A Guide to Set up AWS Audit Manager

Overview

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, ensuring the security and compliance of your cloud infrastructure is paramount. AWS Audit Manager is a powerful tool that streamlining the auditing process and helps organizations maintain and demonstrate compliance with various regulatory standards and internal policies. In this blog post, we will delve into the world of AWS Audit Manager, providing a comprehensive understanding of its features, benefits, and a step-by-step process to get started.

Introduction to AWS Audit Manager

AWS Audit Manager is a fully managed service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that automates collecting evidence of your AWS resources’ compliance with industry standards and regulations.

Some of the standards and regulations covered by AWS Audit Manager include:

• SOC 2: A report on controls at a service organization relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
• PCI DSS: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is for organizations that handle credit card data.
• HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a standard for healthcare organizations.
• NIST: The National Institute of Standards and Technology provides guidelines for information security.
• GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation is a European Union data protection and privacy standard.
• ISO 27001: An international standard for information security management systems.

Benefits of AWS Audit Manager

• Simplified Audit Process: AWS Audit Manager simplifies audit preparation by automating evidence collection and assessment.
• Predefined Frameworks: It provides frameworks for various standards, reducing the manual effort to map controls to regulations.
• Efficient Collaboration: Teams can efficiently collaborate on audit-related tasks, evidence collection, and assessments within the AWS Management Console.
• Comprehensive Reporting: Generate detailed reports to demonstrate compliance with ease.
• Time and Cost Savings: Automating the audit process helps save time and resources, making compliance more cost-effective.

Steps to Get Started with AWS Audit Manager

Now, let’s explore a step-by-step guide to starting with AWS Audit Manager.

Step 1: AWS Account Setup

Ensure you have an AWS account to access AWS Audit Manager. If you don’t have one, sign up for AWS and create your account.

Step 2: Accessing AWS Audit Manager

Open the AWS Management Console and log in.

Navigate to the AWS Audit Manager service. You can find it in the Management & Governance section.

To access the service, select “AWS Audit Manager”.

Step 3: Enable the AWS Audit Manager

Configuration Options:

• Permissions: No action is required as the AWS Audit Manager uses a service-linked role for data source access.
• Data Encryption: By default, AWS Audit Manager creates and manages an AWS KMS key for data encryption. You can customize encryption settings with your own KMS key.
• Delegated Administrator (Optional): Specify if you want the AWS Audit Manager to run assessments for multiple accounts.
• AWS Config (Optional): Enable AWS Config for optimal evidence generation using AWS Config rules.
• Security Hub (Optional): Enable Security Hub for optimal evidence generation using Security Hub checks.

Completing Setup:

• Review your configuration choices.
• Click “Complete setup” to finish the AWS Audit Manager setup process.

Step 4: Define an Assessment

Create a new assessment by clicking “Create assessment” within the AWS Audit Manager console.

Define the assessment’s name, and description, and choose the compliance framework that matches your requirements.

Select the scope of your assessment, including the AWS accounts and services to be assessed.

Step 5: Define Control Sets

AWS Audit Manager offers predefined control sets based on the chosen compliance framework. Review and customize these control sets if necessary.

Step 6: Collect Evidence

Configure evidence collection by choosing specific AWS Config rules or custom AWS Config rules.

Set up data sources and configure how often AWS Audit Manager collects evidence.

Step 7: Manage Control Assessment

AWS Audit Manager assesses controls based on the collected evidence.

Review assessment findings and make necessary updates.

Step 8: Generate Reports

Generate compliance reports to demonstrate your organization’s adherence to standards and regulations.

Step 9: Share Reports

Share reports as needed with internal and external stakeholders, auditors, and regulatory bodies.

AWS Audit Manager automates and streamlines the audit process, making it easier to maintain compliance with various standards and regulations.

Conclusion

AWS Audit Manager is a valuable tool for organizations seeking to streamline their audit and compliance processes. Automating evidence collection, assessment, and reporting reduces the complexity and resource requirements of maintaining compliance. This guide gives you the foundational knowledge and step-by-step instructions to start with AWS Audit Manager and enhance your cloud security and compliance posture.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding AWS Audit Manager and we will get back to you quickly.

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