What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on CA-9(1) Internal System Connections | Compliance Checks?

Assessment, authorization, and monitoring policy; Access control policy; Procedures addressing system connections; System and communications protection policy; System design documentation; System configuration settings and associated documentation.

What is the most common gap auditors find on CA-9(1)?

Internal connections are established without prior security and privacy compliance checks of the components

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

`CA-9(1)` Internal System Connections | Compliance Checks

Perform security and privacy compliance checks on constituent system components prior to the establishment of the internal connection.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, CA-9(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

Test of Mechanisms supporting compliance checks · SIEM / log platform

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Assessment report · SIEM / log platform
System audit records · SIEM / log platform

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Assessment, authorization, and monitoring policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Access control policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Procedures addressing system connections · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System and communications protection policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System design documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System configuration settings and associated documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
List of components or classes of components authorized as internal system connections · 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

Internal connections are established without prior security and privacy compliance checks of the components
Compliance check results are not recorded before internal connections are approved

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-9 Internal System Connections · CM-1 Policy and Procedures