AWS GuardDuty
AWS GuardDuty is a managed threat detection service that continuously monitors AWS accounts, workloads, and data for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior. It uses machine learning, anomaly detection, and integrated threat intelligence to identify potential security threats such as compromised instances, reconnaissance attacks, and account hijacking. The service analyzes AWS CloudTrail logs, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS logs to provide actionable security findings.
Developers should use AWS GuardDuty when building or managing applications on AWS to enhance security posture by detecting threats in real-time without manual log analysis. It is particularly valuable for compliance-driven environments, multi-account AWS setups, and applications handling sensitive data, as it helps identify issues like unauthorized API calls or data exfiltration. Learning GuardDuty is essential for roles involving cloud security, DevOps, or AWS administration to automate threat detection and respond quickly to incidents.