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Tech Checklist

Identity & Access Management

  • Use IAM roles and policies — restrict permissions based on least privilege. COST
  • Use SSO (e.g., Okta, Google Workspace) if possible.
  • Enable MFA for all critical accounts.
  • Enforce password policies (rotation, complexity, reuse prevention)
  • Disable root account access; enable root MFA and monitor its use
  • Remove unused IAM users and access keys regularly
  • Audit IAM role trust policies (avoid overly broad assumptions)
  • Periodically review permissions and apply Access Analyzer or IAM Access Advisor

Infrastructure Security

  • Network segmentation — use VPCs, private subnets, and security groups.
  • Configure firewall rules to limit access to your infrastructure.
  • Private DB access (If possible cut the DB Public IP, ie. move to private subnet) COST
  • Enable encryption (in-transit and at-rest) for all data. COST
    • S3, RDS, DynamoDB, EBS, etc. — enable AWS-managed or customer-managed keys (KMS).
  • Enforce security group least access (e.g., restrict by CIDR blocks)
  • Use WAF (Web Application Firewall) for public apps
  • Use Shield Standard (free) or Shield Advanced for DDoS protection COST
  • Configure NACLs where appropriate.
  • Use private subnets for critical systems (SOC 2 prefers it)
  • Scan AMIs for vulnerabilities before use (Amazon Inspector, Trivy, etc.)

Code & Application Security

  • Static code analysis tools (e.g., SonarQube, GitHub Advanced Security, CodeQL)
  • Use dependency scanning (Snyk, Dependabot, Trivy, or OWASP Dependency-Check)
  • Protect secrets in code (use from secrets manager→ jenkins credentials in your case) DONE
  • Linting and security checks in CI/CD pipelines
  • Secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) documentation
  • Code review enforcement and approval workflows DONE

Logging & Monitoring

  • Set up AWS CloudTrail,CloudTrail, CloudWatch,CloudWatch, and Config to log changes, access, and events. COST
  • Use a SIEM/log aggregator (e.g., Datadog, Splunk, or ELK, Signoz)Signoz). DONE
  • Set alerts for suspicious activity (e.g., unauthorized access attempts). (Threat Detection Mechanism using CloudTrail,CloudTrail, CloudWatch,CloudWatch, SNS and GuradDuty optionally)optionally) COST
  • Enable GuardDuty for threat detection (you mentioned this under audit trails — good!) COST
  • Periodic reviews of logs and alerts with documented actions
  • Store logs in S3 with bucket versioning and retention policies
  • Set up log integrity controls (prevent tampering/deletion)

Change Management

  • Use version control (e.g., Git) and CI/CD pipelines.pipelines. DONE
  • Track deployments and ensure changes go through review and approval processes (Branch Protections and Apporvals before merging by dev team). DONE
  • Deployment changes are logged (CloudTrail, CI/CD logs)
  • Emergency changes are documented and approved after the fact
  • Keep an audit trail of who approved what and when

Backups and Disaster Recovery

  • Implement automated backups (e.g., RDS snapshots). DONE
  • Test and document the restore procedures for databases.
  • Define a disaster recovery plan and recovery time objectives (RTOs).
  • Multi AZ / Cluster setups for DB for high availability COST
  • Define and test RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective)
  • Test DR plan at least annually and record results
  • Backups should be encrypted and access-controlled
  • Store critical backups in cross-region S3 or Glacier (optional but useful)

Vulnerability Management

  • Run regular vulnerability scans (e.g., with AWS Inspector). COST
  • Track vulnerability remediation timelines
  • Maintain an asset inventory of systems scanned
  • Perform penetration testing (annually or after major changes)
  • Document all findings and remediation steps

Secrets Management:

  • Move all secrets/env variables into AWS Secrets Manager(cost), SSM Parameter Store(standard params are free)
  • Implement access controls for secret managers
  • Rotate secrets periodically using automation (Lambda or AWS Secret Manager rotation)
  • Production Database Security:
    • Enable encryption at rest and in transit COST
    • Audit RDS - Postgres Monitoring
    • Rotate DB credentials periodically.
  • Audit Trails:
    • Enable CloudTrail, centralized loging of API calls. COST
    • GuardDuty, Config rules (baseline security posture). COST
  • Jenkins Hardening:
    • RBAC
    • Secrets injection credentials plugins, not plain text. DONE
    • Backup Jenkins regularly. DONE
    • Jenkins Recovery Plan DONE
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