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# Basics of IAM
* A web service that **helps you control access to AWS resources.**
* Use it to **control who is authenticated (signed in) and authorized (has permissions)** to use resources.
* When you first create an AWS account, you begin with a **single sign-in identity that has complete access to all AWS services** and resources in the account.
* This identity is called the **AWS account root user**.
* AWS strongly recommend that you **do not use the root user for your everyday tasks**, even the administrative ones.
* **Securely lock away the root user credentials** and use them to perform only a few account and service management tasks.
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