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CLF-015
Which of the following is the most appropriate description of AWS Artifact?
Choices
Explanation and answer
Read the explanation and correct answer (spoiler — try answering first)
Correct answer: C. A service that provides access to AWS compliance reports and agreements.
Explanation
AWS Artifact provides access to compliance-related reports and agreements.
Per-choice explanations
A. A service that creates backups of Amazon EC2 instances.
Incorrect. EC2 backups are handled by AMIs and EBS snapshots, among others.
B. A service that runs AWS Lambda functions on a schedule.
Incorrect. Scheduled execution is handled by Amazon EventBridge.
C. A service that provides access to AWS compliance reports and agreements.
Correct. AWS Artifact is used to review compliance documents.
D. A service that selects Amazon CloudFront edge locations.
Incorrect. It is not a service that individually selects CloudFront edge locations.
Practical Use
AWS Artifact is a self-service portal for obtaining AWS compliance-related documents. It includes SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 reports, ISO certification documents, the PCI DSS Attestation of Compliance (AOC), HIPAA and FedRAMP-related documents, compliance documents specific to various countries and regions, and agreements with AWS (such as the Business Associate Agreement, BAA, and NDAs). These serve as primary materials when explaining AWS's security and compliance posture to third parties, and can be used directly as evidence for internal audits, external audits, and as documents submitted to customers. Typical scenarios in practice include obtaining the SOC 2 report as evidence of controls for the AWS infrastructure portion when undergoing a SOC 2 audit, signing a BAA with AWS when building a HIPAA-compliant medical system, and proving the AWS responsibility scope with the AOC for a PCI DSS cardholder data environment. AWS Artifact itself is free to use, but the documents are distributed under an NDA, so you are asked to agree to the terms when downloading them. If you use AWS Organizations, you can also delegate from the management account and obtain documents individually in each member account. On CLF-C02, this content is asked as a question that requests the service used to access AWS compliance reports, or the service that can obtain audit documents. Distractors include service capabilities in unrelated areas, such as an EC2 backup service, a Lambda scheduler, or CloudFront edge selection. The name is similar to AWS Audit Manager (which automates the collection of audit evidence), but AWS Artifact is for obtaining AWS's own compliance documents, while Audit Manager is for collecting audit evidence in the customer environment. The roles are different.