HashKoda
●PENETRATION TESTING & ZERO-TRUST INFRASTRUCTURE

Fintech Cloud Defense Grid

Comprehensive cloud security hardening, red-team penetration testing, and SOC 2 Type II readiness for a global payment gateway.

DISCIPLINES & SERVICES

·Penetration Testing
·Cloud Hardening
·SOC 2 Type II Readiness
·Red Team Adversarial Drills

With transaction throughput scaling exponentially, Aura needed to ensure that API endpoints, tokenization vaults, and cloud microservices complied with PCI-DSS Level 1 and SOC 2 Type II standards while repelling active cyber attacks.

  • ▪42 distributed microservices with complex interdependent API authentication models.
  • ▪Risk of lateral movement within Kubernetes clusters in the event of pod compromise.
  • ▪Strict regulatory compliance mandates with upcoming institutional banking audits.
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Fintech Cloud Defense Grid
Aura Financial Corp
2024
LIVE SYSTEM

“Aura Financial approached HashKoda prior to processing cross-border institutional transactions to ensure that their Kubernetes infrastructure, microservice APIs, and key management systems were completely resilient against state-sponsored and criminal threat actors.”

THE ARCHITECTURE CHALLENGE

Hardening a multi-region payment gateway against modern threat vectors

With transaction throughput scaling exponentially, Aura needed to ensure that API endpoints, tokenization vaults, and cloud microservices complied with PCI-DSS Level 1 and SOC 2 Type II standards while repelling active cyber attacks.

01

42 distributed microservices with complex interdependent API authentication models.

02

Risk of lateral movement within Kubernetes clusters in the event of pod compromise.

03

Strict regulatory compliance mandates with upcoming institutional banking audits.

04

Requirement for zero-downtime security patching during 24/7 financial processing.

Fintech Cloud Defense Grid technical architecture
SYSTEM TELEMETRY & AUDIT VERIFICATION
ENGINEERING METHODOLOGY

Proactive white-box/black-box assault & zero-trust implementation

HashKoda conducted rigorous red-team penetration testing targeting API logic, IAM policies, and cryptographic token vaults, followed by the deployment of automated runtime enforcement tools.

Simulated advanced adversarial tactics including container escape and privilege escalation.
Implemented Istio service mesh with mutual TLS (mTLS) and strict SPIFFE/SPIRE identities.
Configured Falco runtime kernel monitoring and automated incident containment bots.
Built automated CI/CD static and dynamic vulnerability scanning gates preventing rogue commits.
VERIFIED RESULTS

31 vulnerabilities patched, 100% audit pass, 0 breaches

31
Remediated CVEs
100%
Compliance Score
99.999%
System Uptime
45 Days
Audit Turnaround
✓Discovered and neutralized 4 critical authentication bypass vulnerabilities in staging.
✓Achieved full SOC 2 Type II and PCI-DSS Level 1 certifications in under 3 months.
✓Established immutable audit logging pipelines with real-time SIEM alerts.
✓Empowered in-house engineering team through tailored secure coding workshops.
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE STACK

Core Technologies & Frameworks

AWS EKS
Istio mTLS
Terraform
HashiCorp Vault
Falco
Burp Suite Pro
Docker
Go
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