Cloud Security Engineer Learning Path

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Hi Inner Circle,

Hope you’ve been doing great. I was busy settling into a new place, so I couldn’t share much here for a bit.

But I’m back now.. and over the next few weeks, we’ll be covering a few more roles in depth.

You’ve already read (and if not, you definitely should) the learning paths for these roles:

→ SRE

→ Platform Engineer

→ AI Infra Engineer

→ Cloud Data Engineer

Next up in the series, we have:

→ Security Engineer (with cloud focus) ~ covered today

→ AI Engineer (developer focused)

→ Cloud & Solutions Architect roles

And if there are any other roles you’d like me to cover, do share your feedback here.

Alright, without wasting any time, let’s dive straight into our role ~ the Security Engineers.

If Cloud Engineers build the foundation and ML Engineers build the intelligence, Security Engineers make sure everything stays safe, resilient, and breach-proof.

Mental model you need to build:

A Security Engineer must think like both an attacker and a defender to build systems that survive real-world threats.

A Cloud Security Engineer must know cloud services deeply enough to stop those attacks at scale.

You wear both hats ~ always.

This is the role that protects systems end-to-end across identity, networks, data, workloads, APIs, cloud accounts, and everything in between.

In the simplest terms, Security Engineers design the guardrails, policies, monitoring systems, and automated defenses that allow companies to operate securely in the cloud.

Their job is to ensure that every request, every identity, every network path, and every workload behaves exactly as it should.. and nothing more.

Cloud Security Engineering ~ The 5-Level Path

(Identity → Infrastructure → Data → IaC → Containers → AI → Business Security)

Before that - Start with Basic Foundations

→ Networking Components: TCP/IP, OSI Models, subnets, routing, VPNs, firewalls

→ Linux: hardening, SSH, logs, system services

→ IAM Fundamentals: roles, policies, authN vs authZ

→ Security Principles: least privilege, segmentation, encryption

→ Automation: Python, Bash, Git, CI/CD (Beginner Level)

→ Threat Basics: OWASP, MITRE ATT&CK, Vulnerability Scanning, common cloud misconfigs

Level 1 : Identity Security (The Entry Point of All Cloud Security)

Before anything else, attackers target identity. Your job is to harden it.

What attackers attempt:

Look for overly permissive roles; exploit weak RBAC; bypass MFA; steal tokens and assume high-privilege roles.

What defenders must implement:

Least-privilege IAM, MFA everywhere, strong RBAC, SSO/Federation guardrails, continuous auditing.

Cloud services to look into:

AWS IAM • Azure Active Directory • GCP IAM • Okta • AWS SSO

Level 2 : Infrastructure Security (Networks, APIs, Endpoints)

This is where attackers try to break in from the outside.

What attackers attempt:

Scan exposed endpoints; exploit open ports; bypass WAF rules; attack API gateways; exploit misrouted traffic.

What defenders must implement:

WAF + DDoS protection, secure routing, private endpoints, firewall policies, network segmentation, endpoint security.

Cloud services to master:

AWS Shield/WAF • Azure Firewall • GCP Cloud Armor • HashiCorp Vault (secrets)

Level 3 : Data Security (Protecting What Attackers Actually Want)

Data is the crown jewel ~ attackers always go for it.

What attackers attempt:

Exfiltrate S3 buckets, bypass encryption, access sensitive datasets, abuse weak KMS setups, scrape logs for secrets.

What defenders must implement:

Encryption in transit/at rest, KMS, tokenization, masking, field-level protection, DLP policies.

Cloud services to master:

AWS KMS • Azure Key Vault • GCP DLP • Snowflake Data Masking

Level 4 : IaC & Code Security (Your First Layer of Shift-Left Security)

Infrastructure comes from code ~ so attackers target the code.

What attackers attempt:

Exploit misconfigured Terraform/CloudFormation, locate secrets in code, use vulnerable dependencies to gain access.

What defenders must implement:

IaC scanning, secrets scanning in repos, dependency vulnerability checks, secure code workflows.

Tools/services to master:

Checkov • Snyk • GitGuardian • Terraform security patterns

Level 5 : Container, Kubernetes & AI Security + Business Security

(Advanced Cloud Security Responsibilities)

This is where Cloud Security Engineers operate at scale ~ securing workloads, models, and business posture.

Containers & Kubernetes Security

What attackers attempt:

Break into containers; escalate inside clusters; exploit weak RBAC; inject malicious images.

What defenders must implement:

Runtime threat detection (Falco/Sysdig), registry scanning, RBAC enforcement, Pod security, service mesh (mTLS/Istio).

Tools/services:

Falco • Trivy • Istio • EKS/GKE/AKS Security

AI Model Security

What attackers attempt:

Prompt injection, data poisoning, jailbreaks, model misuse.

What defenders must implement:

Guardrails, AI threat detection, content safety, secure inference endpoints.

Tools/services:

Hugging Face Guardrails • Azure AI Content Safety • GCP Vertex AI Security

Business Security (CSPM, SIEM, Compliance)

What attackers attempt:

Exploit org-wide misconfigs, lateral movement across accounts, unnoticed anomalies.

What defenders must implement:

CSPM, SIEM monitoring, compliance checks, cloud posture visibility.

Cloud services:

AWS Security Hub • Azure Defender for Cloud • GCP Security Command Center • Splunk

Certification Guide

1. AWS Certified Security – Specialty (Advanced)

2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional (optional, infra-heavy)

3. AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Engineer Associate

4. SC-200: Microsoft Security Operations Analyst

5. SC-300: Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator

6. AZ-305: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (optional) 

7. Professional Cloud Security Engineer (Advanced)

8. Professional Cloud Architect (optional)

9. OCI Security Professional (Advanced)

10. CompTIA Security+ (Foundational Security)

11. ISC2 CC (Certified in Cybersecurity) – entry-level

12. ISC2 CISSP (Advanced, architecture-level security) (Advanced)

Projects You Can Build

→ Threat Detection with Amazon Guardduty

→ DevSecOps Tutorial for Beginners

→ DevSecOps CI/CD Pipeline Implementation

You can also review more projects here : 13 Cybersecurity Projects

Quick tip: Try the mini security labs from cloud providers; they’re the easiest way to learn IAM, org policies, threat detection, and core security best practices.

Your Takeaway

Security Engineers aren’t just blocking threats ~

they build the guardrails that let companies innovate with confidence.

Whether it’s AI, cloud, microservices, or data pipelines, nothing scales without security.

Learn the fundamentals. Build real labs.

And remember ~ security isn’t a feature… it’s the foundation.

You got this!

– V

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