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David O’Neal
David O’Neal

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AWS Account Governance: Guardrails that Prove Themselves

#aws #cloud #cybersecurity #grc

Governance succeeds when it’s provable. In AWS, that means designing guardrails that prevent risky changes, surface evidence continuously, and map to a control framework the business recognizes.

The Problem

Fast growth in AWS often leads to:

  • Siloed accounts with inconsistent controls
  • Over‑privileged IAM roles
  • Compliance that depends on screenshots and goodwill

The Approach

  1. Organize accounts by function or environment under AWS Organizations.
  2. Apply Service Control Policies (SCPs) to hard‑deny obvious anti‑patterns (public S3 ACLs, unapproved regions, root key usage).
  3. Centralize identity with AWS IAM Identity Center (least‑privilege roles, SSO, MFA).
  4. Continuously evaluate with AWS Config + Security Hub (CIS/NIST rules).
  5. Prove it with artifacts: dashboards, role definitions, SCP docs, and alert samples.

Design Notes

  • Start with a deny‑list SCP set that blocks the worst foot‑guns.
  • Add budget alerts per account—governance includes cost control.
  • Evidence lives forever: store screenshots/CLI outputs alongside SOPs in version control.

Outcomes You Can Expect

  • Reduced blast radius: even if an IAM policy grows too broad, SCPs catch dangerous calls.
  • Audit‑ready posture: Config and Security Hub give date‑stamped findings.
  • Developer trust: roles are known, access is fast, and reviewers stop playing whack‑a‑mole.

Resources & Evidence

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