What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on RA-7 Risk Response?

Risk assessment policy; Assessment reports; Audit records/event logs; System security plan; Privacy plan; Test of Organizational processes for assessments and audits; mechanisms/tools supporting and/or implementing assessments and auditing.

What is the most common gap auditors find on RA-7?

Findings from assessments, monitoring and audits are not tracked to a response decision, such as remediation or acceptance

NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · RA - Risk Assessment

`RA-7` Risk Response

Respond to findings from security and privacy assessments, monitoring, and audits in accordance with organizational risk tolerance.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, RA-7. 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

Audit records/event logs · SIEM / log platform

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Assessment reports · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Test of Organizational processes for assessments and audits; mechanisms/tools supporting and/or implementing assessments and auditing · Policy repository / GRC workspace

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Risk assessment policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Privacy plan · 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

Findings from assessments, monitoring and audits are not tracked to a response decision, such as remediation or acceptance
Risk responses are made without reference to the organizational risk tolerance, and acceptances lack approval

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

RA-6 Technical Surveillance Countermeasures Survey · RA-8 Privacy Impact Assessments