15.3 Classify Service Providers
Classify service providers using one or more factors such as data sensitivity and volume, availability needs, applicable regulation, inherent risk and mitigated risk, and revisit classifications yearly or after significant change. Implementation Groups: IG2 and IG3 (not in the IG1 baseline; applies from IG2 upward). Asset type: Users. Security function: Govern.
Source: CIS Controls v8.1, 15.3. 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 CIS Controls v8.1 in the compliance library.
Each safeguard shows its Implementation Groups. IG1 is the essential baseline for every enterprise, IG2 adds to it, IG3 is all 153. Version 8.1 adds the Govern security function and asks for more processes to be documented; numbering is unchanged from v8.
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
none for this control
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Annual reclassification records · Vendor register / contract repository
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Classification criteria and scoring model · Vendor register / contract repository
- Classified provider list · Vendor register / contract repository
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Every provider rated the same
- Criteria omit regulatory exposure
- Classifications never revisited
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 sheet15.2 Establish and Maintain a Service Provider Management Policy · 15.4 Ensure Service Provider Contracts Include Security Requirements