Security posture your auditors accept and your engineers can maintain.
Cloud security misconfigurations are the leading cause of data breaches — not sophisticated attacks. An S3 bucket left public, an IAM role with admin permissions handed to a developer environment, a security group that opened port 22 to 0.0.0.0/0 because it was the fastest way to debug something. These aren't edge cases; they're the default trajectory when cloud infrastructure is built under speed pressure without a security framework. We harden cloud environments against the real threat model — the misconfigurations and overprivileged access that account for the majority of cloud breaches — while building the compliance documentation required for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA audits. Security that only exists in audit documents is theatre. We build controls that are actually enforced.
Cloud security misconfigurations — not sophisticated attacks — are the leading cause of cloud data breaches. An S3 bucket left public, an IAM role with admin permissions, a security group opened to 0.0.0.0/0 because it was the fastest debug fix. Origin Softwares hardens cloud environments against the real threat model: the misconfigurations and overprivileged access that account for most cloud breaches. We also build the compliance documentation required for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA audits, and we build controls that are technically enforced — not policies that rely on engineers remembering to follow them.
What is cloud security and compliance?
Cloud security is the practice of configuring and monitoring cloud infrastructure so that access is controlled, data is protected, and the attack surface is minimised. Compliance is the process of demonstrating to auditors — for frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA — that specific technical and organisational controls are in place and operating effectively. The two are closely related but distinct: security controls protect your systems; compliance documentation proves to external parties that they do. Origin Softwares implements both together — technically enforced controls that generate the evidence your auditors need, rather than policies written after the fact to describe controls that may or may not actually be in place.
The problems this solves
- Cloud infrastructure was built under speed pressure without a security framework, leaving misconfiguration risks that are not visible without a systematic audit
- IAM permissions are overprivileged — developers have admin access, service accounts have permissions far beyond their actual requirements
- Credentials are hardcoded in application code, environment variables, or EC2 user data, creating a significant breach risk if any component is compromised
- Upcoming SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audit has identified control gaps that need remediation within a defined timeline
- Security monitoring covers some services but not others — there is no unified view of security events and no alerting on high-severity threats
- Security group rules have accumulated over time with overly permissive rules that were added for debugging and never removed
Business outcomes
- 100% of credentials migrated to secrets manager with rotation enabled — zero hardcoded credentials remaining in code or configuration
- Zero public S3 buckets or admin-level service accounts after the initial remediation phase
- Critical findings remediated within 48 hours of assessment — the highest-risk misconfigurations resolved before the engagement closes
- SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA audit passed with no control gaps after remediation — compliance evidence built into the controls, not documented after the fact
- Security monitoring with alerting provides early warning of threat activity rather than discovering incidents from breach notifications
- IAM least-privilege reduces the blast radius of any compromised credential — a single compromised account cannot access the entire environment
Who is this for?
SaaS & B2B Companies Pursuing SOC 2
Software companies whose enterprise customers require SOC 2 Type II certification before signing contracts, who need both the technical controls and the compliance documentation to pass the audit.
Fintech & Payment Companies
Financial services businesses handling payment data or sensitive financial records who need PCI-DSS alignment, strong access controls, and security monitoring that satisfies both regulators and enterprise clients.
Healthcare Technology Companies
Health-tech organisations handling PHI who need HIPAA technical safeguards implemented and documented — encryption, access controls, audit logging, and breach notification procedures.
Startups Post-Series A
Growing companies who built their cloud infrastructure quickly and now need to harden it before enterprise customer security reviews or before a major compliance audit.
Teams After a Security Incident
Organisations who have experienced a cloud security incident or near-miss and need a comprehensive assessment and remediation to understand the full scope of exposure and close it.
Legal & Professional Services Firms
Firms handling sensitive client data who need access controls, audit logging, and compliance documentation that satisfies both their own risk requirements and their clients' vendor security assessments.
When Cloud Security & Compliance may not be the right fit
We'd rather tell you upfront than waste your time and budget.
