Security groups and network access control lists (ACLs) are both important tools for securing your network on the AWS cloud, but they serve different purposes and have different use cases.
Security groups are like a bouncer at a club. They control inbound and outbound traffic to and from your resources, like a bouncer controls who can enter and exit a club. Just like a bouncer checks IDs and only allows certain people to enter the club, security groups check the IP addresses and ports of incoming and outgoing traffic, and only allow traffic that meets certain rules. This way, security groups can help protect your resources from unauthorized access and malicious attacks.
Network ACLs, on the other hand, are like a security guard for a building. They control inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level, like a security guard controls who can enter and exit a building. Just like a security guard checks IDs and only allows certain people to enter the building, network ACLs check the IP addresses and ports of incoming and outgoing traffic, and only allow traffic that meets certain rules. This way, network ACLs can help protect your entire subnet from unauthorized access and malicious attacks.
One key difference between security groups and network ACLs is that security groups are associated with individual resources (such as an EC2 instance), while network ACLs are associated with subnets. This means that security groups provide a more granular level of control over traffic, while network ACLs provide a more broad level of control. Additionally, security groups only allow or deny traffic, while network ACLs allow or deny traffic and also prioritize traffic with a number range from 100-32766.
In short, security groups and network ACLs are both important tools for securing your network on the AWS cloud, but they serve different purposes and have different use cases. Security groups are like a bouncer at a club, controlling inbound and outbound traffic to and from your resources at the individual resource level. Network ACLs, on the other hand, are like a security guard for a building, controlling inbound and outbound traffic at the subnet level.
By Namwakira Pauline
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