Exam CCAK topic 1 question 185 discussion

When evaluating the effectiveness of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) deployments from a compliance perspective, an assessor should most notably review: B. Logs Logs are crucial artifacts for assessing compliance because they provide detailed records of actions and events that occur within systems. They can offer insights into whether IaC deployments are being executed as intended, help identify any deviations from expected configurations, and ensure that compliance requirements are being met consistently. Logs can also demonstrate the adherence to security policies, traceability, and accountability within the infrastructure management process. While SOC reports, evaluation summaries, and interviews provide valuable information, logs offer the most direct evidence of deployment activities and are key for understanding ongoing operational effectiveness and compliance adherence in IaC contexts.

CCAK P#300 In a mature cloud environment, policies are often translated into code as opposed to just being text documents. Likewise, the controls need to verify that the policy is effectively implemented. So, policies and controls are directly implemented in the system in a (semi) automated fashion. From the cloud compliance program perspective, most of the evaluation on the suitability of policy to effectively manage the risk and align with the governance goal is done via the analysis of audit trails (e.g., logs). Logging of activities takes place alongside the development, delivery and integration pipelines to determine who has done what, who has approved what, when something has been tested, when a certain change has occurred, etc. The logs are not the only evidence the assessor will rely upon, but their role is much more central than before.

When evaluating the effectiveness of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) deployments from a compliance perspective, an assessor should review SOC reports. SOC reports are independent third-party assessments of an organization’s internal controls and are used to evaluate the effectiveness of an organization’s security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy controls.