What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on SEC09-BP03 Authenticate network communications?

Inventory of service-to-service flows with the protocol used; TLS and mutual TLS configuration for internal endpoints; Certificate or identity issuance process for workload identities; Scan results confirming unauthenticated protocols are absent.

What is the most common gap auditors find on SEC09-BP03?

internal traffic left unauthenticated on the assumption the network is trusted

AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar · Data Protection

`SEC09-BP03` Authenticate network communications

Confirm who is on each end of traffic between services, applications and users by choosing protocols with built-in authentication, TLS or IPsec for example.

Source: AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar, SEC09-BP03. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

TLS and mutual TLS configuration for internal endpoints · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)
Scan results confirming unauthenticated protocols are absent · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Inventory of service-to-service flows with the protocol used · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Certificate or identity issuance process for workload identities · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Endpoint management (MDM / EDR). Device compliance report from the MDM (encryption, EDR agent, OS version) on a daily pull.

Common gaps auditors find

internal traffic left unauthenticated on the assumption the network is trusted
TLS terminated at the edge with plaintext behind it
certificate validation disabled to work around expiry errors

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

SEC09-BP02 Enforce encryption in transit · SEC10-BP01 Identify key personnel and external resources