AWS GuardDuty Pricing and Monitoring Costs

AWS GuardDuty Pricing and Monitoring Costs

What is AWS GuardDuty?

AWS GuardDuty helps protect your AWS accounts and deployed cloud assets by continuously monitoring unauthorized and malicious behavior and activity. The AWS GuardDuty threat detection service is a part of the AWS Security Reference Architecture (SRA) and integrates with AWS Organizations and AWS Security Hub, a cloud security posture management service also offered by Amazon.

How does AWS GuardDuty Work?

AWS GuardDuty continuously monitors various activity logs for abnormal patterns and utilizes in-built dashboard as well as integrations to identify and notify any potential threats. By applying machine learning and threat detection techniques, GuardDuty helps protect your AWS accounts and workloads. GuardDuty works with individual service data sources and logs including CloudTrail, VPC, Lamda, S3, RDS, DNS and others to continuously monitor multiple accounts across regions for unusual activity. In concert with AWS Macie, AWS Inspector, AWS Config, AWS Detective and cloud native security tools, GuardDuty is part of AWS SRA and integrates with Security Hub.

How does AWS GuardDuty pricing work?

AWS GuardDuty pricing is based on several factors, including the number of AWS accounts monitored, the number of findings generated, and the selected finding frequency. Here are the key components of AWS GuardDuty pricing:

1. Amazon GuardDuty Subscription: GuardDuty is a subscription-based service, and you pay for each GuardDuty detector that is enabled in your AWS accounts. The subscription cost covers the overall usage of GuardDuty, including the management and processing of security findings.
2. Number of Monitored AWS Accounts: GuardDuty pricing is based on the number of AWS accounts that you enable GuardDuty for. The pricing is tiered based on the number of accounts, with different price levels for up to 10 accounts, 10-100 accounts, and 100+ accounts.
3. Finding Frequency: GuardDuty allows you to select the finding frequency, which determines the rate at which security findings are generated. There are three options: Low, Medium, and High. Higher finding frequencies generate more findings, resulting in potentially higher costs.
4. Number of Findings: GuardDuty pricing is also influenced by the number of security findings generated by the service. Findings are alerts or notifications triggered when potential security threats or vulnerabilities are detected in your AWS environment. The more findings generated, the higher the associated costs.

It’s important to note that while the number of findings and finding frequency impact GuardDuty costs, the severity and impact of the findings themselves do not affect the pricing. Whether a finding is classified as low severity or high severity, the pricing remains the same.

You can estimate the costs of GuardDuty using the AWS Simple Monthly Calculator or the AWS Pricing Calculator. You can input your specific usage details, such as the number of accounts and finding frequency, to get an estimate of the monthly cost.

Additionally, AWS offers a 30-day free trial for new customers, allowing you to evaluate GuardDuty and its functionality without incurring any subscription charges during that period.

It’s always recommended to review the AWS pricing documentation and consult with AWS representatives or the AWS Pricing Calculator to get accurate and up-to-date pricing information for GuardDuty based on your specific requirements and usage.

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How to optimize AWS GuardDuty costs?

Optimizing AWS GuardDuty pricing involves ensuring that you effectively manage and utilize the service while minimizing unnecessary costs. Here are some best practices to optimize GuardDuty pricing and estimating GuardDuty costs:

