Tag Archives: Australian government

AWS Melbourne Region has achieved HCF Strategic Certification

Post Syndicated from Lori Klaassen original https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/aws-melbourne-region-has-achieved-hcf-strategic-certification/

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is delighted to confirm that our new AWS Melbourne Region has achieved Strategic Certification for the Australian Government’s Hosting Certification Framework (HCF).

We know that maintaining security and resiliency to keep critical data and infrastructure safe is a top priority for the Australian Government and all our customers in Australia. The Strategic Certification of both the existing Sydney and the new Melbourne Regions reinforces our ongoing commitment to meet security expectations for cloud service providers and means Australian citizens can now have even greater confidence that the Government is securing their data.

The HCF provides guidance to government customers to identify cloud providers that meet enhanced privacy, sovereignty, and security requirements. The expanded scope of the AWS HCF Strategic Certification gives Australian Government customers additional architectural options, including the ability to store backup data in geographically separated locations within Australia.

Our AWS infrastructure is custom-built for the cloud and designed to meet the most stringent security requirements in the world, and is monitored 24/7 to help support the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of customers’ data. All data flowing across the AWS global network that interconnects our data centers and Regions is automatically encrypted at the physical layer before it leaves our secured facilities. We will continue to expand the scope of our security assurance programs at AWS and are pleased that Australian Government customers can continue to innovate at a rapid pace and be confident AWS meets the Government’s requirements to support the secure management of government systems and data.

The Melbourne Region was officially added to the AWS HCF Strategic Certification on December 21, 2022, and the Sydney Region was certified in October 2021. AWS compliance status is available on the HCF Certified Service Providers website, and the Certificate of Compliance is available through AWS Artifact. AWS Artifact is a self-service portal for on-demand access to AWS compliance reports. Sign in to AWS Artifact in the AWS Management Console, or learn more at Getting Started with AWS Artifact. AWS has also achieved many international certifications and accreditations, demonstrating compliance with third-party assurance frameworks such as ISO 27017 for cloud security, ISO 27018 for cloud privacy, and SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3.

To learn more about our compliance and security programs, see AWS Compliance Programs. As always, we value your feedback and questions; reach out to the AWS Compliance team through the Contact Us page.

Please reach out to your AWS account team if you have questions or feedback about HCF compliance.

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Lori Klaassen

Lori Klaassen

Lori is a Senior Regulatory Specialist on the AWS Security Assurance team. She supports the operationalisation and ongoing assurance of direct regulatory oversight programs in ANZ.

New IRAP report is now available on AWS Artifact for Australian customers

Post Syndicated from Henry Xu original https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/new-irap-report-is-now-available-on-aws-artifact-for-australian-customers/

We are excited to announce that a new Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP) report is now available on AWS Artifact. The new IRAP documentation pack brings new services in scope, and includes a Cloud Security Control Matrix (CSCM) for specific information to help customers assess each applicable control that is required by the Australian Government Information Security Manual (ISM).

The scope of the new IRAP report includes a reassessment of 92 services, and adds 5 additional services: Amazon Macie, AWS Backup, AWS CodePipeline, AWS Control Tower, and AWS X-Ray. With the additional 5 services in scope of this cycle, we now have a total of 97 services assessed at the PROTECTED level. This provides more capabilities for our Australian government customers to deploy workloads at the PROTECTED level across security, storage, developer tools, and governance. For the full list of services, see the AWS Services in Scope page and select the IRAP tab. All services in scope for IRAP are available in the Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region.

We developed IRAP documentation pack in accordance with the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC)’s cloud security guidance and their Anatomy of a Cloud Assessment and Authorisation framework, which addresses guidance within the Attorney-General’s Department’s Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF), and the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA)’s Secure Cloud Strategy.

We created the IRAP documentation pack to help Australian government agencies and their partners to plan, architect, and risk assess their workload based on AWS Cloud services. Please reach out to your AWS representatives to let us know what additional services you would like to see in scope for coming IRAP assessments. We strive to bring more services into the scope of the IRAP PROTECTED level, based on your requirements.

If you have feedback about this post, submit comments in the Comments section below. If you have questions about this post, start a new thread on the AWS Artifact forum.

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Author

Henry Xu

Henry is an APAC Audit Program Manager in AWS Security Assurance, currently based in Canberra, Australia. He manages our regional compliance programs, including IRAP assessments. With experiences across leadership and technical roles in both public and private sectors, he is passionate about secure cloud adoption. Outside of AWS, Henry enjoys time with his family, and he loves dancing.