- If your organisation has an existing security team with cloud security expertise and a recent posture assessment, an external engagement may be redundant — focus on gap-specific remediation instead
- If you are still in early product development with no customer data in the environment, extensive security controls may slow development — implement the critical basics and plan for a full hardening before going live with customer data
- If your compliance requirement is for a framework we do not cover (e.g., FedRAMP, CMMC), confirm our experience with your specific framework before engaging
- If the security gaps are primarily in your application code rather than your cloud configuration, application security testing and secure coding practices address the root cause more effectively than cloud hardening alone
What's included
- Cloud security posture assessment (CSPM)
- IAM least-privilege audit & remediation
- Network security (VPC, security groups, NACLs)
- Secrets management & certificate automation
- Security monitoring & SIEM integration
- SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / HIPAA compliance controls
How we deliver
Cloud Security Posture Assessment
Scan the full environment, identify all security findings, and produce a prioritised remediation plan.
- Run automated posture scan with Prowler or Wiz across all accounts and regions
- Review findings manually to remove false positives and add exploitability context
- Prioritise findings: critical (public storage, admin accounts, hardcoded credentials) first, then high, medium, low
- Present remediation plan with effort estimates and business risk context per finding category
Critical Finding Remediation
Resolve the highest-risk findings within 48 hours of assessment sign-off.
- Block public access on all S3 buckets and verify no unintended public exposure
- Identify and remediate admin-level service accounts — replace with least-privilege roles scoped to specific resources
- Scan code repositories and configuration files for hardcoded credentials using TruffleHog
- Close overly permissive security group rules — remove 0.0.0.0/0 on sensitive ports and restrict to required CIDR ranges
IAM Hardening & Secrets Migration
Restructure IAM permissions to least-privilege and migrate all credentials to secrets manager.
- Audit all IAM roles and policies — document current permissions versus required permissions per service
- Build replacement least-privilege roles scoped to specific actions on specific resources
- Migrate all credentials (database passwords, API keys, certificates) to AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, or HashiCorp Vault
- Configure automatic rotation for all secrets that support rotation — database passwords, API keys where rotation is supported
Security Monitoring & Detection
Configure threat detection, logging, and alerting so security events surface as alerts within minutes.
- Enable GuardDuty (AWS) or Azure Defender across all accounts and regions
- Validate CloudTrail coverage — all regions, all accounts, log file validation enabled
- Configure high-severity alert rules in SIEM or CloudWatch: unusual API calls, credential theft indicators, public access changes
- Test alerts: simulate the activity each rule is designed to detect and verify the alert fires within the defined response time
Compliance Documentation
Produce the evidence documentation your auditors require for SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA.
- Map implemented controls to the relevant framework control objectives
- Produce evidence documents: IAM access reviews, CloudTrail screenshots, encryption configuration exports, backup test results
- Draft or review security policies: access control policy, incident response procedure, vulnerability management policy
- Coordinate with audit firm on evidence format and completeness before the formal audit begins
How long does a cloud security engagement take?
A cloud security posture assessment with remediation of critical findings typically takes four to six weeks. The first two weeks cover automated scanning with Prowler or Wiz and manual review of the findings, producing a prioritised remediation plan. Weeks three and four address critical findings — public S3 buckets, overprivileged IAM, hardcoded credentials, open security groups — followed by medium severity items. The final phase covers security monitoring setup, secrets manager migration, and compliance documentation. For SOC 2 readiness specifically, the timeline extends to eight to twelve weeks to cover all control domains and produce the evidence documentation the auditor requires. Origin Softwares provides a timeline after reviewing your current environment and compliance target.
