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AWS attained MTCS Level 3 certification under the new SS584:2020 standard

We’re excited to announce the completion of the Multi-Tier Cloud Security (MTCS) Level 3 certification under the new SS584:2020 standard in November 2021 for three Amazon Web Services (AWS) Regions: Singapore, Korea, and United States, excluding AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. The new standard, released in October 2020, includes more stringent controls for greater assurance as compared to the prior version SS584:2015, and a new CSP Self-Disclosure Form to provide to cloud service customers (CSC) for transparency. With the MTCS Level 3 certification, customers can be assured AWS security processes meet the stringent security controls set forth by the new MTCS SS 584:2020 standard for hosting their sensitive workloads.

AWS was the first cloud service provider (CSP) to attain the MTCS Level 3 certification for Singapore, in 2014, and is now one of the first few CSPs certified under the new SS584:2020 Level 3 standard. The services in scope have increased from 130 to 145, about a 10% increase since the last audit (September 2020).

The following services are newly added as in scope:

1. Amazon Augmented AI (Amazon A2I)
2. Amazon CloudWatch SDK Metrics for Enterprise Support
3. Amazon Detective
4. Amazon Finspace
5. Amazon Kendra
6. Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra)
7. Amazon Timestream
8. AWS App Mesh
9. AWS Audit Manager
10. AWS Cloud Map
11. AWS Device Farm
12. AWS Glue DataBrew
13. AWS Ground Station
14. AWS Personal Health Dashboard

MTCS was the world’s first cloud security standard to specify a management system for cloud security that covers multiple tiers, and it can be applied by CSPs to meet differing cloud user needs for data sensitivity and business criticality. An intent of MTCS is for certified CSPs to be able to better specify the levels of security they can offer their users. AWS achieved this through third-party certification and fulfillment of the self-disclosure requirement for CSPs that covers service-oriented information normally captured in service level agreements. The MTCS framework establishes that the different levels of security help local businesses to pick the right CSP, and use of MTCS is mandated by the Singapore government as a requirement for public sector agencies and regulated organizations.

MTCS has three levels of security, Level 1 being the base and Level 3 the most stringent:

• Level 1 was designed for non–business critical data and systems with basic security controls, to counter certain risks and threats targeting low-impact information systems (for example, a website that hosts public information).
• Level 2 addresses the needs of organizations that run their business-critical data and systems in public or third-party cloud systems (for example, confidential business data and email).
• Level 3 was designed for regulated organizations with specific and more stringent security requirements. Industry-specific regulations can be applied in addition to the baseline controls, to help supplement and address security risks and threats in high-impact information systems (for example, highly confidential business data, financial records, and medical records).

Benefits of MTCS Level 3 certification

AWS’s certification enables Singapore customers in regulated industries with the strictest security requirements to securely host applications and systems with highly sensitive information, ranging from confidential business data to financial and medical records, in a level-3-compliant MTCS environment. With the scope extended beyond Singapore to AWS Regions in Korea and the United States, it provides an alternative for Singapore government agencies to leverage AWS services which haven’t yet launched locally, and also provides resiliency and recovery use cases.

Financial Services Industry (FSI) customers in Korea are able to accelerate cloud adoption with MTCS controls that cover relevant regulations (the Financial Security Institute’s Guideline on Use of Cloud Computing Services in the Financial Industry, and the Regulation on Supervision on Electronic Financial Transactions (RSEFT)).

With increasing cloud adoption across different industries, MTCS certification has the potential to provide assurance to customers globally. Please reach out to your AWS representative if you have any services or Regions you would like to see in scope for the next MTCS audit.

You can now download the latest MTCS certificates and the MTCS Self-Disclosure Form in AWS Artifact.

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