What is the function of AWS Key Management Service (KMS)?

AWS Key Management Service (KMS) is designed specifically to provide robust encryption and key management capabilities. This service allows users to create and control encryption keys used to encrypt their data, ensuring that sensitive information remains secure. By integrating with other AWS services, KMS enables seamless encryption for data stored in services like S3, EBS, and RDS, among others.

KMS simplifies the management of cryptographic keys, allowing users to define policies that control access to these keys, rotate them regularly, and maintain an audit trail of their use. This centralized key management not only enhances security but also ensures compliance with regulatory requirements by providing mechanisms to enforce key usage policies consistently across an organization’s AWS environment.

The other options address different areas of security and management within AWS but do not correspond directly to the primary function of KMS. Managing SSL/TLS certificate deployment is typically handled by AWS Certificate Manager. The secure storage of user identities is related to AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), while auditing security compliance is usually conducted through AWS CloudTrail or AWS Config, rather than KMS. Thus, C accurately reflects the core responsibilities of AWS KMS.