What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on AC.L2-3.1.20 External Connections?

Inventory of approved external systems and connection terms; Agreements or terms governing external system use; Technical controls limiting external system connections.

What is the most common gap auditors find on AC.L2-3.1.20?

External cloud services used without review

CMMC 2.0 · Access Control

`AC.L2-3.1.20` External Connections

Verify, then control or limit, connections to and use of external systems that are outside organizational control.

Source: CMMC 2.0, AC.L2-3.1.20. 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 CMMC 2.0 in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Policy repository / GRC workspace

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

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Inventory of approved external systems and connection terms · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Agreements or terms governing external system use · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Technical controls limiting external system connections · Policy repository / GRC workspace

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

External cloud services used without review
Connections permitted with no verification of the external party
No limit on what CUI may be processed externally

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

AC.L2-3.1.19 Encrypt CUI on Mobile · AC.L2-3.1.21 Portable Storage Use