Representative ImplementationCloud Security · Cross-Industry

AWS Cloud Security & Well-Architected Review: Turning a Findings Dashboard into a Plan

A representative AWS security assessment — IAM, network, data protection, logging, and attack-chain analysis mapped to the Well-Architected Security Pillar and CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark — aligned to SG2's cloud security practice.

How to read this page: this is a Representative Implementation, not a named-customer case study — a composite example based on common implementation patterns and engineering experience, illustrating how SG2 typically structures an AWS security and Well-Architected review. No specific customer is described, and the example metrics further down the page are illustrative, not measured results.

Executive Summary

Organizations scaling on AWS accumulate permissive IAM policies, misconfigured buckets, unencrypted stores, sprawling security groups, and inconsistent logging — and then one of those becomes a foothold and the rest become the path. This review maps the environment against the Well-Architected Security Pillar and the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark, but its value is interpretation: which findings matter for this workload, how the small ones chain, and a remediation plan an engineering team can execute.

Business Challenges

Overly permissive IAM policies — wildcard actions and resources granted for a deadline and never scoped back
S3 buckets set public during testing and never locked down
Unencrypted data stores, with encryption assumed rather than verified
Sprawling security groups — services reachable from the internet that never should have been
CloudTrail missing in some regions, so activity there leaves no audit trail
Hundreds of Security Hub findings and no answer to which ones an attacker would actually chain

Reference Architecture

AWS Organization / Accounts IAM & Access Governance Network (VPC / SG / WAF) Data Protection (S3 / KMS) Logging (CloudTrail / Config / GuardDuty) Security Hub / Compliance Remediation & Reporting

Review Workflow

1

Account & Baseline Review

Organizations layout, OUs, service control policies, and whether a landing zone or Control Tower baseline is enforced or has drifted.

2

IAM & Access Governance

Policies, roles, federation, and cross-account trust reviewed for least privilege — wildcard permissions flagged specifically.

3

Network Security

VPC design, security groups, NACLs, and WAF coverage — what is reachable from the internet, and how flat the network is inside a VPC.

4

Data Protection

S3 public-access settings, encryption at rest and in transit verified, and KMS key management — rotation, grants, and decrypt scope.

5

Logging & Monitoring

CloudTrail coverage across all regions and accounts, Config rules, GuardDuty, and Security Hub enablement.

6

Attack-Chain Analysis

Individual findings connected into real exposure paths — a public bucket plus an over-scoped role plus a region with no trail is one high finding, not three mediums.

7

Remediation & Reporting

A 30/60/90-day roadmap with owners, effort estimates, and Infrastructure-as-Code for the fixes that support it.

Capabilities

IAM Least Privilege

  • • Wildcard policy detection
  • • Cross-account trust review
  • • Federation and role-assumption paths

Network Security

  • • Security group and NACL review
  • • Internet-exposure mapping
  • • Intra-VPC segmentation and zero-trust patterns

Data Protection

  • • S3 public-access and bucket-policy review
  • • Encryption at rest / in transit verified
  • • KMS key management and grant scope

Logging & Detection

  • • CloudTrail multi-region / multi-account coverage
  • • Config, GuardDuty, Security Hub baseline
  • • Detection blind-spot analysis

Attack-Chain Analysis

  • • Cross-service exposure paths
  • • Prioritisation by business risk, not flat severity
  • • Foothold-to-impact mapping

Compliance Mapping

  • • Well-Architected Security Pillar alignment
  • • CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark scorecard
  • • SOC 2 / ISO 27001 evidence starting point

Key Deliverables

Cloud security posture assessment report · IAM least-privilege recommendations · network and segmentation review · data protection and encryption gap analysis · CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark scorecard · 30/60/90-day prioritized remediation roadmap.

Example Management View

Illustrative figures for an environment grown organically over ~3 years — not a measured project result.

CIS AWS benchmark compliance (start)61%
Critical findings11
High findings28
Public S3 buckets identified4
IAM policies flagged (excessive)37
Remediation horizon90 days

Outcomes This Architecture Typically Targets

Representative, not measured — see the note at the top of this page.

Public S3 exposure reduced to zero, verified rather than assumed
IAM privilege footprint materially reduced — wildcard admin roles scoped or removed
CloudTrail enabled globally, closing audit-trail blind spots
A ranked remediation plan tied to attack chains, not a flat list of findings
A CIS benchmark scorecard that feeds the next SOC 2 or ISO 27001 cycle

Works With

AWS Organizations / Control TowerIAM Identity Center / Okta federationCloudTrail · Config · GuardDuty · Security HubTerraform / CloudFormationThreatVantage (continuous audit)SIEM (Splunk / Sentinel)
Cloud Security Configuration Review Read the Well-Architected review guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions from enterprise and mid-market teams across India and internationally.

How is a Well-Architected security review different from running Security Hub?
Security Hub aggregates findings against AWS-defined standards, which is useful and should be enabled. A review adds prioritisation against your actual risk profile rather than a flat severity label, cross-service attack-chain analysis — how an over-permissive role plus a public bucket plus missing CloudTrail combine into a real exposure — and Infrastructure-as-Code remediation you can apply directly rather than a dashboard you have to translate into work.
What access does the review need?
Read-only throughout. A SecurityAudit managed policy plus a small number of additional read permissions for services it does not fully cover. IAM policy templates are provided upfront granting exactly what is needed and nothing else. No write access is requested or used at any stage.
Does it cover AWS Organizations and multiple accounts?
Yes. Account structure, organizational units, service control policies, and the landing-zone or Control Tower baseline are explicitly in scope. Cross-account trust relationships get particular attention because they are a common lateral-movement path between accounts that are each individually well configured.
What does the remediation roadmap look like?
Findings are grouped into a 30/60/90-day plan. The first 30 days cover anything internet-exposed or trivially exploitable — public storage, wildcard admin roles, disabled logging. Days 30–60 address structural issues like network segmentation and encryption coverage. Days 60–90 cover governance and monitoring maturity. Each item carries an owner, an effort estimate, and where applicable Terraform or CloudFormation to apply the fix.
Is this a Representative Implementation or a named-client case study?
A Representative Implementation — a composite based on common engagement patterns and engineering experience. It illustrates how SG2 structures an AWS security and Well-Architected review. No specific customer is described, and the example metrics shown are illustrative, not measured project results.

How many of those Security Hub findings actually matter?

Talk to our cloud security team about a Well-Architected review scoped to your accounts and workloads.

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