The Problem
The cloud makes organisations faster — and exposes them to entirely new categories of risk. S3 buckets left public. IAM roles with wildcard permissions. Security groups open to 0.0.0.0/0. Secrets hardcoded in Lambda functions. These are not theoretical risks — they are findings from our last 100 cloud assessments. And unlike on-premises vulnerabilities, cloud misconfigurations can be exploited within minutes of appearing, from anywhere in the world.
Our Approach
Cloud Architecture Review
We assess your cloud architecture against CIS Benchmarks, AWS/Azure/GCP Well-Architected Framework security pillars, and our own Nordic threat model. Full account-level review across all regions and services.
CSPM Assessment & Misconfiguration Audit
Automated CSPM scanning combined with expert manual review identifies all misconfigurations — network, identity, storage, compute, database, serverless, and container workloads.
IAM Privilege Audit & Hardening
We audit all IAM users, roles, policies, and service accounts. Least privilege enforcement, unused credential removal, MFA enforcement, and privilege escalation path analysis.
Zero-Trust Architecture Design
Design and implementation of zero-trust controls — network segmentation, identity-centric access, just-in-time privilege, and continuous verification — replacing implicit trust with explicit authorisation.
Continuous Posture Monitoring
We deploy and manage CSPM tooling to detect drift in real time. New misconfigurations alerted within minutes. Monthly posture reports and quarterly architecture reviews.
What You Receive
Cloud Security Assessment Report
Full findings report with CSPM results, manual findings, risk ratings, and prioritised remediation roadmap.
IAM Audit Report
Complete inventory of all identities, permissions, and privilege escalation paths with hardening recommendations.
Zero-Trust Architecture Design
Documented target architecture with implementation roadmap, tooling recommendations, and effort estimates.
Continuous CSPM Monitoring
Managed CSPM platform with real-time alerting, drift detection, and monthly posture scoring.
Hardening Runbook
Step-by-step hardening playbook for your specific cloud environment — actionable by your engineering team.
Compliance Mapping
Control mapping to SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIS2, and DORA requirements for all cloud security controls implemented.
Security Maturity Model
Cloud security maturity progresses from reactive misconfiguration discovery to proactive, automated governance with zero-trust controls embedded in your development lifecycle.
Where you are
Cloud deployed without formal security review. Shared root credentials. No MFA enforcement. Security groups overly permissive. Logging disabled or not monitored. No visibility into cloud resource inventory.
Where you are
Basic CSPM tool deployed. MFA enforced for human users. Some IAM cleanup done. Logging enabled in primary regions. Security reviews conducted on-request but not systematically.
Where you are
Formal cloud security policy. CSPM integrated into CI/CD pipeline — misconfigurations fail builds. IAM least privilege enforced. Centralised logging and monitoring. Cloud security architect role established.
Where you are
Continuous posture monitoring with drift detection. Cloud security KPIs reported to board. Zero-trust network controls implemented. JIT privilege access for production environments. Monthly red team exercises against cloud.
Where you are
Cloud security automated end-to-end. Policy-as-code enforced across all accounts. Cloud security posture feeds risk scoring. Automated remediation for 80%+ of findings. Cloud security contributes to competitive differentiation.
ACE MATES assessment → Not sure where you sit? Our free 90-minute threat briefing includes a maturity assessment across all security domains.
How We've Helped
Following cloud migration, the client had no visibility into their cloud security posture across 15 accounts. An external penetration test had found two critical misconfigurations but they had no way to know how many more existed.
ACE MATES deployed CSPM across all 15 accounts in 2 days and conducted a full manual assessment over 8 days. We found 847 findings — 12 critical including 3 publicly exposed S3 buckets containing customer data, 6 accounts with no CloudTrail logging, and IAM roles with AdministratorAccess attached to Lambda functions. Critical findings remediated in 48 hours. Full posture hardening completed in 6 weeks.
Transparent Pricing
We publish indicative pricing because you deserve to know the ballpark before a single call.
- CSPM assessment (up to 5 accounts)
- Manual misconfiguration review
- IAM audit & privilege mapping
- Findings report with CVSS scores
- Remediation roadmap
- Executive summary
- Retest of critical findings
- Everything in Assessment
- Full IAM remediation
- Zero-trust architecture design
- Network segmentation implementation
- CSPM platform deployment
- CI/CD security gates
- Hardening runbook
- Engineering team training
- Continuous CSPM monitoring
- 24/7 misconfiguration alerting
- Monthly posture report
- Quarterly architecture review
- New account onboarding
- Incident response support
- Compliance mapping updates
Why ACE MATES
All Three Major Clouds
We hold AWS Security Specialty, Azure AZ-500, and Google Cloud Security Professional certifications. No hand-waving about 'cloud security in general' — we know the specific APIs, services, and failure modes of each platform.
Nordic Data Residency
We ensure your cloud security controls support GDPR data residency requirements. All CSPM data processed within EU. We flag region-specific compliance risks during assessments.
Engineering Team Integration
We don't deliver a report and leave. We work alongside your engineering team to implement fixes, train developers on secure cloud practices, and integrate security gates into your CI/CD pipeline.
Managed CSPM at Fraction of Cost
Enterprise CSPM platforms cost €50,000–€200,000/year unmanaged. Our managed service delivers the same capability — fully operated — for a fraction of that, with no internal expertise required.