EvidenceSheet
FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline) · AU - Audit and Accountability

AU-1 Policy and Procedures

Develop, document, disseminate and review the policy for audit and accountability, and its procedures, on the FedRAMP-defined cadence: policy at least annually under High and at least every three years under Moderate, procedures at least annually and after significant changes under both.

Source: FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline), AU-1. 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 FedRAMP High (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline) in the compliance library.

A FedRAMP baseline is a subset of NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, enhancements included.

6
artefacts
1
held by a system
2
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

  • Audit log integrity controls including write once storage or hashing · SIEM / log platform

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • SSP AU-1 statement naming the audit and accountability policy owner, review frequency and the logging procedure it points to · SIEM / log platform
  • Time synchronisation evidence across logging endpoints · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Audit and accountability policy with dated review approval and change log · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Audit and accountability policy with retention periods defined · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • List of auditable events and log source inventory · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your SIEM / log platform 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

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.

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AT-4 Training Records · AU-2 Event Logging