Monitoring in AWS doesn’t have to be expensive. In this guide, we’ll walk through real-world strategies to detect and respond to security events in AWS without blowing your budget — using a mix of native tooling, automation, and open-source solutions. Table of Contents Introduction Why AWS Monitoring Costs Spiral Key Principles for Cost-Effective Monitoring Low-Cost Native AWS Tools for Security Monitoring Open-Source Solutions That Complement AWS Example Architectures & Pricing Automation Snippets for Cost-Efficient Alerts Common Pitfalls to Avoid Conclusion Introduction When people talk about security monitoring in AWS, the conversation quickly jumps to expensive SIEM tools or overengineered pipelines. But if you’re running lean, or just want better control over where your money is going, you can achieve excellent security visibility with surprisingly low cost. ...

Temporary credentials are one of the most powerful — and misunderstood — access mechanisms in AWS. They’re essential for enabling short-lived, tightly scoped access without the long-term baggage of static IAM user credentials. But with this flexibility comes a new surface for mistakes, misuse, and oversights. In this post, I’ll walk through the core use cases for temporary credentials, how they work, where they go wrong, and the best ways to keep them secure in your environment. ...

A downloadable AWS incident response playbook for small teams, including isolation workflows, evidence handling, and post-incident reporting guidance.

Learn how to run an effective incident response process in AWS using automation and forensic best practices — without needing a separate IR account.

My real-world journey passing the AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C02) exam. Study strategies, mistakes, resources, and tips for future candidates.

Use IAM Access Analyzer to build least-privilege IAM roles in AWS — includes policy generation from CloudTrail, Terraform integration, and AWS best practices.

Detect and alert on AWS root account usage using CloudTrail, EventBridge, SNS, and optional Slack notifications. Step-by-step setup and Terraform included.

A step-by-step checklist to secure your AWS account in 2025 — includes IAM hardening, S3 lockdown, logging, and budget alerts. Beginner to intermediate friendly.

Stop using IAM users in AWS. This guide explains why they’re risky and how to migrate to Identity Center, STS, and OIDC-based access — step-by-step.

Five AWS misconfigurations still causing breaches in 2025 — includes fixes for public S3 buckets, over-permissive IAM, open security groups, and missing monitoring.