What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 15.5 Assess Service Providers?

Completed provider assessments with SOC 2 or PCI AoC reviews and questionnaires; Assessment schedule by classification; Findings and follow-up actions.

CIS Controls v8.1 · CIS Control 15: Service Provider Management

`15.5` Assess Service Providers

Assess service providers as the provider management policy directs, with scope depending on classification and potentially including review of standard reports such as SOC 2 or a PCI Attestation of Compliance, tailored questionnaires or other rigorous methods. Reassess at least yearly and on new or renewed contracts. Implementation Group: IG3 only (for enterprises facing sophisticated attackers or holding highly sensitive data). Asset type: Users. Security function: Govern.

Source: CIS Controls v8.1, 15.5. 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.

Scope: Implementation Groups: IG3. Security function: Govern; asset type: Users.

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.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Vendor register / contract repository

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

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Completed provider assessments with SOC 2 or PCI AoC reviews and questionnaires · Vendor register / contract repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Assessment schedule by classification · Vendor register / contract repository
Findings and follow-up actions · Vendor register / contract repository

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

Reports collected but not read
Bridge letters and carve-outs ignored
Renewals without reassessment

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

15.4 Ensure Service Provider Contracts Include Security Requirements · 15.6 Monitor Service Providers