Identity and access management, or IAM, controls who can do what in a cloud account. Beginners cause incidents with permissions more often than with code, because the mistakes are quiet: an over-wide policy works fine until it is abused or until it deletes something important. The patterns repeat across every cloud provider.
Mistakes to stop making
- Using one powerful account for everything instead of separate accounts for people, services, and automation.
- Granting full access when the task needs one action, because broad policies hide later misuse.
- Leaving access keys in code or chat messages, where they spread beyond control.
- Never reviewing who still has access after team members change roles or leave.
Audit permissions on a schedule, not after an incident. The review takes an hour and prevents the kind of incident that takes a week.