn’t been approached by AWS for the program.
The AWS-issued keys will also work with other online services as well, such asDropbox, Gmail, andGitHub, Amazon said in a statement.
ViaCNBC
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
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