The root user account and implementing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

One of the first things you want to do is configure MFA for your root user account. Normally, when you log in to an AWS account, you simply provide a username and password. You are probably aware that you must choose a highly complex password – one that has lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols, and must be randomly generated rather than dictionary words that can be guessed easily.

However, a username and password combination alone is not sufficient in this age of malware attacks, hacking, and brute force attacks. MFA is a mechanism where you are prompted to verify your identity using more than one set of credentials. Instead of just having two passwords, however, MFA uses two separate secrets to verify your identity – something you know and something you have. So, for example, something you know would be your username and password, and something you have would be a one-time...