What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on CA-2(1) Control Assessments | Independent Assessors?

Assessment, authorization, and monitoring policy; Procedures addressing control assessments; Previous control assessment plan; Previous control assessment report; Plan of action and milestones; Existing authorization statement.

What is the most common gap auditors find on CA-2(1)?

Control assessments are performed by staff who operate or manage the system, so assessor independence is not achieved

NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · CA - Assessment, Authorization, and Monitoring

`CA-2(1)` Control Assessments | Independent Assessors

Employ independent assessors or assessment teams to conduct control assessments.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, CA-2(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 NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 in the compliance library.

Base controls and their enhancements. Which apply follows the baseline you are assessed against (for example FedRAMP Moderate or High, or the low, moderate and high baselines of SP 800-53B). Text in square brackets is a parameter your organisation sets.

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

Procedures addressing control assessments · SIEM / log platform
Previous control assessment report · SIEM / log platform

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Assessment, authorization, and monitoring policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Previous control assessment plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Plan of action and milestones · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Existing authorization statement · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Privacy plan · 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

Control assessments are performed by staff who operate or manage the system, so assessor independence is not achieved
No documented criteria show how assessor independence was determined for the assessment team

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

CA-2 Control Assessments · CA-2(2) Control Assessments | Specialized Assessments