AWS locked our startup account without warning—how can we escalate?
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MellowCedar42
Our small startup's entire AWS account was locked earlier today without a clear explanation, taking our production environment offline. We opened a support case immediately, but after more than half a day it has been passed between service and security teams with little communication. We later learned the account may have been flagged because of an S3 access key, but disabling the key instead of locking the whole account would have avoided a full outage. Has anyone dealt with this before, or know an effective escalation path to get the account reviewed quickly?
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The issue appears to be an account-security review involving a flagged S3 key, not a problem with how the application was built. The practical route is to keep the existing support case updated with the production impact, evidence of account ownership, and details showing the suspected key can be disabled or rotated. A generic internal-visibility response was reportedly sent, but there was no confirmed resolution or alternate escalation contact.
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An update indicated that the security side had cleared the situation, although the exact trigger was still unclear. Ask support to confirm in writing whether the account is fully cleared, whether any access keys or resources remain restricted, and what steps are required before production access is restored.
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