1. Evaluate and adjust the finding frequency: GuardDuty provides three finding frequency options: Low, Medium, and High. Each level corresponds to a different number of findings generated. Assess your security requirements and adjust the finding frequency accordingly. Using a higher finding frequency may provide more detailed information but can result in increased costs.
2. Utilize suppression rules: GuardDuty allows you to create suppression rules to filter out specific findings that are not relevant or expected in your environment. By creating effective suppression rules, you can reduce the number of findings generated and avoid unnecessary costs.
3. Use trusted IP lists: GuardDuty allows you to define a list of IP addresses that are trusted and should be excluded from analysis. By excluding trusted IP addresses, you can reduce the number of findings generated and lower costs.
4. Tune threat intelligence settings: GuardDuty utilizes threat intelligence feeds to identify potential threats. You can tune the threat intelligence settings to adjust the sensitivity of the findings. Evaluating and fine-tuning these settings can help reduce false positives and avoid unnecessary costs associated with investigating and addressing non-relevant findings.
5. Leverage CloudFormation automation: If you frequently create and delete AWS accounts or regions, you can use AWS CloudFormation to automate the enabling and disabling of GuardDuty. This way, you can activate GuardDuty only when needed and avoid paying for unused or idle periods.
6. Regularly review and optimize filters: GuardDuty allows you to create filters to exclude specific types of findings based on their severity, resource type, or other attributes. Regularly review and optimize your filters to ensure that you are excluding findings that are not relevant to your environment, thereby reducing unnecessary costs.
7. Monitor usage and adjust accordingly: Keep track of your GuardDuty usage, including the number of findings generated and the associated costs. Use AWS Cost Explorer or billing reports to analyze the cost trends and identify areas where you can optimize. This will help you make informed decisions about adjusting GuardDuty settings to balance cost and security.

Remember that optimizing GuardDuty pricing should not compromise the effectiveness of the service in detecting and preventing security threats. It’s essential to strike the right balance between cost optimization and maintaining a robust security posture. Regularly review and fine-tune your GuardDuty settings based on your organization’s evolving needs and threat landscape.

GuardDuty Pricing Alternatives & Best Practices

To optimize AWS GuardDuty costs and ensure efficient usage of the service, here are some best practices to consider:

1. Enable GuardDuty only where necessary: Activate GuardDuty in AWS accounts and regions that require continuous monitoring for security threats. Evaluate the specific accounts and regions that need protection and enable GuardDuty selectively to avoid unnecessary costs in idle or non-critical environments.
2. Adjust finding frequency: GuardDuty provides three finding frequency options: Low, Medium, and High. Assess your security requirements and adjust the finding frequency accordingly. Choosing a lower finding frequency can help reduce the number of findings generated and associated costs, but it might impact the speed of threat detection.
3. Utilize trusted IP lists: GuardDuty allows you to define trusted IP lists, which exclude specific IP addresses from analysis. Utilize this feature to exclude known trusted IP addresses that generate false positives or are irrelevant to your security monitoring. By doing so, you can reduce the number of findings generated and avoid unnecessary costs.
4. Fine-tune threat intelligence settings: GuardDuty utilizes threat intelligence feeds to identify potential threats. Regularly review and fine-tune the threat intelligence settings to adjust the sensitivity of the findings. Fine-tuning these settings can help reduce false positives and avoid unnecessary costs associated with investigating and addressing non-relevant findings.
5. Implement effective suppression rules: GuardDuty allows you to create suppression rules to filter out specific findings that are not relevant or expected in your environment. Implement effective suppression rules to reduce the number of findings generated and avoid unnecessary costs associated with investigating and addressing false positives.
6. Regularly review and optimize filters: GuardDuty provides filters to exclude specific types of findings based on their severity, resource type, or other attributes. Regularly review and optimize your filters to ensure that you are excluding findings that are not relevant to your environment. This helps reduce unnecessary costs associated with investigating and addressing non-relevant findings.
7. Monitor and analyze usage: Keep track of your GuardDuty usage, including the number of findings generated and associated costs. Leverage AWS Cost Explorer or billing reports to monitor cost trends and identify areas where optimization is possible. Regularly analyze the data to make informed decisions about adjusting GuardDuty settings and optimizing costs.

By following these best practices, you can effectively manage GuardDuty costs while maintaining a robust security posture. It’s crucial to strike the right balance between cost optimization and ensuring comprehensive threat detection and prevention. Regular monitoring, fine-tuning, and adjustments based on your organization’s evolving needs are key to optimizing GuardDuty costs.

References:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/pdfs/prescriptive-guidance/latest/security-reference-architecture/security-reference-architecture.pdf 

https://calculator.aws/