IAM for Small Teams: Secure-by-Default Access Patterns

IAM is your real security perimeter

In AWS, IAM is effectively the “keys to the kingdom.” A few foundational patterns will prevent most high-impact incidents.

Five IAM foundations

• MFA enforced for every human identity.
• No long-lived access keys for humans (use roles/SSO).
• Least privilege roles with clear naming and purpose.
• Permission boundaries to prevent privilege creep.
• Break-glass accounts tightly controlled and monitored.

Role design (simple and scalable)

• One role per job function, not per person.
• Separate deploy roles from admin roles.
• Use session duration and source constraints where appropriate.

Operational hygiene

• Quarterly access reviews (export roles/users and validate).
• Alert on policy changes and root usage.
• Track exceptions with owners and expiry dates.

Next steps

We can review your IAM posture, define a least-privilege role model, and implement guardrails that scale as you grow.