Technologies we use
- AWS Security Hub
- AWS GuardDuty
- Azure Defender
- GCP Security Command Center
- HashiCorp Vault
- AWS Secrets Manager
- Terraform
- Falco
- Wiz
- Prowler
- CloudTrail
- Datadog
Architecture & scalability
- IAM permission boundaries: even with least-privilege roles, permission boundaries enforce a maximum permission ceiling that cannot be exceeded by any role in the account — essential for environments where developers can create IAM roles
- Service Control Policies in AWS Organizations: SCPs enforce security guardrails at the organisation level — preventing resources from being created in non-approved regions, requiring encryption tags, and blocking access to billing data from non-finance accounts
- Secrets rotation design: automatic rotation requires the application to handle the brief period during rotation when two versions of a secret are valid — design the secret retrieval logic to retry on authentication failure before flagging an incident
- Network security defence in depth: security groups (stateful, instance-level), NACLs (stateless, subnet-level), and VPC Flow Logs (visibility) each serve a different purpose — all three together provide layered defence and the logs needed for incident investigation
- Compliance evidence automation: CloudTrail logs, Config rules compliance reports, and Access Analyzer findings can be exported automatically — building this automation reduces the evidence collection burden before each audit cycle
- Zero trust network design: for environments handling regulated data, private endpoints for all AWS service access, no internet-routable paths for sensitive workloads, and mutual TLS between services reduce the attack surface beyond what security groups alone provide
Managed Security Posture vs One-Time Audit vs DIY Tooling
| Criterion | Managed Security Engagement | One-Time Audit Report | DIY Tooling (Prowler, ScoutSuite) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finding prioritisation | Expert-reviewed, risk-prioritised | Automated scan results | Unfiltered — hundreds of findings |
| Remediation support | Full remediation included | Recommendations only — no implementation | Manual — team must implement |
| Compliance evidence | Produced alongside controls | Not included | Manual documentation required |
| Ongoing monitoring | Configured and alerting from day one | Not included | Requires separate setup |
Why choose Origin Softwares
Our approach
- We implement technically enforced controls — SCPs, IAM permission boundaries, and Terraform enforcement — not policies that rely on engineers remembering to follow them
- Every control generates the evidence your auditor needs — compliance and security are co-designed, not documented after the fact
- We prioritise based on actual attack patterns: the misconfigurations that cause most breaches, not the theoretical threats that dominate security conference talks
- Secrets manager migration is a deliverable, not a recommendation — we migrate credentials and verify zero hardcoded secrets remain
- We have helped organisations pass SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and HIPAA audits with the controls implemented and documented as part of the engagement
- We work alongside your compliance team or audit firm, not instead of them — our role is the technical implementation, not the audit itself
Delivery standards
- All critical findings from the posture assessment remediated before the engagement closes — no open critical items handed back to the client
- IAM permissions audited and restructured to least-privilege for all service accounts and developer roles
- 100% of identified hardcoded credentials migrated to secrets manager with rotation configured
- Security monitoring configured with alerting on high-severity events — GuardDuty, CloudTrail anomalies, and threat detection active before handover
- Compliance evidence documentation produced for every technical control implemented
- Post-remediation verification scan run to confirm all identified findings are resolved
Quality assurance
- Automated posture scan with Prowler or Wiz run against the full environment — not a sample
- Manual review of scan findings to remove false positives and add context before the remediation plan is presented
- Credential scan with TruffleHog or similar across all code repositories and configuration files before secrets manager migration
- Post-remediation verification scan to confirm all findings marked as resolved are actually resolved
- Security monitoring alert test: simulate the activity each alert is designed to detect and verify the alert fires
- Compliance evidence review: all evidence documents checked for completeness and accuracy before presenting to the audit firm
Security practices
- IAM least-privilege applied at the task level — every service account has only the permissions required for its specific function on specific resources
- No hardcoded credentials anywhere — secrets manager migration covers application code, CI/CD pipelines, EC2 user data, and Lambda environment variables
- VPC design with private subnets for application and database tiers — public access restricted to load balancers and specifically authorised services
- Encryption at rest for all storage (EBS, RDS, S3) and in transit (TLS 1.2 minimum) — no plaintext data at rest or in transit
- CloudTrail or Azure Activity Logs enabled across all accounts and regions — every API call logged and retained for the compliance-required period
- Multi-factor authentication required for all console access, enforced via IAM policy — no MFA bypass permitted
Performance
- Security group rules reviewed for performance impact — overly restrictive egress rules can cause application timeouts if misconfigured
- Secrets manager API call latency benchmarked — caching strategies recommended where high-frequency secret retrieval adds measurable latency
- GuardDuty and security monitoring overhead assessed — negligible for most workloads but reviewed for high-frequency API call environments
- WAF rule set tuned to minimise false positive blocks that affect legitimate user traffic
- Certificate rotation automation configured to prevent expiry incidents that cause application downtime
What you receive
- Cloud security posture assessment report with findings prioritised by severity and exploitability
- IAM permissions audit and remediated least-privilege roles for all service accounts and developer access
- Secrets manager migration with all identified credentials moved and rotation configured
- Network security hardening: security group audit and remediation, NACLs, and private subnet architecture
- Security monitoring and alerting setup with GuardDuty, CloudTrail analysis, and SIEM integration
- Compliance controls documentation for SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA as applicable
Support tiers
- Launch support: 30-day post-remediation monitoring with weekly security event reviews and rapid response to any alerts
- Security retainer: Monthly posture scan, new resource security review, and policy updates as the environment evolves
- Managed security: Ongoing security operations including threat monitoring, incident response, and compliance evidence maintenance
- Compliance advisory: Ongoing support through the audit cycle including evidence collection, auditor Q&A, and finding remediation
Why Origin for Cloud Security & Compliance
Real controls, not audit theatre
We implement security controls that are technically enforced — not policies that rely on engineers remembering to follow them. SCPs, IAM permission boundaries, and Terraform enforcement.
