The Shared Responsibility Model defines the security responsibilities split between the cloud provider and the cloud customer. The cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure) is responsible for the security of the underlying cloud infrastructure — data centres, hardware, hypervisors, and managed services infrastructure. The customer is responsible for security in the cloud — operating system patching, IAM configuration, network security group rules, application security, data encryption, and access management. Many cloud security incidents result from customers not understanding or fulfilling their side of this responsibility boundary.

The most common cloud security issues we encounter: overly permissive IAM roles and policies (violating least privilege); publicly accessible storage buckets or databases; missing encryption for sensitive data; no MFA for console access or privileged accounts; inadequate logging and monitoring (no ability to detect or investigate security events); security group rules that allow unrestricted inbound access; and missing secrets management (credentials hard-coded in code or stored in environment variables without proper protection). We address all of these in our cloud security implementations.

Least privilege IAM implementation involves: auditing existing IAM policies to identify over-permissive access; designing role-based access control with roles defined by job function rather than named individuals; creating service-specific IAM roles for application components with only the permissions they need; implementing permission boundaries for delegated administration; removing unused IAM entities; enforcing MFA for human access; and establishing access review processes to maintain least privilege over time as requirements change.

We implement technical controls for major compliance frameworks in cloud environments: ISO 27001 (information security management), SOC 2 Type II (security, availability, and confidentiality), PCI DSS (payment card data), GDPR (personal data protection), HIPAA (healthcare data, for US customers), and industry-specific frameworks. Each framework requires specific technical controls, documentation, and evidence that we implement and maintain, helping you demonstrate compliance to customers, auditors, and regulators.

We implement cloud-native threat detection — AWS GuardDuty, Google Security Command Center, Microsoft Defender for Cloud — which analyse cloud activity, network traffic, and data access patterns using machine learning to identify suspicious behaviour. We also implement CloudTrail/Cloud Audit Logs analysis, SIEM integration for centralised event correlation, and custom detection rules for your specific threat model. Alerts route to your security team or our managed security operations for investigation.

If you suspect a cloud security incident, isolate the affected resources (restrict network access, revoke compromised credentials), preserve evidence (do not delete logs or snapshots), assess the scope of the incident (what data or systems were accessed), notify appropriate stakeholders according to your incident response plan, and investigate the root cause. For clients on managed security services, contact us immediately — we provide incident response support. We also help build incident response plans and runbooks before incidents happen, not after.

Cloud security investment is significantly less expensive than security incident costs. Cloud security incidents — data breaches, ransomware, credential compromise — can cost millions in remediation, regulatory fines, customer notification, and reputational damage. Appropriate security controls prevent the incidents that cause these costs. We scope cloud security implementations to your risk profile — not every organisation needs the same level of security investment, but every organisation needs a minimum baseline that addresses the most common attack vectors.