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IT / Security Engineer — First Week Onboarding

Overview

This guide is for a new IT or security engineer joining Cirius Group. It covers what access to get, what to install, what to read, and what to do in your first week to become operational. The goal is for you to be able to triage a SecOps alert, make a basic infrastructure change, and understand the environment well enough to work without hand-holding by the end of week one.

This is separate from the HR/security compliance checklist in Onboarding Security Checklist — that covers compliance requirements. This one covers operations.


Day 1 — Get Your Accounts and Tools

Accounts to Request (Rory does these)

AccountWhat It Gives YouNotes
Entra ID (@ciriusgroup.com)Azure Portal, M365, Twingate, Conditional AccessDay 1 — provisioned by Rory
Keeper SecurityPassword vaultDay 1 — Rory assigns you to shared folders
GitHub — Cirius-Group-Inc orgRead access to all reposAsk Rory for org invite
SecOps platformsecops.bedrockcybersecurity.org analyst accessAuto via Entra SSO once account is in the right group
AWS SSOAccess to all 7 AWS accountsRory adds you to the Identity Center permission set
Arctic Wolf portalRead-only MDR viewRory creates the Arctic Wolf sub-account
PanoramaRead-only first; write access after rampRory creates the Panorama analyst account

Tools to Install (Day 1)

bash
# Twingate — required to reach any private infrastructure
# Download from: https://www.twingate.com/download
# Network name: cirius

# AWS CLI v2
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip && sudo ./aws/install

# Azure CLI
curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash

# Terraform
# Download from: https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/install

# GitHub CLI
# https://cli.github.com/

# Keeper browser extension
# https://keepersecurity.com/download.html

Set Up AWS SSO

After Rory adds you to Identity Center:

bash
# Create ~/.aws/config — copy the profile block from runbooks/aws-account-access.md
# Then log in:
aws sso login --profile main
aws sts get-caller-identity --profile prod   # verify access

Full details: AWS Account Access Guide

Set Up Azure CLI

bash
az login
az account list --output table   # verify you see PROD subscriptions

Full details: Azure Daily Operations Guide


Day 1–2 — Read These Docs in Order

The docs below build on each other. Read them in this order — by the end you'll have a mental model of the entire environment.

1. Architecture — What Exists

DocWhy Read It
Azure Infrastructure OverviewSubscriptions, resource groups, what lives where in Azure PROD
AWS DR OverviewThe 7 AWS accounts, what's in each, DR relationship to Azure
Network TopologyVNet/VPC CIDRs, zone layout, how traffic flows
Two-Firewall ArchitecturePublicFW and PrivateFW roles, the VPNLYR design
Security Monitoring ArchitectureAll 17 agents, how they're organized, what they detect

2. Access — How to Get Around

DocWhy Read It
AWS Account Access GuideAWS SSO, profiles, daily CLI workflow
Azure Daily Operations GuideAzure CLI, subscription switching, Twingate + PROD access
Twingate OperationsRemote access system, resource tiers, how group sync works
Keeper Credential GuideWhere all credentials live, naming conventions

3. Security Operations — How Monitoring Works

DocWhy Read It
SecOps Platform GuideThe platform at secops.bedrockcybersecurity.org, incident lifecycle, APIs
SecOps Findings Triage GuideHow to work the open queue — your primary daily task
Agent Development GuideHow agents are built, output contract, how to write a new one

4. Response — What to Do When Something Goes Wrong

DocWhy Read It
Incident ResponseP1–P4 procedures — ransomware, compromised accounts, outages
Break-Glass ProcedureEmergency access when normal auth is broken
Emergency Mode Operation PlanWhat continues during an outage, who decides what

5. Compliance — Why Things Are the Way They Are

DocWhy Read It
HIPAA Risk AssessmentThe risk register — 7 risks and their controls
HIPAA Administrative ProceduresCore HIPAA policies
SOC2 PBC GuideWhat the September 2026 audit will ask for

Day 2–3 — Explore the Live Systems

By now you have access. Spend time exploring before you change anything.