Threat model based on actual attack patterns
We prioritise mitigating the misconfiguration-based attacks that cause most cloud breaches — not the nation-state threats in security conference talks that your actual threat model doesn't include.
Compliance evidence built into the controls
Every control we implement generates the evidence your SOC 2 or ISO 27001 auditor needs. Security and compliance are co-designed — not documented after the fact.
Industries we serve
Typical delivery timeline
| Phase | Duration | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Posture Assessment | 1-2 weeks | Automated scan, manual review, and prioritised remediation plan. |
| Critical Remediation | 1 week | Public storage, admin accounts, hardcoded credentials, and open security groups resolved. |
| IAM & Secrets Migration | 1-2 weeks | Least-privilege roles built and deployed; all credentials migrated to secrets manager. |
| Monitoring & Detection | 1 week | GuardDuty, CloudTrail, SIEM integration, and alert testing. |
| Compliance Documentation | 1-2 weeks | Control mapping, evidence documents, and policy documentation for target framework. |
Before you start — a checklist
Use this to prepare for your first conversation with us.
- Has your cloud environment been built quickly under time pressure without a security framework? A posture assessment will find misconfigurations you do not know exist.
- Are you preparing for a SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA audit within the next 6 months? Controls need to be operating for a period before the audit — start now.
- Do you have hardcoded credentials anywhere in your codebase or configuration? This is a critical finding that should be resolved immediately regardless of other priorities.
- Have you audited IAM permissions in the last 12 months? Permissions accumulate over time — service accounts and developer roles routinely have far more access than they currently need.
- Do you have security monitoring with alerting on high-severity events? If you would only discover a breach from an external notification, monitoring is the most urgent gap.
- Are enterprise customers requiring evidence of your security posture as a condition of signing? SOC 2 Type II is the standard evidence package for B2B software companies.
Maintenance & support
- Monthly posture scans: automated scan run monthly with new findings reviewed and remediation timeline agreed
- IAM access reviews: quarterly review of all service account and developer permissions against actual usage to remove accumulated excess permissions
- Compliance evidence maintenance: ongoing collection and organisation of audit evidence so the evidence package is ready when the audit window opens
- Incident response: defined SLA for response to high-severity security alerts, with investigation and containment procedures documented
- New resource security review: architecture review for new services and data flows to ensure security controls are in place before go-live
“Our SOC 2 Type II auditor flagged 23 control gaps. Origin remediated every one of them — IAM, logging, encryption, secrets — and built the compliance documentation alongside the controls. We passed the re-audit six weeks later with no exceptions.”
Frequently asked questions
Planning & scope
- What is a SOC 2 audit and what does it require technically?
- SOC 2 audits your controls against the Trust Services Criteria — primarily Security, and optionally Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, and Privacy. Technical controls required for Security include access management (least-privilege IAM, MFA), encryption (at rest and in transit), monitoring (logging, alerting, incident response), change management (code review, deployment controls), and vendor management. The auditor reviews evidence that each control was in place and operating effectively during the audit period — typically the previous 6 to 12 months for a Type II audit.
- How do we prioritise which security findings to fix first?
- By exploitability and blast radius. Public S3 buckets with sensitive data can be exploited immediately by anyone on the internet — fix these in hours. Admin-level service accounts can be used to compromise the entire environment if the application is compromised — fix these in the same day. Hardcoded credentials in code repositories may already be indexed by search tools — treat these as actively compromised. After critical findings, prioritise by the combination of exploitability and the sensitivity of the data or systems at risk.
- Do we need a penetration test as well as a posture assessment?
- They serve different purposes. A cloud security posture assessment finds misconfigurations in your infrastructure — IAM, network, storage, logging. A penetration test attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in your applications and APIs. For most cloud security programmes, start with the posture assessment because misconfiguration-based risks are more prevalent and easier to remediate than application vulnerabilities. Penetration testing is more valuable once the infrastructure is hardened, so attackers are forced to target the application layer.
- How do we handle security when we use third-party SaaS tools that access our data?
