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AWS Case Study
FinTech
AWS IAM
SOC 2 / PCI-DSS
MufinPay:
Eliminating Standing
Privileged Access
A regulated FinTech provider builds a zero-standing-privilege identity foundation โ fully auditable, SOC 2 and PCI-DSS compliant, with every privileged action traceable to a named individual.
0
Standing Privileged Accounts
100%
Actions Attributable
0
SSH Keys in Environment
MufinPay Identity & Access Dashboard
Standing Privileges
Zero
โ Fully Eliminated
Action Attribution
100%
โ via CloudTrail
SSH Keys
Eliminated
โ SSM Session Mgr
Compliance Readiness
SOC 2 โ
โ PCI-DSS โ
JIT
Privileged Access
โ Enforced
MFA
All Identities
โ Required
QTR
Access Review
โ Recertified
01
AWS Identity & Access Management Delivery
Eliminating Standing Privileged Access for Regulated Payment Workloads
About MufinPay
MufinPay is a high-growth financial technology provider specialising in digital payment processing and lending solutions. The business operates in a regulated financial services environment under SOC 2 and PCI-DSS obligations, and requires provable, auditable control over who can access consumer financial data.
The Challenge
Critical identity and access vulnerabilities in a regulated payments environment
Standing Privileged Access
Engineers held permanent administrative access to production, with privilege persisting long after the work requiring it had completed โ creating a continuous, unchecked attack surface.
Long-Lived Credentials
Server access depended on long-lived SSH keys that could not be time-bound or reliably attributed to a named individual, making revocation and investigation impossible.
Compliance Attribution Gap
Access decisions could not be demonstrably mapped to SOC 2 and PCI-DSS access-control requirements, creating critical audit exposure for the business.
Solutions Provided
A layered identity architecture delivering zero-standing-privilege at enterprise scale
Centralised Workforce Identity
Implemented AWS IAM Identity Center federated with the corporate identity provider via SAML 2.0 and SCIM, with MFA enforced and permission sets assigned centrally across all accounts.
Just-in-Time Privileged Access
Built a request, approval, time-bound grant, and automatic revocation workflow using AWS Step Functions, Lambda, and EventBridge Scheduler โ with the full lifecycle recorded in DynamoDB.
Least-Privilege Governance
Authored IAM roles constrained by permission boundaries mapped to specific compliance control objectives, deployed as version-controlled Terraform through a reviewed pipeline.
Keyless Server Access
Adopted AWS Systems Manager Session Manager for all administrative sessions, removing SSH keys and open inbound management ports from the entire environment.
Detection & Audit
Enabled Amazon GuardDuty for anomalous identity behaviour, AWS CloudTrail for full API attribution, and IAM Access Analyzer for recurring least-privilege reduction reviews.
Result Outcome
Zero standing privilege, full attribution, and audit-ready compliance โ delivered
Zero Standing Privilege
Privileged access to production now exists only within an approved, time-bound window and is revoked automatically at expiry โ with no exceptions.
Full Attribution
Every privileged action is traceable to a named identity through CloudTrail and Session Manager session logs โ satisfying investigation and audit requirements completely.
Audit Readiness
Access controls are demonstrably mapped to SOC 2 and PCI-DSS control objectives, with evidence available on demand for any auditor or regulator.
Sustained Governance
Quarterly access recertification with named reviewers was adopted as a business-as-usual process โ turning compliance from a one-time project into an ongoing discipline.
Zero
Standing Privileged Accounts
Privilege issued on approval only, revoked automatically at expiry
100%
Privileged Actions Attributable
Every action traceable to a named identity via CloudTrail
Zero
Long-Lived SSH Credentials
Eliminated from the entire production environment
Success Metrics
Measurable governance improvements across the identity stack
Standing Privileged Accounts
Many
โ
Zero
All permanent admin access eliminated โ JIT only
Privileged Action Attribution
0%
โ
100%
Every action linked to a named identity via CloudTrail
SSH Keys in Environment
Active
โ
Eliminated
Keyless access via SSM Session Manager โ no open ports
Quarterly Access Recertification
โ
Established
Recurring governance routine with named reviewers โ BAU
Before
Engineers held permanent administrative access to production, persisting long after work was completed
Server access depended on long-lived SSH keys โ impossible to time-bound or attribute to an individual
Privileged actions could not be reliably traced to a named person, limiting audit and investigation
Access decisions were not demonstrably mapped to SOC 2 or PCI-DSS control objectives
No recurring review existed to confirm that granted access was still warranted
After
Zero standing privileged access โ privilege issued on approval only, revoked automatically at expiry
AWS Systems Manager Session Manager provides keyless server access with no open inbound management ports
Every privileged action is attributable to a named identity through CloudTrail and session logging
IAM permission boundaries encode compliance control objectives and are deployed as reviewed infrastructure code
Quarterly access recertification operates as a business-as-usual governance routine
“
The engagement delivered an identity foundation in which privilege is granted only when approved, only for as long as required, and is fully auditable โ meeting the access-control expectations of a regulated payments environment and satisfying both SOC 2 and PCI-DSS obligations.
Technology Stack
AWS Services Deployed
AWS IAM Identity Center
Centralised Workforce Identity
AWS Step Functions
JIT Access Workflow
AWS Lambda
Access Automation
Amazon EventBridge
Scheduled Revocation
Amazon DynamoDB
Access Lifecycle Records
SSM Session Manager
Keyless Server Access
Amazon GuardDuty
Anomalous Identity Detection
AWS CloudTrail
Full API Attribution
IAM Access Analyzer
Least-Privilege Reduction
Terraform
Infrastructure as Code
AWS IAM
Least-Privilege Roles
SAML 2.0 / SCIM
Identity Federation
Accepting New Enterprise Clients
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