Insider Threat Detection with AWS CloudTrail Query Runbooks

The first sign was buried in the logs—an IAM user accessing data they shouldn’t. One query could expose the breach.

Insider threat detection starts with knowing where to look. AWS CloudTrail captures every API call, but raw logs are not enough. You need targeted queries, mapped to specific threat patterns, and packaged into runbooks that can be executed on demand.

A CloudTrail query runbook should define:

• The exact CloudTrail event names tied to insider misuse (e.g., GetObject, DescribeInstances, ListUsers).
• Filters for IAM principals, regions, and timestamps to isolate suspicious access.
• Steps to correlate events across services, revealing unusual sequences, like deleting logs after data exfiltration.
• Automated actions—alerting, session revocation, or temporary policy lockdown.

Runbooks turn queries into repeatable workflows. They remove guesswork and cut detection time from hours to seconds. They should be version-controlled, tested against simulated insider scenarios, and integrated into incident response pipelines.

Common insider threat CloudTrail query runbooks include:

• Privilege escalation detection: Identify new policies or IAM role attachments outside approved change windows.
• Data exfiltration monitoring: Flag bulk GetObject or DownloadDBLogFilePortion calls from unexpected principals.
• Anomalous resource creation: Spot new EC2 instances or S3 buckets linked to shadow infrastructure.

Advanced detection layers might add ML scoring on sequences, but the core remains fast, precise queries and disciplined runbook execution. Without them, insider actions can blend into normal operations until damage is done.

Build the runbooks. Test them against CloudTrail datasets. Automate their execution.

See it live in minutes—create and run insider threat CloudTrail query runbooks now at hoop.dev.