Cloud Security Assessment

CLOUD SECURITY ASSESSMENT

Comprehensive Security Assessment for Cloud Environments

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Cloud environments have transformed how organizations build, deploy and operate their applications and business services.

At the same time, cloud adoption introduces new security considerations across identity, access management, network architecture, workloads, data, configurations and exposed services.

Misconfigured cloud resources, excessive privileges, publicly accessible services or weaknesses in cloud security controls can increase the risk of unauthorized access, sensitive-data exposure and cloud workload compromise.

Consultants Factory's Cloud Security Assessment provides a structured evaluation of an organization's cloud security posture across architecture, identity, network controls, workloads and cloud configurations.

Our approach helps organizations understand where security controls are working effectively, where gaps exist and which areas should be prioritized for security improvement.

The service-line scope specifically defines Cloud Security Assessment as a broader assessment of the organization's overall cloud security posture across architecture, identity, network controls, workloads and configurations.

Key Security Challenges We Address

Over-permissioned identities, inappropriate IAM roles and weak privileged-access controls can provide attackers with opportunities to access resources beyond their intended permissions.
Incorrectly configured storage, compute resources, networking, security controls and cloud services can unintentionally expose sensitive workloads or data.
Internet-facing resources and publicly accessible cloud services can increase the external attack surface when they are not appropriately secured.
Weak network controls, inappropriate connectivity paths and insufficient segmentation can increase the possibility of unauthorized movement between cloud resources and environments.
Cloud workloads may process sensitive information and depend on multiple services. Weak security controls around workloads, storage, secrets and supporting services can increase overall cloud risk.

Our Approach

1. Cloud Environment Discovery & Architecture Review
We begin by understanding the cloud environment and its overall architecture, including:
Cloud accounts, subscriptions, and projects, major cloud services and workloads, compute and storage resources, network architecture and internet-facing resources, identity and access relationships, cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-on-premises connectivity.
This provides a clear view of the cloud environment and helps identify key security boundaries and areas requiring assessment.
Objective: Establish visibility into the cloud environment and identify key security-control areas for assessment.
2. Identity & Access Security Assessment
Identity is a fundamental security control in cloud environments. We assess applicable controls, including:
IAM roles and permissions, privileged identities and administrative access, service accounts and role assignments, excessive permissions, authentication and MFA controls, access separation, service-to-service permissions, and least-privilege implementation.
Where applicable, we also consider whether access decisions align with identity, role, and business requirements.
Objective: Reduce unnecessary privilege and strengthen control over access to critical cloud resources.
3. Cloud Configuration & Network Security Assessment
Cloud security depends heavily on secure resource and network configurations. We assess applicable areas, including:
Cloud network configuration, security groups and firewall controls, network access policies, public exposure, inbound and outbound connectivity, network segmentation, internet-facing services, management interfaces, storage access controls, and high-risk configuration settings.
Where relevant, configuration reviews can be aligned with recognized security best practices and applicable cloud security benchmarks.
Objective: Identify configuration weaknesses and reduce unnecessary cloud attack surface.
4. Workload, Data & Security-Control Assessment
Cloud workloads depend on multiple interconnected services. We assess security controls across:
Compute workloads and applications, containers, storage and databases, secrets and cryptographic services, managed cloud services, workload identities, sensitive-data processing, and logging and monitoring.
We also assess whether sensitive resources are appropriately protected against unauthorized access and unintended exposure.
Objective: Strengthen the protection of critical cloud workloads, data, and supporting services.
5. Risk Analysis & Detailed Security Reporting
We consolidate identified security gaps and evaluate their potential technical and business impact. Our reporting can include:
Executive summary, cloud security posture overview, assessment scope and methodology, security findings, risk/severity classification, technical evidence, affected cloud resources, potential security and business impact, root-cause observations, remediation recommendations, and risk-based remediation priorities.
This provides management and technical teams with a clear understanding of where cloud security improvements should be focused.
Objective: Provide actionable insights and prioritized recommendations to improve the overall cloud security posture.

