What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on NS-9 Connect on-premises or cloud network privately?

Inventory of inter-network links and the connectivity type of each; Private link or dedicated circuit configuration; Routing configuration showing traffic does not egress publicly; Encryption applied over the private path.

What is the most common gap auditors find on NS-9?

site-to-site traffic over the public internet with only transport encryption

Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark) · Network Security

`NS-9` Connect on-premises or cloud network privately

Use private connectivity for communication between networks, such as between provider datacentres and on-premises or colocation infrastructure, rather than traversing the public internet.

Source: Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark), NS-9. 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 Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark) in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

Cloud console / configuration management

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

Private link or dedicated circuit configuration · Cloud console / configuration management
Routing configuration showing traffic does not egress publicly · Cloud console / configuration management

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Inventory of inter-network links and the connectivity type of each · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Encryption applied over the private path · Document repository

First move

Automate the pull from your Cloud console / configuration management. Configuration snapshots and change history from the cloud console or IaC repository, diffed against the baseline.

Common gaps auditors find

site-to-site traffic over the public internet with only transport encryption
private circuits provisioned but routes still prefer public paths
no inventory so shadow public paths persist

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

NS-8 Detect and disable insecure services and protocols · NS-10 Ensure Domain Name System (DNS) security