A government agency needed to demonstrate control effectiveness across cloud workloads supporting citizen-facing applications.
Problem
Policy documents existed but configuration drift was common. Privileged accounts lacked consistent review. Evidence for oversight was assembled manually each quarter.
Approach
We mapped controls to automated checks, ran remediation sprints sized to change windows, and embedded evidence capture in normal change records.
Result
Critical findings closed within two cycles. Oversight review preparation time reduced significantly. Operations team reported clearer ownership for control maintenance.
Public sector programs must close control drift continuously — point-in-time audits are insufficient when configuration changes daily.
“Evidence for change records is now automatic — auditors stopped asking for screenshots we could not reproduce.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What controls were automated?
Policy-as-code for storage encryption, public access denial, logging enablement, and IAM privilege boundaries.
How were exceptions handled?
Time-bound exceptions with risk acceptance recorded in the change system — not informal email approvals.
Does this align with ISM?
Control mappings were documented against ISM objectives relevant to the agency classification.
What reporting do executives receive?
Monthly posture trend, open critical findings, and mean time to remediate by owning team.