SecOps Platform

  1. Log into secops.bedrockcybersecurity.org
  2. Look at the Incidents list — understand what's currently OPEN and why
  3. Find a CLOSED incident and read through it — see what an agent finding looks like
  4. Find the Known-Good Rules list — understand what's being suppressed and why

AWS Console

bash
# Log in and explore
aws sso login --profile main
aws ec2 describe-instances --profile prod --output table   # DR workloads
aws s3 ls --profile backup                                  # backup buckets
aws cloudtrail lookup-events --profile logging \
  --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventName,AttributeValue=ConsoleLogin \
  --max-items 10                                            # recent console logins

Azure Portal

  1. Log in at https://portal.azure.com
  2. Navigate to rg-logging-logs (logging subscription) — this is where most of the security infrastructure lives (SecOps Container App, Log Analytics, archive storage)
  3. Open Log Analytics workspace cirius-logging-law-central → Logs → run a simple query:
    kql
    SignInLogs | where TimeGenerated > ago(1h) | limit 10
  4. Check Container Apps → ca-secops-prod — see the running revision and recent log output

GitHub Repos

bash
gh repo list Cirius-Group-Inc --limit 20   # all repos

Clone and skim (don't modify yet):

bash
git clone git@github.com:Cirius-Group-Inc/bedrock-soc.git
git clone git@github.com:Cirius-Group-Inc/bedrock-docs.git

Look at bedrock-soc/agents/ — see how agents are structured. Read cert_expiry_agent.py (the simplest complete agent) end-to-end.

Arctic Wolf Portal

Log in and check the current alert state. Note any open cases. Familiarize yourself with the Concierge Security Team contact method — you'll need it during an incident.


Day 3–5 — Understand the Rules

Hard Rules You Must Know Before Making Any Change

Before you touch anything in production, internalize these:

  1. Never terraform apply locally. All applies go through GitHub Actions after a PR merge. Local Terraform is plan-only.
  2. Never push to main. Branch → PR → CI → merge. Always.
  3. Never suppress break-glass account activity. These fire as CRITICAL in SecOps and have a hard API block preventing suppression.
  4. Never auto-approve known-good rules. Rory is final authority on all suppressions.
  5. Never store secrets in code. Key Vault (Azure) or Secrets Manager (AWS). Never in environment variables or committed files.

These are in CLAUDE.md (the operating instructions for the Kobe AI agent) and apply to humans too.

Change Process

Every infrastructure change follows the same pattern:

  1. Branch off main in the relevant repo
  2. Make changes
  3. Open a PR — CI runs Checkov and terraform plan, plan output posted as comment
  4. Rory reviews the diff and plan
  5. Merge triggers terraform apply via OIDC

The SecOps CM ticket is auto-created on merge. SecurityAgent checks for the CM ticket before alerting on infrastructure changes — so skipping the PR process will cause false alerts.


Week 1 Goal — First Contribution

By the end of week 1, make one real contribution. Good first tasks:

  • Populate the training completion log after completing your KnowBe4 training: compliance/training-completion-log.md — add your row to the 2026 table

  • Triage the SecOps queue on your own after reading the triage guide — then review with Rory to see if your calls were right

  • Run terraform plan on a non-prod workspace — pick aws-infra/dev or azure-infra/dev, authenticate, init, plan, and read the output

  • Write a doc for something you figured out during onboarding that wasn't documented — the best contributions often come from someone experiencing the gaps for the first time


Key Contacts

PersonRoleWhen to Contact
RorySecurity Officer, IT Lead, final authority on all changesAnything you're unsure about, all PR reviews, all known-good rule approvals
KevinT1 Domain AdminDomain-level escalation (AD, GPO, DNS)
GregT1 Domain AdminDomain-level escalation, DR co-ordination
AdrianaCompliance coordinationHIPAA/SOC2 docs, vendor BAAs, SharePoint uploads
Arctic Wolf MDR24/7 incident responseActive incidents, second-opinion on CRITICAL findings

Contact methods for Kevin, Greg, and Adriana are in Keeper → Emergency Contacts.


What "Done" Looks Like at End of Week 1

  • [ ] All accounts provisioned and tested (AWS SSO, Azure, SecOps, GitHub, Arctic Wolf)
  • [ ] Twingate, Keeper, AWS CLI, Azure CLI all working from your machine
  • [ ] Have read all 14 docs in the reading list above
  • [ ] Have explored live systems (SecOps, AWS console, Azure portal, GitHub repos)
  • [ ] Understand the 5 hard rules and the PR/merge/CM workflow
  • [ ] Made one real contribution
  • [ ] Know how to find any credential you need in Keeper
  • [ ] Know how to reach Arctic Wolf in an emergency


Document History

DateChangeAuthor
May 2026Initial draft — week 1 account setup, reading list, live system exploration, hard rules, first contribution ideas, done criteria.Rory

Internal use only — Cirius Group