Domain 5 of 5 · Chapter 2 of 2

AI Governance & Compliance

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Included in this chapter:

  • Why governance matters: regulations and standards
  • The AWS governance toolset and frameworks
  • Exam-pattern recognition: need to service

AWS governance & compliance services compared

ServicePurposeOutputWhen to use
AWS ArtifactOn-demand access to AWS's own compliance reports and agreementsDownloadable certifications (SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27001, PCI DSS) and legal agreementsAn auditor or customer wants proof the AWS platform itself is certified
AWS Audit ManagerContinuously collect evidence about your workload and map it to frameworksAudit-ready assessment reports against frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA)You must demonstrate your own environment's ongoing compliance to an auditor
AWS ConfigRecord and evaluate resource configurations against compliance rulesConfiguration history plus compliant / non-compliant status per resourceYou need to detect when a resource setting drifts out of policy
AWS CloudTrailRecord account API activity as an event historyImmutable log of who made each API call, when, and from whereYou need an action trail to answer audit or incident questions

Decision tree

Need proof AWS itself is certified (SOC / ISO / PCI)? Yes AWS Artifact download AWS's reports No Continuous audit evidence mapped to a framework? Yes AWS Audit Manager audit-ready assessments No Track resource-config compliance / drift over time? Yes AWS Config compliant / non-compliant No Record who did what, when (API activity trail)? Yes AWS CloudTrail immutable API event log No — it's about the data itself AWS Glue Data Catalog catalog / govern training data
Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

  • Governance proves the rules; security hardens the system
  • AWS is responsible for compliance OF the cloud; you for compliance IN it
  • Compliance obligations attach to the data and the decision, not the cloud
  • ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 are the standards auditors check against
  • AI-specific law adds algorithm-accountability duties beyond traditional IT compliance
  • AWS Artifact downloads AWS's own compliance reports on demand
  • AWS Audit Manager builds continuous audit evidence about your own workload
  • Artifact serves AWS's certs; Audit Manager builds your evidence
  • AWS Config tracks resource configuration and compliance over time
  • AWS CloudTrail is the immutable record of who called which API
  • Config answers resource state; CloudTrail answers actions taken
  • AWS Trusted Advisor runs account-wide best-practice checks
  • Amazon Inspector continuously scans compute for vulnerabilities
  • Trusted Advisor does hygiene checks; Inspector does vulnerability scans
  • The AWS Glue Data Catalog is the central metadata registry for data governance
  • Data governance manages the data lifecycle: lineage, cataloging, residency, retention, monitoring
  • Model governance is MLOps discipline over the model lifecycle
  • Governance protocols run on human process, not tooling alone
  • The Generative AI Security Scoping Matrix classifies a GenAI workload by ownership
  • Compliance is demonstrated with evidence, not asserted in policy
  • Securing the system is Task 5.1; demonstrating compliance is governance
  • CloudTrail is the API audit trail; CloudWatch is operational monitoring
  • AWS AI Service Cards document a managed AI service's intended use and limits
  • AI Service Cards flag probabilistic output that needs human oversight
  • AI Service Cards document AWS's services; Model Cards document your models

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References

  1. AWS Shared Responsibility Model
  2. AWS Compliance Programs
  3. What is AWS Artifact
  4. AWS Artifact
  5. What is AWS Audit Manager
  6. AWS Audit Manager
  7. What Is AWS Config
  8. AWS Config
  9. AWS CloudTrail User Guide
  10. AWS CloudTrail
  11. AWS Trusted Advisor
  12. What is Amazon Inspector
  13. AWS Glue Data Catalog
  14. AWS Glue
  15. Securing generative AI: An introduction to the Generative AI Security Scoping Matrix Blog