Strengthening Resilience of AWS Infrastructure for a Leading Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC)
In the fast-paced world of finance, innovation, and security go hand in hand. A prominent Indian NBFC providing loans, leasing, and insurance solutions, engages in consumer finance and commercial lending through innovative financial solutions. As part of a major Indian conglomerate, it stands as one of the fastest-growing NBFCs in the country, disbursing a loan every 30 seconds. The company maintains robust relationships with over 2000 high-growth companies in the corporate lending segment.
Being one of India’s fastest-growing financial services companies, the challenge for them was clear: expand operations while ensuring the highest level of security across a sprawling AWS infrastructure. As they scaled, so did the complexity of their digital environment.
The Security Challenge: Managing a Complex AWS Environment
As the client’s operations expanded, securing their AWS infrastructure became a top priority. The organization needed to streamline its complex, multi-account AWS environment. With distributed environments and a decentralized authentication mechanism, there was a strong need for centralized visibility and control over user access. The client needed a comprehensive security strategy that adhered to AWS security best practices, particularly in identity and access management (IAM). Additionally, the client required a centralized system for monitoring and controlling both inbound and outbound traffic to protect against unauthorized access and potential security threats.
Another critical aspect of the challenge was ensuring continuous monitoring and management of the secured infrastructure. The client needed a robust solution that could not only secure their AWS environment but also provide ongoing management to maintain their security posture. This included the ability to detect and respond to configuration changes, enforce security policies, and continuously assess and remediate potential threats to the infrastructure.
Empowering with Managed Security Services: Centralized Management and Continuous Monitoring
Noventiq, a trusted Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) with a track record of securing complex cloud environments, came into the picture. With a history of serving financial institutions, Noventiq has developed a robust suite of AWS-based solutions designed to enhance scalability, security, and availability for the financial services industry. Recognizing the diverse nature of this client’s challenges, we devised a solution that went beyond traditional security measures.
The solution began with the deployment of AWS Landing Zone, AWS Control Tower, and AWS IAM Identity Center to centralize the control of identity and access management across all AWS accounts. This centralization has allowed the client to streamline access management, ensuring that users can securely and efficiently access resources while adhering to the organization’s security standards. The introduction of a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution, integrated with the client’s on-premises Active Directory, has provided role-based access controls, ensuring that only authorized personnel can interact with sensitive AWS resources.
But we didn’t stop there. Understanding that true security is proactive, we have implemented advanced traffic inspection and control mechanisms. This includes the deployment of third-party Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), Web Application Firewalls (WAF), and URL filtering solutions to monitor and manage all inbound and outbound traffic. These tools provide an additional layer of protection, safeguarding the client’s applications and data from potential threats.
By utilizing AWS Config Rules and a security posture assessment tool, we have enabled the client to detect and remediate configuration gaps in real-time. Preventive and detective guardrails have been established to monitor configuration changes, ensuring the infrastructure remains compliant with security policies and protected against unauthorized modifications.
AWS and Third-Party Tools/Services Used
- Identity & Access Management: AWS IAM, AWS Single Sign-On, AWS Access Analyzer
- Monitoring & Compliance: AWS CloudTrail, AWS Config, AWS CloudWatch Events
- Security Enhancements: AWS Key Management Service, AWS Secrets Manager, Third-party IPS, WAF, next-generation firewall, and URL Filtering solutions.
The Impact
Implementing this solution and managed security services have significantly strengthened the client’s AWS infrastructure. The benefits are as follows:
- Centralized Identity and Access Management: Enhanced security and simplified the management of user access across multiple AWS accounts.
- Secure Access with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Improved security by adding MFA for accessing AWS resources, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
- Centralized Authentication and Authorization: Provided through PAM, ensuring secure access to instances and applications.
- Role-Based Permissions: Allowing different stakeholders to access AWS services according to their specific roles, helps maintain security while enabling productivity.
- Standardization of New Account Provisioning: Streamlined the creation of new AWS accounts with pre-approved configurations, ensuring consistency and compliance with security standards.
- Disallow Usage of Disabled AWS Regions: Enhanced control over the AWS environment by preventing the use of regions that have been disabled for security reasons.
- Centralized Management of Encryption Keys: Ensuring that all encryption keys are managed centrally, providing a unified and secure method for protecting sensitive data.
- Centralized Billing Management: Consolidated their billing data for cost optimization and ease of tracking.
- Centralized Threat Inspection and Traffic Control: Providing unified security monitoring and management for enhanced protection of the AWS environment.
- Secure Infrastructure with Regular Patching: Protecting systems with up-to-date software for vulnerability mitigation.
- Centralized Governance for Infrastructure and Security Services: Ensuring consistent policies and controls across the complete AWS environment.
Conclusion
Through its role as a Managed Security Service Provider, Noventiq has not only secured the client’s AWS infrastructure but has also provided the ongoing management and monitoring necessary to maintain that security over time. This case study highlights the critical importance of Managed Security Services in safeguarding cloud environments, particularly for financial institutions that operate in complex, multi-account setups. By focusing on centralized control, continuous monitoring, and proactive threat management, we are ensuring that the client’s infrastructure remains well-managed and resilient against future challenges.