What We Access

Cloud Architecture

We review relevant architectural elements including:
  • Cloud environments
  • Accounts/subscriptions/projects
  • Resource relationships
  • Network architecture
  • Trust boundaries
  • Connectivity
  • Security-control placement
  • Hybrid connectivity
  • Multi-cloud considerations

Identity & Access Management

Assessment areas can include:
  • IAM
  • Privileged identities
  • Roles and permissions
  • Service accounts
  • Administrative access
  • MFA
  • Least privilege
  • Access separation
  • Workload identities

Network Security

We assess relevant controls around:
  • Virtual networks
  • Subnets
  • Security groups
  • Firewall policies
  • Network access
  • Internet-facing resources
  • Network segmentation
  • Inbound/outbound traffic
  • Cloud-to-cloud connectivity
  • Hybrid connectivity

Cloud Workloads

Depending on the environment, assessment may cover:
  • Virtual machines
  • Containers
  • Serverless workloads
  • Managed services
  • Application workloads
  • Databases
  • Storage
  • Supporting cloud services

Data & Secrets Protection

We assess applicable controls protecting:
  • Sensitive information
  • Cloud storage
  • Databases
  • Application secrets
  • Credentials
  • Encryption keys
  • Key-management services
  • Access to sensitive resources

Monitoring & Security Visibility

Where included within scope, we can review relevant:
  • Cloud audit logging
  • Security monitoring
  • Activity logging
  • Network-flow visibility
  • Security alerts
  • Centralized monitoring
  • Detection capabilities

Multi-Cloud & Platform-Specific Security

Organizations increasingly operate across multiple cloud platforms.
Consultants Factory can structure cloud security assessments around major cloud environments including:

AWS Security Assessment

Assessment of AWS environments from an attacker perspective, including relevant AWS accounts, IAM, storage, compute, networking and exposed services.  
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Azure Security Assessment

Assessment of Azure environments focusing on areas such as Entra ID/IAM, virtual machines, storage, networking and cloud services, including excessive privileges and cloud configuration weaknesses. Click to know more…

GCP Security Assessment

Assessment of Google Cloud environments covering areas such as GCP projects, IAM, storage, compute, networking and cloud services. Click to know more…

Why Cloud Security Assessment Matters

Cloud security weaknesses can have consequences beyond an individual configuration.
A compromised cloud environment may potentially lead to:
Unauthorized Resource Access
Attackers gaining access to cloud resources or administrative functionality.
Sensitive Data Exposure
Improperly protected storage or databases exposing business or customer information.
Privilege Escalation
Excessive permissions creating opportunities to move from a lower-privileged identity toward higher-value resources.
Workload Compromise
Security weaknesses affecting applications, compute resources or cloud-native workloads.
Expanded Attack Surface
Publicly exposed resources or unnecessary services increasing opportunities for attack.
Business Disruption
Compromise of critical cloud-hosted services affecting business operations.
Our objective is to provide visibility into these security risks and help organizations prioritize appropriate security improvements.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Cloud environments contain identities, applications, workloads, data and infrastructure that are interconnected through cloud-native security controls. A Cloud Security Assessment helps identify weaknesses across these layers and provides a structured view of the organization’s cloud security posture.
Yes. Cloud Security Assessment can be structured for environments using one or multiple cloud platforms, with platform-specific assessment activities included where applicable.
Yes. Identity and access management is a core assessment area, including relevant roles, privileges, privileged identities, service accounts and access controls.
Yes. Internet-facing and publicly accessible cloud resources can be included where they fall within the authorized assessment scope.
The broader Cloud Security Assessment can be scoped around the relevant cloud platforms. CF also maintains platform-specific security assessment offerings for AWS, Azure and GCP when deeper platform-focused testing is required.
Assessment activities are defined according to the agreed scope and rules of engagement. Where production environments are involved, testing conditions and permitted validation activities are established before assessment begins.
You receive a structured security report containing identified findings, technical evidence, potential impact and remediation recommendations. The results can then be used to prioritize cloud security improvements.
Strengthen Your Cloud Security Before Misconfigurations Become Business Risks
Your cloud environment supports applications, workloads, identities and critical business information.
Consultants Factory helps organizations understand and strengthen their cloud security posture through structured assessment of architecture, identity, network controls, workloads and configurations.
Understand Your Cloud. Identify the Gaps. Strengthen Your Security.
Contact Consultants Factory to discuss your Cloud Security Assessment requirements and define the right scope for your cloud environment.

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