Week 5 Summary — April 27–30, 2026

AWS re/Start Cohort 3: Project CloudIgnite

What We Learned

Networking Deep Dive (Mon Apr 27)

Subnet masks: Bitwise AND operation to determine network membership
CIDR blocks: /16 = 65,536 addresses; larger prefix = smaller network
Application protocols: HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), SSL/TLS, SMTP (send), POP/IMAP (receive), RDP (3389), SSH (22)
DNS: Translates domain names to IP addresses
Troubleshooting tools: ping (Layer 3), traceroute (Layer 3), nslookup (DNS), netstat (Layer 4), telnet (Layer 4), curl/wget (Layer 7)
Labs 265–266: Network commands, connectivity troubleshooting

IoT & Enterprise Mobility (Tue Apr 28)

Wireless technologies: Wi-Fi (WPA2), Bluetooth/BLE, 5G, Satellite
IoT: Connected devices; AWS IoT Core supports HTTPS, MQTT, WSS, LoRaWAN
Amazon WorkSpaces: Virtual desktop accessible from any device
Lab 267: Build VPC from scratch — 2 public + 2 private subnets, route tables, EC2 with Apache

Security Fundamentals (Tue Apr 29)

CIA Triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
Threats: Malware, DDoS, Man-in-the-Middle, Phishing, Social Engineering
AWS Shared Responsibility Model: AWS = Security OF the Cloud; Customer = Security IN the Cloud
Security controls: Preventive, Detective, Corrective
Network hardening: Default-deny firewalls, close unused ports
System hardening: Patch OS, remove unused apps
IAM: Principle of least privilege, MFA, strong password policies

AWS Security Services (Wed Apr 30)

Amazon Inspector: Scans EC2 and Lambda for vulnerabilities
AWS Trusted Advisor: Best practice recommendations
Amazon GuardDuty: Continuous AI-powered threat detection
AWS Shield: DDoS protection (Standard = free, Advanced = paid)
AWS CloudTrail: Audit logging of all API activity
AWS Security Hub: Centralized security findings dashboard
Lab 276: Amazon Inspector — found and fixed outdated Python library in Lambda

Key CLF-C02 Connections

CIA Triad, Shared Responsibility Model, Security Groups, NACLs, Inspector, Trusted Advisor, GuardDuty, Shield, CloudTrail, Security Hub, IAM

Daily Notes

April 27 — Subnet Masks, CIDR, OSI Recap, TCP/UDP, Application Protocols, DNS, Troubleshooting Tools
April 28 — Wireless, IoT, Amazon WorkSpaces, VPC Lab 267, CIA Triad, Security Intro
April 29 — Security Threats, Shared Responsibility Model, Security Lifecycle, Network/System Hardening, IAM
April 30 — Wireshark, VPN vs Firewall, AWS Security Services, Amazon Inspector Lab, Cryptography Intro

What We Learned

Networking Deep Dive (Mon Apr 27)

Subnet masks: Bitwise AND operation to determine network membership

CIDR blocks: /16 = 65,536 addresses; larger prefix = smaller network

Application protocols: HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), SSL/TLS, SMTP (send), POP/IMAP (receive), RDP (3389), SSH (22)

DNS: Translates domain names to IP addresses

Troubleshooting tools: ping (Layer 3), traceroute (Layer 3), nslookup (DNS), netstat (Layer 4), telnet (Layer 4), curl/wget (Layer 7)

Labs 265–266: Network commands, connectivity troubleshooting

IoT & Enterprise Mobility (Tue Apr 28)

Wireless technologies: Wi-Fi (WPA2), Bluetooth/BLE, 5G, Satellite

IoT: Connected devices; AWS IoT Core supports HTTPS, MQTT, WSS, LoRaWAN

Amazon WorkSpaces: Virtual desktop accessible from any device

Lab 267: Build VPC from scratch — 2 public + 2 private subnets, route tables, EC2 with Apache

Security Fundamentals (Tue Apr 29)

CIA Triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability

Threats: Malware, DDoS, Man-in-the-Middle, Phishing, Social Engineering

AWS Shared Responsibility Model: AWS = Security OF the Cloud; Customer = Security IN the Cloud

Security controls: Preventive, Detective, Corrective

Network hardening: Default-deny firewalls, close unused ports

System hardening: Patch OS, remove unused apps

IAM: Principle of least privilege, MFA, strong password policies

AWS Security Services (Wed Apr 30)

Amazon Inspector: Scans EC2 and Lambda for vulnerabilities

AWS Trusted Advisor: Best practice recommendations

Amazon GuardDuty: Continuous AI-powered threat detection

AWS Shield: DDoS protection (Standard = free, Advanced = paid)

AWS CloudTrail: Audit logging of all API activity

AWS Security Hub: Centralized security findings dashboard

Lab 276: Amazon Inspector — found and fixed outdated Python library in Lambda

Key CLF-C02 Connections

CIA Triad, Shared Responsibility Model, Security Groups, NACLs, Inspector, Trusted Advisor, GuardDuty, Shield, CloudTrail, Security Hub, IAM

Daily Notes

April 27 — Subnet Masks, CIDR, OSI Recap, TCP/UDP, Application Protocols, DNS, Troubleshooting Tools

April 28 — Wireless, IoT, Amazon WorkSpaces, VPC Lab 267, CIA Triad, Security Intro

April 29 — Security Threats, Shared Responsibility Model, Security Lifecycle, Network/System Hardening, IAM

April 30 — Wireshark, VPN vs Firewall, AWS Security Services, Amazon Inspector Lab, Cryptography Intro