What is AWS Config and how does it help with compliance?

AWS Config is a service that tracks resource configurations and changes, helping organizations assess compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements.

Key Features:

• Configuration recording: Tracks resource configurations and relationships
• Configuration history: Historical view of resource changes
• Config rules: Evaluate resources against compliance rules
• Remediation: Automatic correction of non-compliant resources
• Conformance packs: Pre-built compliance rule sets

Compliance Benefits:

1. Continuous monitoring: Real-time compliance assessment
2. Change tracking: Who changed what and when
3. Compliance reporting: Dashboards and reports for auditors
4. Automated remediation: Reduce manual compliance efforts

Example Config Rule:

{
  "ConfigRuleName": "s3-bucket-ssl-requests-only",
  "Source": {
    "Owner": "AWS",
    "SourceIdentifier": "S3_BUCKET_SSL_REQUESTS_ONLY"
  },
  "Scope": {
    "ComplianceResourceTypes": ["AWS::S3::Bucket"]
  }
}

Common Use Cases:

• Security group compliance (no 0.0.0.0/0 access)
• Encryption enforcement (EBS, S3, RDS)
• Tagging compliance
• Network configuration validation