To perform consistent analysis of findings, you can create and apply filter rules. A filter rule is a set of filter criteria that you create and save to use again when you review findings on the Amazon Macie console. Filter rules can help you perform repeated, consistent analysis of findings that have specific characteristics. For example, you might create one filter rule for analyzing all high-severity sensitive data findings that report specific types of sensitive data. You might create another filter rule for analyzing all high-severity policy findings for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) buckets that store unencrypted objects.
When you create a filter rule, you use specific attributes of findings to define criteria for including or excluding findings from a view. A finding attribute is a field that stores specific data for a finding, such as severity, type, or the name of the S3 bucket that a finding applies to. You also specify a name, and, optionally, a description of the rule. To then analyze findings that match the criteria of the rule, choose the rule. Macie applies the rule's criteria and displays only those findings that match the criteria. Macie also displays the criteria to help you determine which criteria it applied.
Note that filter rules are different from suppression rules. A suppression rule is a set of filter criteria that you create and save to automatically archive findings that match the criteria of the rule. Although both types of rules store and apply filter criteria, a filter rule doesn't perform any action on findings that match the rule's criteria. Instead, a filter rule only determines which findings appear on the console after you apply the rule. For information about suppression rules, see Suppressing findings.
