Alibaba Cloud becomes first public cloud provider to secure OSPAR validation

Alibaba Cloud announced on June 20 that it has become the first public cloud provider in the industry to attain the Outsourced Service Providers Audit Report (OSPAR) validation by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) in February 2019.

OSPAR is designed to support the financial services industry in reducing compliance-associated costs when outsourcing the management of sensitive or mission-critical data to vendors. With the strict standards required under OSPAR, including regular reviews conducted by ABS-qualified external auditors, the validation demonstrates AlibabaCloud's commitment to providing customers with stable, reliable, secure, and compliant cloud computing products and services.

Alibaba Cloud has more than 70 other security and compliance accreditations worldwide, complying with global security standards such as Germany's Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalogue (C5), the first Asian company to do so, and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy guidelines.

In addition, Alibaba Cloud has also been carrying out independent self-assessments and audits on existing risk controls in regions such as Hong Kong to ensure their design and operating effectiveness are on par with the regulatory requirements and security and compliance guidelines of financial service institutions in their respective regions of operations.

Alibaba Cloud has one of the strongest networks in the Asia Pacific region, with 15 availability zones outside mainland China, covering Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Japan. It is also the only global cloud provider with local data centers in Indonesia and Malaysia.

"The world today runs on data, with increasing reliance on sensitive personal information for the purpose of providing better services and solutions. External partners like Alibaba Cloud are required to manage the volume of data while making sense of its complexity, and this certification is an important endorsement of the integrity and approach we follow as a global cloud service provider," said Alibaba Cloud International Compliance Lead Larry Liu.

"Securing OSPAR compliance in one of the world's premier financial hubs means our customers can divert more resources to revenue-generating activities while knowing they have a trusted and reliable partner in us."

Alibaba Cloud continues to actively work with local regulators and authorities towards co-creating best practices for IT security and compliance for the benefit of businesses and consumers. With services and products available across different regions and countries, building trust between their partners and customers is key.

Alibaba Cloud has continued to take dedicated measures in this regard by adhering to domestic information security standards and adopting international best practices in regions where their cloud products and services are offered.

These include the Trusted Cloud Competence Network in Denmark, the National Electronic Security Authority (NESA) in the United Arab Emirates, and the Cross-regional Value-added Telecommunication Services (Internet data centers and Internet access) Business License (TRUCS) in China.