Create a data protection policy for a single log group

You can use the CloudWatch Logs console or AWS CLI commands to create a data protection policy to mask sensitive data.

You can assign one data protection policy to each log group. Each data protection policy can audit for multiple types of information. Each data protection policy can include one audit statement.

Console

To use the console to create a data protection policy

1. Open the CloudWatch console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Logs, Log groups.

3. Choose the name of the log group.

4. Choose Actions, Create data protection policy.

5. For Managed data identifiers, select the types of data that you want to audit and mask in this log group. You can type in the selection box to find the identifiers that you want.

   We recommend that you select only the data identifiers that are relevant for your log data and your business. Choosing many types of data can lead to false positives.

   For details about which types of data that you can protect by using managed data identifiers, see Types of data that you can protect.

6. (Optional) If you want to audit and mask other types of data by using custom data identifiers, choose Add custom data identifier. Then enter a name for the data type and the regular expression to use to search for that type of data in the log events. For more information, see Custom data identifiers.

   A single data protection policy can include up to 10 custom data identifiers. Each regular expression that defines a custom data identifier must be 200 characters or fewer.

7. (Optional) Choose one or more services to send the audit findings to. Even if you choose not to send audit findings to any of these services, the sensitive data types that you select will still be masked.

8. Choose Activate data protection.

AWS CLI

To use the AWS CLI to create a data protection policy

1. Use a text editor to create a policy file named DataProtectionPolicy.json. For information about the policy syntax, see the following section.

2. Enter the following command:

   aws logs put-data-protection-policy --log-group-identifier "my-log-group" --policy-document file:///Path/DataProtectionPolicy.json --region us-west-2

Data protection policy syntax for AWS CLI or API operations

When you create a JSON data protection policy to use in an AWS CLI command or API operation, the policy must include two JSON blocks:

• The first block must include both a DataIdentifer array and an Operation property with an Audit action. The DataIdentifer array lists the types of sensitive data that you want to mask. For more information about the available options, see Types of data that you can protect.

  The Operation property with an Audit action is required to find the sensitive data terms. This Audit action must contain a FindingsDestination object. You can optionally use that FindingsDestination object to list one or more destinations to send audit findings reports to. If you specify destinations such as log groups, Amazon Data Firehose streams, and S3 buckets, they must already exist. For an example of an audit findins report, see Audit findings reports.

• The second block must include both a DataIdentifer array and an Operation property with an Deidentify action. The DataIdentifer array must exactly match the DataIdentifer array in the first block of the policy.

  The Operation property with the Deidentify action is what actually masks the data, and it must contain the "MaskConfig": {} object. The "MaskConfig": {} object must be empty.

The following is an example of a data protection policy that masks email addresses and United States driver's licenses.

{
    "Name": "data-protection-policy",
    "Description": "test description",
    "Version": "2021-06-01",
    "Statement": [{
            "Sid": "audit-policy",
            "DataIdentifier": [
                "arn:aws:dataprotection::aws:data-identifier/EmailAddress",
                "arn:aws:dataprotection::aws:data-identifier/DriversLicense-US"
            ],
            "Operation": {
                "Audit": {
                    "FindingsDestination": {
                        "CloudWatchLogs": {
                            "LogGroup": "EXISTING_LOG_GROUP_IN_YOUR_ACCOUNT,"
                        },
                        "Firehose": {
                            "DeliveryStream": "EXISTING_STREAM_IN_YOUR_ACCOUNT"
                        },
                        "S3": {
                            "Bucket": "EXISTING_BUCKET"
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "Sid": "redact-policy",
            "DataIdentifier": [
                "arn:aws:dataprotection::aws:data-identifier/EmailAddress",
                "arn:aws:dataprotection::aws:data-identifier/DriversLicense-US"
            ],
            "Operation": {
                "Deidentify": {
                    "MaskConfig": {}
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}