Synectics Solutions is a leading provider of fraud‑prevention and financial‑crime analytics platforms used by major banks, insurers, and government bodies. As an established enterprise ISV operating in a highly regulated sector, Synectics manages large‑scale data ingestion pipelines, real‑time risk‑scoring workloads, and globally consumed decision‑intelligence products.

To support their next phase of growth, regional expansion, and regulatory alignment across financial‑services markets, Synectics partnered with Bytes to modernise their cloud security posture. The engagement focused on replacing fragmented, datacenter‑era security practices with a unified, AWS‑native security foundation delivering centralized governance, zero‑trust identity, continuous monitoring, hardened infrastructure, and enterprise‑grade data protection.

Synectics’ legacy dual‑datacenter environment had evolved organically, resulting in fragmented governance, manual access processes, and inconsistent security enforcement. These limitations created risk across multiple AWS Security Competency domains:

Identity & Access Management

• Server‑level accounts and manual permissions created unmanaged credentials and audit challenges.
• No centralized IAM model, no SCP guardrails, and weak privilege boundaries.

Threat Detection & Response

• CloudTrail coverage was incomplete, logging was inconsistent, and security monitoring was largely manual.
• Existing tooling could not provide organization‑wide, real‑time detection.

Infrastructure Protection

• Critical workloads including SQL clusters lacked proper segmentation, trust boundaries, and multi‑AZ resilience.
• Public‑capable networking patterns increased exposure risk.

Data Protection

• Sensitive fraud‑intelligence data lacked standardized encryption controls, automated certificate governance, and a uniform PKI model.

Compliance & Privacy

• No unified audit trail across environments.
• Missing baselines made regulatory assurance difficult and hindered international growth.

Operational Drift

• Environments repeatedly diverged from intended IaC baselines, creating rework, delays, and risk of misconfiguration.
• Synectics needed a secure‑by‑design architecture that could eliminate manual controls, reduce risk, enforce continuous compliance, and operationalize governance across all AWS accounts.
   

Bytes delivered a fully governed, security‑first multi‑account AWS platform that addressed all identity, compliance, detection, and infrastructure concerns. The solution combined deep AWS Security Competency capability with enterprise IaC automation to create a resilient, compliant, and scalable foundation for Synectics’ fraud‑prevention workloads.

1. Multi‑Account Governance & IaC Control Plane

• Established AWS Organizations with dedicated OUs for Prod, UAT, Shared Services, and Backup.
• Designed bespoke Service Control Policies (SCPs) enforcing region allow‑lists, blocking public resources, preventing privilege escalation, and codifying separation‑of‑duties.
• Implemented all foundations using Terraform, providing full auditability and drift detection.

2. Centralised Identity & Zero‑Trust Access Model

• Introduced AWS IAM Identity Center (SSO) for unified identity governance and short‑lived credentials.
• Implemented strict least‑privilege permission sets and permission boundaries.
• Delivered Just‑In‑Time (JIT) elevation, replacing standing admin roles and improving auditability.

3. Continuous Threat Detection & Centralised Logging

• Enabled CloudTrail (organization‑wide), GuardDuty, AWS Config, and Security Hub in governed security accounts.
• Ensured immutable log storage and CIS/FSPB-aligned continuous compliance scoring.
• Standardised findings routing and evidence collection.

4. Private‑Only Networking & Segmented Access

• Delivered a zero‑public‑exposure architecture: no public subnets, no Internet‑facing endpoints.
• Implemented VPC Endpoints, AWS PrivateLink, and AWS Transit Gateway for controlled, private connectivity.

5. Enterprise PKI & Automated Certificate Governance

• Deployed AWS Private CA as cloud trust anchor with cross‑trust to on‑prem PKI.
• Automated certificate issuance/renewal for SQL, IIS, and internal APIs via Terraform modules and templates.
• Enforced TLS/mTLS for all service‑to‑service communications.

6. Data Protection & Secrets Management

• Enforced AWS KMS encryption at rest across all services.
• Centralised secrets in AWS Secrets Manager with automated rotation and role‑based access.

7. Highly Available SQL Platform for Regulated Workloads

• Built a secure, multi‑AZ SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) using EC2 + FSx Windows File Server.
• Automated cluster build, failover logic, certificate‑based auth, and domain-join processes.

8. Compliance Automation

• Converted all preventative + detective controls into IaC for consistent, audit‑ready deployments.
• Automated alerts for configuration drift to eliminate unmanaged changes.

Bytes’ security‑first AWS architecture delivered significant improvements across governance, security posture, operational efficiency, and cost optimisation.

1. 100% Elimination of Critical Security Findings

• Critical findings reduced from 8 → 0 across all AWS accounts.
• High‑risk findings reduced by 72%, supported by continuous Security Hub and Config compliance checks.

2. Reduced Monthly AWS Operating Costs by 44%

• Rightsizing, RI/SP optimisation, and storage efficiencies reduced avoidable spend by 44%.
• Realised savings of $2,800–$3,200 per month with ongoing FinOps insights.

3. Zero Standing Privilege & Fully Auditable Access

• All administrative access now JIT‑elevated with automatic expiry.
• Identity lifecycle controls aligned with financial‑services regulatory requirements.

4. Fully Private, Segmented, Multi‑AZ Infrastructure

• No public subnets and strict routing segmentation significantly reduced attack surface.
• Regulatory assurance improved for global financial‑services clients.

5. Automated PKI & Encryption‑Everywhere

• Removal of manual certificate processes eliminated expiry-related outages.
• Uniform encryption‑in‑transit and at‑rest now enforced across all workloads.

6. Audit‑Ready Compliance

• Terraform‑based policies, SCPs, and Config rules guarantee consistent governance.
• Centralised evidence capture supports FCA‑aligned audits and international expansion.

7. Increased Operational Stability & Reduced Rework

• Drift detection prevents configuration deviations, reducing troubleshooting and rework cycles.
• Enforced change‑control and design review processes drastically improve deployment reliability.