What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on DCS-04 Secure Area Policy and Procedures?

Secure area policy defining zones, permitted activities and rules such as clear desk and escort requirements; Facility security procedures for offices, server rooms and shared spaces; Floor plans or zone maps marking secure areas; Walkthrough or inspection reports showing the rules are followed; Policy approval and review history.

What is the most common gap auditors find on DCS-04?

Policy covers the datacenter but not offices where privileged staff work

CSA CCM v4.1 · DCS - Datacenter Security

`DCS-04` Secure Area Policy and Procedures

Policies and procedures keep offices, rooms and facilities safe and secure places to work. They are revisited every year, and sooner if something significant changes.

Source: CSA CCM v4.1, DCS-04. 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 CSA CCM v4.1 in the compliance library.

Version 4.1 adds 11 controls (among them API security, log sanitisation and a service bill of materials) and renumbers several domains. CSA accepts v4.0.x during its transition; if your STAR assessment is still on v4.0.1, check the numbering against it.

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

Policy approval and review history · Policy repository / GRC workspace

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Walkthrough or inspection reports showing the rules are followed · Policy repository / GRC workspace

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Secure area policy defining zones, permitted activities and rules such as clear desk and escort requirements · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Facility security procedures for offices, server rooms and shared spaces · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Floor plans or zone maps marking secure areas · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Policy repository / GRC workspace on a schedule; put the documents under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Policy covers the datacenter but not offices where privileged staff work
Zone definitions exist but no inspection checks whether they are observed
Policy not updated after moving to a new office or hybrid working

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

DCS-03 Off-Site Transfer Authorization Policy and Procedures · DCS-05 Secure Media Transportation Policy and Procedures