Adaptive Security Policy Management in Cloud Environments Using Reinforcement Learning

The securit y of cloud environments, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), is complex and dynamic. St atic security policies have be come inadequate as threats evolve and cloud resources exhibit elasticity [1]. This paper addresses the limitations of static policies by proposing a security policy management framework that uses reinforcement learning (RL) to adapt dynamically. Specifically, we employ deep reinforcement learni ng algorithms, including deep Q Networks and proximal polic y op timization, enabling the learning and continuous adjustment of controls such as firewall rules and Identity an d Access Management (IAM) poli cies. The proposed RL based solution leverages cloud telemetry data (AWS Cloud Trail logs, network traffic data, threat intelligence feeds) to continuously refine security policies, maximizing threat mitigation, and compliance while minimizing resource impact. Experimental results d emonstrate that our adaptive RL bas ed framework significantly out performs static policies, achieving higher intrusion detection rates (92 % compared to 82% for static policies) and substantially reducing incident detection and response times by 58%. In a ddition, it maintains high con formity with security requirements and efficient resource usage. I. INTRODUCTION Cloud security is a critical concern as more orga nizations rely on cloud infras tructure. AWS an d other cloud platforms provide security configurations such as firewall rules and IAM policies, which are typically managed through static policies set by administrators. However, static policies cannot adapt to the dynamic nature of cloud environments, where workloads, users, and attack patterns change rapidly [1]. This rigidity exposes cloud deployments to new threats or misconfigurations that are not covered by static rules. For instance, static firewall rules may fail to detect novel attack patterns, and fixed IAM roles may become over privileged as resources scale, increasing risk . Problem Statement: Traditional cloud security policy management cannot keep pace with evolving threats and agile DevOps practices. M anual policy updates are error prone and slow.