Week 3: Networking & Infrastructure Security

1. Objectives

  • Networking Mastery: Understand the core of AWS networking including VPC architecture, subnetting, and network security boundaries (SGs vs NACLs).
  • Infrastructure Foundation: Configure Internet Gateways (IGW) and NAT Gateways to manage traffic for the “Website Security Baseline Assessment Platform”.
  • Advanced AI/NLP: Finalize the NLP specialization by mastering Sequence Models to support future AI integration in the project.

2. Weekly Tasks Breakdown

DayMain TaskDetailsStatus
MonNetworking Core- Deep Dive VPC: Studied VPC concepts, CIDR blocks, and Subnetting (Public vs. Private).
- Connectivity: Configured Internet Gateway (IGW) for public access and NAT Gateway for private instances.
- Source: Week 3 Curriculum.		Completed
TueNLP Certification- Completed the final course of the specialization:
 Natural Language Processing with Sequence Models.
- Covered RNNs, LSTMs, and GRUs for advanced text processing.
- Certificate		Completed
WedAWS Specialization- Continued the “AWS Fundamentals Specialization” on Coursera.
- Focused on modules related to AWS core services and security concepts.
- AWS Fundamentals Specialization		In Progress
ThuProject Infrastructure- Evaluated network requirements for the Website Security Baseline Assessment Platform.
- Discussed with team TheBois on how to isolate the scanning engine using VPC for security.		Completed
FriNetwork Security- Security Layers: Analyzed differences between Security Groups (Stateful) and NACLs (Stateless).
- Lab: Set up a secure VPC environment for potential future project deployment.		Completed

3. Key Results (Deliverables)

Technical & Hands-on:

  • VPC Architecture: Successfully designed a custom VPC with public/private subnets, ensuring a secure network topology.
  • Traffic Management: Implemented Route Tables, IGW, and NAT Gateways to control inbound/outbound traffic effectively.
  • Security Posture: Clearly distinguished usage scenarios for Security Groups (instance level) versus NACLs (subnet level).

Project (Team TheBois):

  • Infrastructure Strategy: Aligned the networking setup with the Website Security Baseline Assessment Platform needs—ensuring the scanning tool operates in a controlled environment to prevent unintended exposure during vulnerability checks.

Certifications & Learning:

  • Coursera Completion: Earned the certificate from DeepLearning.AI:
    • Natural Language Processing with Sequence Models
    • (This marks the completion of the NLP Specialization - Optional Note)

4. Issues & Solutions

  • Issue: Confusion between stateful (Security Groups) and stateless (NACLs) rules during the lab setup.
  • Solution: Conducted a connectivity test (ping) to observe how return traffic is handled, clarifying that SGs automatically allow return traffic while NACLs do not.