Day 1 - Access Control: IAM and Lake Formation Permissions

Data security starts with access control: "Who can access what?" AWS data environments rely on IAM for broad permissions and Lake Formation for data-catalog-level granular control. Today we explore how both layers work together.

1. IAM Basics and Least Privilege Principle

IAM (Identity and Access Management) controls AWS resource access.

• Identity-based policy: Granted to users/groups/roles, defining what they can do.
• Resource-based policy: Attached to resources (e.g., S3 bucket policy), defining who can access.
• Role: Temporary credentials, used by services (Glue, EMR) or cross-account access.

Least Privilege principle grants only necessary permissions