Cloud Security Projects

Beginner Projects for Junior Engineers

Start building your cloud security skills with these beginner-friendly projects:

Cloud Platform	Project Name	Skills Learned	Difficulty	Tutorial
AWS	Personal Account Security Baseline	IAM, Security Groups, CloudTrail	Easy	AWS Security Baseline Tutorial
Azure	Set Up Azure Security Center	Security Monitoring, Secure Score	Easy	Azure Security Center Setup
GCP	Enable Basic Security Controls	VPC Service Controls, IAM	Easy	GCP Security Controls
Any	Cloud Security Scanner	API Security, Network Controls	Medium	OWASP ZAP Tutorial

Guided Projects with Step-by-Step Instructions

These projects include detailed instructions for junior engineers:

AWS Security Projects

Project Name	Description	Link
Secure S3 Bucket Configuration	Learn to properly secure S3 buckets and prevent common misconfigurations	AWS S3 Security Workshop
Create a Security Monitoring Dashboard	Set up CloudWatch dashboards to monitor security events	CloudWatch Dashboard Tutorial
AWS Organization Security	Configure multi-account security controls	AWS Organization Security

AWS

Cloud Platform	Title	Description
AWS	Threat Detection With AWS GuardDuty	A tutorial showing how to use AWS GuardDuty to detect threats.
AWS	AWS Threat Simulation & Detection	This doc shows the use of Stratus Red Team & SumoLogic for attack & detection/analysis. This can replicated using any other SIEM.

Azure Security Projects

Project Name	Description	Link
Azure Sentinel SIEM Setup	Deploy a cloud-native SIEM for security monitoring	Sentinel Quickstart
Identity Protection with Azure AD	Configure conditional access and MFA	Azure AD Protection
Azure Key Vault Implementation	Manage secrets and certificates securely	Key Vault Tutorial

Azure

Cloud Platform	Title	Description
Azure	Azure Cloud Detection Lab(Blog), Azure Cloud Detection Lab(Videos)	A hands-on project showing how to detect threats in an azure environment using Azure Sentinal.
Azure	SIEM Tutorial for Beginners Azure Sentinel Tutorial MAP with LIVE CYBER ATTACKS!	A hands-on project showing how to set up a honey pot and analyzing malicious traffic using Azure Sentinel.

GCP Security Projects

Project Name	Description	Link
GCP Security Command Center	Set up and configure Security Command Center	Security Command Center Quickstart
Cloud Armor Implementation	Configure WAF rules and DDoS protection	Cloud Armor Tutorial
Binary Authorization for GKE	Ensure only trusted containers are deployed	Binary Authorization Tutorial

GCP

Cloud Platform	Title	Description
GCP	GCP Security Logging Project	Implementing security logging and monitoring in GCP

Portfolio-Building Project Ideas

These more advanced projects will help you build an impressive security portfolio:

1. Multi-Cloud Security Posture Management

• Description: Create a dashboard to monitor security across AWS, Azure, and GCP
• Components: Cloud native monitoring tools, centralized logging, compliance checks
• Skills demonstrated: Multi-cloud security, automation, compliance

2. Secure CI/CD Pipeline

• Description: Implement security controls throughout a CI/CD pipeline
• Components: Secret scanning, SAST/DAST, container security
• Skills demonstrated: DevSecOps, automation, secure development

3. Cloud Security Incident Response Simulation

• Description: Create a security incident simulation and response system
• Components: Log analysis, alert creation, runbooks, forensics
• Skills demonstrated: Incident response, forensics, security operations

Foundation-Building Hardware Projects

Before or alongside cloud projects, consider these hardware-based projects to build fundamental understanding:

Home Network Security Lab

• Purpose: Learn security principles with physical devices you can see and touch
• Equipment needed: Router, switch, Raspberry Pi or old computer
• Projects:
  • Configure network segmentation with VLANs
  • Set up a home firewall with pfSense or OPNsense
  • Monitor network traffic with Wireshark
  • Deploy intrusion detection with Snort or Suricata

NAS (Network Attached Storage) Security Project

• Purpose: Learn storage security principles that directly apply to cloud
• Equipment needed: NAS device (Synology, QNAP, or DIY)
• Projects:
  • Implement encryption at rest
  • Configure secure authentication and access controls
  • Set up backup and disaster recovery
  • Monitor for unauthorized access attempts

The knowledge gained from these physical projects creates stronger mental models that directly transfer to securing abstract cloud resources.

Finding Project Ideas by Solving Real Problems

The best cloud security projects often come from solving real problems that you or others are experiencing. This approach has several advantages:

1. Built-in motivation - You're more likely to complete projects that solve problems you care about
2. Demonstrable value - Employers value projects that solve actual business needs
3. Natural complexity - Real problems have natural edge cases that build your skills
4. Portfolio storytelling - Projects with a "why" behind them make for better interview talking points

Where to Find Problem-Based Project Ideas:

Listen to Yourself

• Daily annoyances - What security tasks do you do repeatedly that could be automated?
• Learning gaps - What security concepts do you struggle to understand that a project could help with?
• Personal security needs - Do you need better security for your own data or systems?

Listen to Your Team

• Pain points - What security tasks does your team complain about?
• Manual processes - Which security reviews or checks are still done manually?
• Knowledge gaps - What security information is hard for team members to find or understand?

Listen to the Community

• GitHub issues - Look for security-related feature requests in open-source projects
• Reddit/forums - What security questions do people ask repeatedly?
• Meetups/conferences - What challenges do speakers mention?

Example Problem-to-Project Transformations:

Problem	Project Idea
"I'm tired of manually checking S3 buckets for public access"	Automated S3 bucket scanner with weekly reports
"Our team forgets to rotate credentials regularly"	Credential rotation reminder system with automation
"It's hard to visualize our cloud security posture"	Security dashboard showing compliance status across resources
"We can't tell who made security group changes"	Change tracking system with notifications and audit trail
"It's difficult to test our incident response plan"	Incident simulation system with scenarios and scoring

Remember: The solution doesn't have to be new or extensive. If it solves a problem or makes life easier for someone, it adds value and makes for a great project.

Tips for Successful Projects

1. Document everything - Keep detailed notes and screenshots
2. Start small - Begin with a focused project before expanding
3. Use Infrastructure as Code - Make your projects repeatable with CloudFormation/Terraform
4. Include remediation steps - Don't just identify issues, fix them
5. Build a GitHub portfolio - Share your projects with potential employers
6. Connect physical to virtual - When doing cloud projects, note parallels to physical systems
7. Get feedback early - Share your project idea with others before investing too much time
8. Measure impact - Track how much time or effort your solution saves