What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on PR.DS-11 Backups of data are created, protected, maintained, and tested?

Backup policy with frequency and retention; Backup integrity test reports; Immutable backup configuration evidence; Restoration test records with success criteria; Backup access control and audit logs.

What is the most common gap auditors find on PR.DS-11?

Restoration tests narrow in scope

NIST CSF 2.0 · PR - Protect

`PR.DS-11` Backups of data are created, protected, maintained, and tested

Backups of data are created, protected, maintained, and tested. Control from NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 framework, domain: PR - Protect.

Source: NIST CSF 2.0, PR.DS-11. 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 CSF 2.0 in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

Backup / DR tooling

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

Backup integrity test reports · Backup / DR tooling
Immutable backup configuration evidence · Backup / DR tooling
Backup access control and audit logs · Backup / DR tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Restoration test records with success criteria · Backup / DR tooling

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Backup policy with frequency and retention · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Backup / DR tooling. Backup job success history and restore-test logs from the backup platform.

Common gaps auditors find

Restoration tests narrow in scope
Immutability not configured on all critical systems
Backups exposed via shared admin credentials
Retention not aligned to recovery objectives

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

PR.DS-10 The confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data-in-use are protected · PR.IR-01 Networks and environments are protected from unauthorized logical access and usage