Cloud security is a shared-responsibility problem. A practical assessment should examine identity, exposure, configuration, data protection and workload paths rather than treating the cloud provider as the security boundary.
Assessment areas
Identity & access
Review privileged roles, service identities, excessive permissions, authentication controls and access paths.
Internet exposure
Identify public services, management interfaces, exposed storage and unnecessary inbound access.
Configuration
Review network controls, logging, secrets handling, storage permissions and security baselines.
Workload security
Consider host, container, serverless and application-level controls according to the environment.
Good evidence
Document the affected resource, effective permission or exposure, attack path, impact and exact remediation. Avoid reporting a configuration issue without demonstrating why it matters.
Preparing for an assessment
Provide the provider, account boundaries, major services, deployment model and assessment objective. Agree temporary, least-privilege review access through a secure channel and follow provider testing policies.
Keep scope, access assumptions and exclusions explicit. Use redacted evidence and representative test data. Report what was verified, what remains uncertain and which checks could not be completed.
Related resources
Guides
API Security Best Practices
A practical review of API identity, object authorization, schemas and evidence.
Read articleChecklists
Security Configuration Review Checklist
Prepare a contextual hardening review, from permissions and exposure to evidence and exceptions.
Read checklist