Cloud Architecture, Security & Strategic Technical Advisory
We partner with technology leaders, high-growth startups, portcos, and institutional investors to eliminate cloud misconfigurations, reduce IAM blast radius, harden application codebases, and guide technical security strategy with code-level precision.
Cloud Security Architecture & Infrastructure Hardening
High-growth SaaS platforms, portcos, and engineering leaders seeking to eliminate cloud misconfigurations, reduce IAM blast radius, and enforce CIS/SOC 2 compliance baselines.
Cloud Threat Model, IAM & Infrastructure Hardening Matrix, CIS Compliance Audit & Actionable Terraform Remediation Backlog.
An intensive, code-level diagnostic conducted directly against cloud control planes (AWS, GCP, Azure), IAM role policies, containerized environments, and Infrastructure-as-Code repositories. Designed to uncover privilege escalation paths, public egress exposures, and compliance drift before security incidents or enterprise audit blockers occur.
IN-DEPTH INSPECTION WORKSTREAMS
1. IAM Blast Radius & Least-Privilege Enforcement
Analyzing wildcard permissions, cross-account trust boundaries, stale access keys, unconstrained service accounts, and privilege escalation routes across cloud IAM roles.
2. Multi-Account Architecture & Network Segregation
Auditing VPC ingress/egress boundaries, transit gateways, security groups, public S3/storage buckets, and container cluster (EKS/GKE) network isolation.
3. Secure Cloud Baselines & CIS Foundations Benchmarks
Benchmarking cloud configurations against Center for Internet Security (CIS) Foundations baselines, KMS envelope encryption enforcement, and centralized tamper-evident audit logging.
4. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Drift Analysis
Reviewing Terraform, OpenTofu, and CloudFormation templates for unpinned modules, secret leaks in state files, and undocumented configuration drift between code and production runtimes.
5. Prioritized Engineering Backlog with Terraform Diffs
Every finding includes production-ready Terraform/HCL definitions, IAM policy JSON diffs, and CLI execution steps prioritized by risk severity and remediation effort—enabling immediate internal engineering execution.
Application Security & Cloud Hardening
High-growth startups scaling to enterprise customers, companies preparing for SOC 2 / ISO 27001, and portcos needing unvarnished security verification.
Threat Model, Security Findings Matrix, CIS Benchmark Audit & Procurement Readiness Roadmap.
A deep technical audit of application source code, identity boundaries, and cloud configurations. Designed to surface exploitable vulnerabilities, enforce least-privilege IAM, lock down multi-tenant data isolation, and remove enterprise security blockers.
IN-DEPTH INSPECTION WORKSTREAMS
1. Vulnerability Assessments & Repository Audit
Inspecting application repositories for structural software vulnerabilities, unauthenticated endpoints, injection vectors, hardcoded secrets, and outdated third-party dependencies with active CVE exposures.
2. Secure Cloud Baselines & CIS Benchmarks
Auditing AWS/GCP cloud environments against Center for Internet Security (CIS) foundations benchmarks: VPC ingress/egress boundaries, encrypted storage verification, logging retention, and perimeter defense validation.
3. OWASP Top 10 Application Hardening
Mitigating broken access control, authentication bypasses, SSRF liabilities, and multi-tenant data leakage through database-enforced Row-Level Security (RLS) policies and cryptographically validated session handlers.
4. IAM & Infrastructure Hardening
Eliminating overprivileged IAM roles, wildcard policies, unconstrained service accounts, and cross-account privilege escalation paths. Enforcing zero-trust network boundaries across containerized clusters.
5. Enterprise Procurement & Compliance Enablement
Unblocking enterprise enterprise sales cycles by preparing clear architectural defense documentation, addressing SOC 2 Type II carve-outs, ISO 27001 readiness, and third-party penetration test findings.
Strategic Technical Advisory
Engineering executives, high-growth startup founders, and portfolio company operators requiring seasoned principal architect guidance without full-time C-suite overhead.
Direct Principal Access, Architecture RFC Reviews, Security Governance & Investor/Board Counsel.
An ongoing partnership providing technology leaders and fund operating partners with on-demand principal architect counsel. From vetting critical database refactors to joining technical vendor reviews and evaluating acquisition targets, Dr. Adams provides trusted, code-level guidance.
RETAINER SCOPE & WORKSTREAMS
Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) & RFC Reviews
Evaluating major engineering proposals before implementation: vetting database migrations, microservice boundaries, caching topologies, and cloud infrastructure refactors to prevent costly technical debt.
Security Governance & Executive Counsel
Advising engineering leadership on strategic security roadmaps, participating in key executive technical interviews, guiding incident response, and unblocking complex enterprise vendor risk reviews.
Technical Due Diligence & Portfolio Technical Screening
Assisting institutional investors and portfolio company executives with rapid technical screening of potential technology acquisitions, vendor evaluations, and technical diligence assessments.
Deliverable Anatomy: The Actionable Technical Brief
Technology executives and investors do not need 60 pages of automated scanner noise. CyberBear delivers a concise, highly structured technical findings brief complete with root causes, architectural risk ratings, and prioritized code remediations.
Executive Technical Scorecard (Red / Amber / Green)
A high-conviction assessment evaluating the platform across 6 critical operational and architectural pillars, providing engineering leadership and investors with immediate clarity.
| Evaluation Pillar | Rating | Technical Observation | Engineering / Business Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud & IAM Security | RED | Wildcard IAM policies on production workloads; cross-account privilege escalation pathways active. | Critical attack surface exposure; failed SOC 2 audit finding. |
| Multi-Tenant Isolation | AMBER | Tenant separation relies solely on application filters; lacks cryptographically enforced session tokens. | Data leakage risk under connection reuse; enterprise procurement barrier. |
| Application Security (AppSec) | AMBER | Unauthenticated API endpoints exposed; third-party dependencies contain high-severity CVEs. | Exploitation risk; remediation roadmap provided. |
| Infrastructure Cost | GREEN | Autoscaling and instance reservations optimized; minimal egress overhead. | Sustainable margins under scale. |
| Procurement Readiness | GREEN | Unqualified SOC 2 Type II report; ISO 27001 policies verified. | Enterprise vendor review process validated. |
| Codebase Health & IP | GREEN | Clean modular architecture; zero viral copyleft (GPL/AGPL) contamination. | Clean intellectual property ownership. |
Bottleneck & Architectural Vulnerability Analysis
Detailed technical dissections of each identified issue: IAM role trust relationships, overprivileged service account credentials, VPC ingress exposures, and unpatched container images pinpointing the exact infrastructure definitions responsible.
Production-Ready Remediations & Diffs
Exact Terraform/HCL definitions, IAM policy JSON configurations, security group rules, and architecture refactoring steps ready for immediate review and testing by internal engineering squads.
Prioritized Day-1 to Day-60 Implementation Milestones
A sequenced engineering milestone schedule categorized by immediate operational fixes (Day 1–15), architectural hardening (Day 16–30), and long-term scaling milestones (Day 31–60).
Initiate a Diagnostic Sprint
Diagnostic sprints and advisory engagements are executed directly with Dr. Andrew Adams under a mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), signed prior to technical discovery.