Cloud Account Compromise Hunting
Hunt for stolen sessions, privilege escalation, persistence, and suspicious resource access in cloud environments.
On this page · 4 sections
Operating context
Cloud account hunts connect identity, API, configuration, network, workload, and data-access events while respecting provider and tenant boundaries.
- Define the security decision that cloud account compromise hunting must support.
- Assign accountable owners, escalation paths, service levels, and privacy boundaries.
- Measure signal quality, response consistency, operational cost, and improvement over time.
Operational workflow
- 01
Establish scope, dependencies, normal behavior, and a documented baseline.
- 02
Collect the minimum telemetry and context needed for cloud account compromise hunting.
- 03
Correlate independent signals and state confidence before taking disruptive action.
- 04
Document the decision, evidence, containment or control action, and responsible owner.
- 05
Review the outcome, tune the process, and validate the improvement with a safe test.
Signals, evidence & decisions
| Signal or artifact | Decision it supports |
|---|---|
| sign-in, token, and API activity | Establish event sequence and affected scope. |
| role, policy, key, and application changes | Confirm identity, asset, or control context. |
| resource creation and data-access history | Support containment, recovery, or tuning. |
Record source, timestamp, collection method, confidence, owner, and disposition. Preserve the smallest useful evidence set and document any uncertainty.
Implementation & improvement
- Baseline automation and deployment identities.
- Look for control-plane changes before payload activity.
- Preserve provider event identifiers and region context.