Audit and Accountability Benchmark for FedRAMP Moderate Revision 4

In FedRAMP Moderate Revision 4, the AU control category plays a vital role in enforcing audit and accountability measures within cloud service providers (CSPs) working at the Moderate security level.

The AU control category is critical as it focuses on implementing audit and accountability measures within CSPs operating at the Moderate level.

The objectives of the AU control category include establishing a robust audit trail, facilitating data monitoring and analysis, and enabling incident detection and response.

Various controls and requirements are incorporated in the AU control category for CSPs offering cloud services at the Moderate security level:

CSPs are required to create auditable events for incident reconstruction, such as user logins and data access attempts.

Ensuring there is enough storage capacity for the secure retention of audit logs.

Implementing measures to secure the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of audit logs.

Defining specific timeframes for retaining audit logs and adhering to them.

Generating audit records for crucial events like system start-up and user authentication.

Actively monitoring and analyzing audit records to identify and report security incidents.

Facilitating the reduction of audit data into meaningful reports for incident response.

Ensuring the accuracy of time stamps for audit records.

Safeguarding audit tools from unauthorized access, modification, or removal.

Regularly reviewing audit logs, conducting analysis, and generating reports to promptly address security weaknesses.

Compliance with the AU control category requirements bolsters CSPs' security posture, assuring federal agencies of adequate audit measures in place. These measures help in detecting, responding to, and preventing security incidents in the cloud environment, thereby mitigating risks to sensitive information.