- Through vendor security reviews and access controls. Review the SOC 2 report or security documentation of any third-party tool that accesses sensitive data. Limit the data and permissions you grant to each tool — the principle of least privilege applies to third-party integrations. Implement data processing agreements with vendors who handle regulated data. We include vendor access management as part of the compliance documentation for SOC 2 and ISO 27001 engagements.
Technical
- How do you implement least-privilege IAM in practice?
- By starting from a deny-all baseline and adding only the specific permissions each service account needs to perform its function on the specific resources it accesses. A Lambda that reads from one S3 bucket gets s3:GetObject on that bucket ARN only — not s3:* on *. We use IAM Access Analyzer to identify overly permissive policies and generate least-privilege replacements based on actual usage data. Permission boundaries enforce a ceiling so even if a role is misconfigured, it cannot exceed the boundary.
- How do you scan for hardcoded credentials in code?
- Using tools like TruffleHog or GitLeaks run against the full git history, not just the current commit — credentials committed and later deleted are still in the history and visible to anyone with repository access. We scan code repositories, CI/CD pipeline configurations, container images, and Lambda environment variables. Findings are triaged by the type of credential and the systems it accesses — database passwords get rotated immediately, API keys with limited scope are rotated within 24 hours.
- What is GuardDuty and how does it detect threats?
- AWS GuardDuty is a threat detection service that analyses CloudTrail logs, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS logs using machine learning to identify threat patterns. Common detections include unusual API calls from unknown IP addresses (credential theft indicator), cryptocurrency mining activity, port scanning from EC2 instances (compromised instance indicator), and exfiltration of S3 data to unusual destinations. GuardDuty findings are integrated into a SIEM or CloudWatch Events for alerting. Azure Defender and GCP Security Command Center provide equivalent capabilities on their respective platforms.
- How do you configure encryption for all storage in AWS?
- At the service level: EBS default encryption enabled in every region so new volumes are encrypted automatically; S3 default encryption set to SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS on every bucket; RDS storage encryption enabled at instance creation (cannot be enabled after). For data in transit: enforce HTTPS on all ALBs and API Gateway endpoints; disable TLS 1.0 and 1.1 to enforce TLS 1.2 minimum; validate certificate chains with ACM. AWS Config rules verify encryption configuration continuously and alert on any unencrypted resource creation.
Engagement & process
- Can you help us pass a SOC 2 Type II audit end-to-end?
- Yes — we implement the technical controls, help document the organisational policies, and produce the evidence package. We work alongside your audit firm rather than instead of them — we implement the controls and provide the technical evidence; the auditor tests the controls and issues the opinion. For organisations starting from scratch, allow 8 to 12 weeks before the audit observation period begins.
- What if our SOC 2 auditor finds gaps in the controls we implemented?
- We commit to remediating any gaps identified in the audit that relate to technical controls we implemented during the engagement — if a control we put in place is found by the auditor to be insufficient, we fix it at no additional charge within the defined remediation timeline.
- Can you harden an environment that was set up by another team without documentation?
- Yes — this is the most common engagement scenario. We run a posture scan against the current state and work from the findings rather than from documentation that may not exist or may be outdated. We document the environment as we harden it, so the post-engagement state is well-documented even if the pre-engagement state was not.
What results should you expect from a cloud security engagement?
After a cloud security posture assessment and remediation, critical findings — public storage buckets, admin-level service accounts, hardcoded credentials — are resolved within 48 hours of discovery. IAM permissions are restructured to least-privilege so each service account can only access what it needs for its specific function. All credentials are in a secrets manager with rotation enabled. Security monitoring with alerting covers unusual API activity and threat indicators. Origin Softwares produces a post-remediation security posture report confirming zero public S3 buckets, zero admin-level service accounts, and 100% of credentials migrated to secrets manager, giving you and your auditors documented evidence of the current security state.
Related services
Custom Software Development
Application security and cloud security go together — we build secure application architectures alongside secure infrastructure.
Cloud & DevOps
Security controls are most durable when integrated into CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code — we implement both together.
Data Engineering
Data pipelines handling sensitive or regulated data need the same security controls as the applications that read from them.
Web Development
Web application security and cloud security are complementary — we address both layers for organisations handling sensitive user data.
Mobile App Development
Mobile backends require the same cloud security controls as web backends — API authentication, secrets management, and access controls.
Not sure where to start?
Book a security assessment call and get a preliminary cloud posture review and compliance gap analysis within one week.
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