Automate custom PII detection at scale with Amazon Macie and Step Functions

This article demonstrates how to build an event-driven pipeline using Amazon Macie and AWS Step Functions to automatically detect PII and custom sensitive data in S3 files at scale.

• Amazon EventBridge triggers AWS Step Functions workflows when files arrive in S3
• Amazon Macie scans objects using built-in and custom data identifiers for organization-specific PII
• Pipeline generates compliance reports in CSV and JSON formats with full timestamps
• Real-time SNS notifications alert security teams to high-severity findings
• Three-bucket pattern isolates data by processing state: raw, staged, and scanned
• AWS Lambda orchestrates steps including job creation, status polling, and report generation
• Solution includes hardening measures for production deployment and multi-tenant environments

The automated pipeline enables compliance teams to detect and classify sensitive data without manual intervention, maintaining clear data lineage and audit trails throughout the scanning lifecycle.