AWS Startup Security Baseline, implemented in your account.
AWS publishes the Startup Security Baseline as foundational guidance for early-stage teams. CirOps assesses the account and workload controls, implements the agreed scope, tests the configuration, and documents the result for your team.
2 categories
Account + workload
AWS guidance
Foundational controls
Prioritized
Implementation plan
The challenge
Build the AWS security baseline before due diligence
Funding diligence, regulated contracts, and enterprise procurement can require evidence of encryption, access controls, threat detection, and audit trails. The baseline puts those controls and records in place before the review begins.
The AWS Startup Security Baseline is AWS guidance for securing early-stage accounts and workloads without unnecessary operating overhead. It is foundational rather than exhaustive. CirOps implements the applicable controls and documents the configuration; your auditor or compliance advisor determines how that evidence maps to a formal program.
Control categories
Account controls and workload controls
AWS organizes the baseline into two categories. We assess both, prioritize the controls applicable to your environment, and scope additional security services only where they are needed.
Account controls
Secure the AWS account and its access paths.
Foundational controls for identities, account contacts, policies, permissions, logging, and monitoring for unauthorized or potentially malicious activity.
What it covers
- Root-user protection and multi-factor authentication
- IAM access review and least-privilege policies
- Security, billing, and operations contact configuration
- CloudTrail and account-activity visibility
- Alert routing for account and identity events
Who starts here
Early-stage and growing AWS teams that need a maintainable account baseline.
Workload controls
Reduce risk around applications, data, and resources.
Foundational controls for workload access, encryption, secrets, network exposure, backups, and the data boundaries appropriate to the application.
What it covers
- Workload roles and permissions scoped to required actions
- Encryption at rest and in transit for in-scope data
- Secrets handling and rotation requirements
- Security-group and public-exposure review
- Backup, recovery, and workload logging configuration
Who starts here
Teams running product workloads that need a documented security foundation.
Source guidance
AWS guidance, implemented for your environment
The AWS Startup Security Baseline is published and maintained by AWS. It organizes foundational guidance into account controls and workload controls, and notes that later-stage environments may require additional controls beyond this baseline.
CirOps is an AWS Advanced Tier Partner. Partner status is separate from the guidance itself. CirOps scopes, configures, verifies, and documents the controls approved for the environment.
What you receive
Implemented, tested, documented, and handed over
When CirOps completes a Startup Security Baseline engagement, you receive:
Working controls
IAM policies, GuardDuty configuration, Security Hub, KMS keys, and network rules are configured and verified in your AWS account.
Test evidence
Documented verification for the controls implemented in scope, including the observed result and any follow-up actions.
Architecture documentation
A written record of every control, every configuration decision, and the reasoning behind it. Your team understands what was built and why.
Runbooks
Operational runbooks for maintaining the controls: how to review access, rotate secrets, respond to GuardDuty findings, and audit Security Hub scores on a schedule.
Handover session
A live walkthrough with your engineering team so they own what we built.
Is this right for you?
The signals that tell us this is the right engagement
You are likely in the right place if:
- You are preparing for security due diligence and need a documented AWS baseline
- You are in health-tech or fintech and a partner or customer has asked for evidence of controls
- You are preparing for SOC 2 Type I or II, ISO 27001, or HIPAA alignment and want to close gaps before the auditor arrives
- Your architecture review (from CirOps or elsewhere) identified security gaps with no clear remediation roadmap
- You are on AWS and your current security posture is "we'll get to it," and that moment has arrived
This engagement is not the right fit if:
- Your primary workloads do not run on AWS (the SSB is AWS-native)
- You need a non-AWS or multi-cloud security engagement (use our Cloud Security service)
How it works
From gap to baseline in four steps
Architecture Review
We start with a no-cost review of the current AWS account and workloads: what is running, what is exposed, and which foundational controls need attention.
Control Prioritization
We prioritize account and workload controls based on the current architecture, risk, operating capacity, and requirements defined by your compliance or audit team. Additional services are scoped only where the baseline is not sufficient.
Implementation
CirOps engineers configure and deploy the controls directly on your AWS account. Every change is reviewed, tested, and version-controlled. We work alongside your team, not around them.
Documentation + Handover
Every control is documented with configuration details and evidence artifacts. We hand over runbooks, walk your team through the account, and leave you with a posture you understand and can maintain.
Our approach
AI-assisted, engineer-verified
CirOps engineers work with AI tooling as a standard part of every engagement, not as a future capability, but as current practice. On Startup Security Baseline engagements, that means:
AI-assisted policy generation
IAM policies, Service Control Policies, and security group rules drafted with AI tooling, reviewed and validated by engineers before any change touches your account.
Automated control verification
Scripts and engineer review verify each implemented control against the agreed AWS SSB guidance and record the observed result.
Auto-generated runbooks
Operational documentation produced with AI-assisted tooling and reviewed for accuracy, so your team receives clear, actionable guidance - not generic templates.
Frequently asked questions
Related services
You might also need.
Cloud Security
Multi-cloud security engineering and additional controls beyond the AWS baseline.
Cloud Compliance Readiness
Broader ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, DPDP, or customer-control readiness beyond the AWS baseline.
Landing Zone Accelerator
The multi-account AWS foundation your security baseline runs on.
Architecture Review
Understand your current security posture before we build the baseline.
Start with a clear picture of where you stand.
The architecture review is free, no-commitment, and the right first step - whether or not you proceed with a Startup Security Baseline engagement. If security gaps exist, you will know exactly what they are and what it would take to close them.