Staying Up-to-Date with Evolving Compliance Standards and Regulatory Requirements to Ensure Continued Compliance on AWS

Laws, regulations, and security frameworks constantly evolve to adapt and respond to new cyber threats. Keeping up to date with the latest versions of all applicable standards and regulatory requirements is critical to maintaining a secure and compliant environment on AWS.

How Security Frameworks and Regulations Evolve

Every data security framework and regulatory requirement is designed with the current technology, threats, and industry best practices in mind. As the cyber threat landscape changes, so do these standards, mitigating new risks and securing vulnerabilities.

While Amazon Web Services guarantees comprehensive compliance controls with over 140 security standards and certifications, AWS customers are encouraged to stay proactive on the latest versions and industry recommendations. 

How to Stay Up to Date on the Latest Security Frameworks and Regulations

According to the AWS Shared Responsibility Model, Amazon’s security responsibility only extends to the hardware, infrastructure, and software used to run AWS services. The customer’s responsibility is to ensure data, platforms, applications, OSes, and client-side environments are secure and compliant.

For instance, if your data requires compliance with ISO/IEC 27001:2022, the most current edition of the ISO 27001 ISMS standard, you must review the changes introduced since the previous version. 

Once you have identified these changes, conduct a gap analysis to determine which of your current compliance practices no longer align with the new version’s requirements. Then, update your policies, procedures, and security controls accordingly.

Tools and Services to Ensure Continued Compliance on AWS

Multiple AWS services can help your organisation automate compliance at scale on Amazon Web Services. The following is a breakdown of the most common continued compliance solutions on AWS:

• AWS Config is an AWS service designed to continuously monitor and record your resource configurations. You can use it to enforce compliance through a compliance-as-code framework, automating the process.
• Enhance the effectiveness of AWS Config with AWS Config Conformance Packs. A Conformance Pack is a collection of predefined AWS Config rules and actions intended. They can automatically ensure your AWS environment complies with the latest versions of the most common regulatory frameworks and standards.
• If you have multiple AWS accounts and environments, use AWS Organisations to manage, govern, and ensure the compliance of all your accounts from one place. You can combine the capabilities of AWS Organisations and AWS Config to configure automated compliance at scale.
• You can also use AWS CloudFormation to ensure your AWS services are within the scope of the compliance programs of your choice. Third-party audit reports are available through AWS Artifact.

Ensure the Security and Compliance of Your Business Data with WOLK

As an AWS Well-Architected Review Program Partner, WOLK Technology has the resources to help your organisation build a secure and compliant AWS environment. Schedule a review with us today, and let us help you boost your business’s performance.

Measuring and Reporting on Sustainability Metrics to Track Progress and Drive Continuous Improvement

Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers can use numerous tools to manage and build reports on their organisation’s sustainability metrics. These tools are critical to measuring a company’s carbon footprint, overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and compliance with the Sustainability pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework.

Track Carbon Footprint and GHG Emissions with the Amazon Customer Carbon Footprint Tool

One of the most important sustainability tools available to AWS customers is the Amazon Customer Carbon Footprint Tool. This AWS service is a data dashboard informing businesses and organisations of their workflows’ environmental impact.

Use the Carbon Footprint Tool dashboard to view your organisation’s overall carbon emissions and build a path to 100% renewable energy usage. The dashboard can also display emissions breakdowns by geographic region, individual services (e.g., Amazon EC2, Amazon S3), and trends over time.

More Visibility into Sustainability Data with the Contino Dashboard

Enhance your organisation’s understanding of its sustainability goals and current performance with the Contino Sustainability Dashboard. 

This new open-source tool provides a detailed view of your organisation’s cloud usage carbon footprint. It complements the Amazon Carbon Footprint Tool, giving AWS customers additional instruments to help meet sustainability objectives.

Contino Dashboard was designed for businesses and organisations seeking actionable data and plans to reduce their carbon footprint. It is purpose-built to increase data visibility with a specific focus on sustainability. The dashboard is also more accurate than previous methods, such as using cost optimisation dashboards and correlating cost savings with resource efficiency.

Report Data with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Solutions

Compliance with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks can help an organisation achieve its sustainability objectives. AWS customers can use ESG reporting and disclosure solutions to gather ESG data and meet reporting requirements efficiently. These solutions are designed to integrate into your AWS workflows. Typical ESG reporting tools continuously read and analyse your data to ensure compliance with standardised sustainability objectives.

After analysing your data, they show reports displaying various metrics and indicators to help you measure your company’s adherence to environmental objectives, progress towards sustainability targets and goals, and comparisons with industry peers.

Many ESG reporting solutions employ advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the accuracy of their data collection, analysis, and validation processes. 

Make Your Organisation More Sustainable with WOLK

At WOLK, part of our role is to ensure your compliance with AWS sustainability principles, regardless of your experience with cloud technology. Whether your organisation is starting its cloud transition or is already familiar with cloud services, our team can provide guidance. Contact WOLK today to learn more.