Introduction to the AWS compliance programs and AWS Artifact

Depending on the nature of your business and the applications you plan to host on AWS, you need to ensure that you meet any compliance or regulatory requirements. For example, if you plan to process and store credit card information, you must ensure that your application meets the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This allows you to store, process, or transmit cardholder data (CHD) or sensitive authentication data (SAD).

Similarly, if you are in the health care industry and based in the US, you are subject to the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. This means that in addition to various business processes, any applications that are hosted on AWS must also be aligned with HIPAA compliance with regards to how personal health information (PHI) is processed and maintained.

In this example, AWS needs to ensure that its services are aligned with HIPAA compliance if...