IVV-IAS General Independent Assessor Responsibilities

Assessors MUST verify that the measures implemented by the cloud service offering matches the measures they documented to meet FedRAMP Practices.

Note

This requires reviewing the actual measures themselves at a technical level, such as reviewing underlying code as appropriate; don't simply review documentation or screenshots.

Defined terms: Cloud Service Offering, FedRAMP Practices, Verification

Assessors MUST validate the effectiveness of the implemented measures to ensure they have the intended outcome for meeting FedRAMP Practices.

Note

This requires reviewing the actual measures themselves at a technical level, such as reviewing underlying code as appropriate; don't simply review documentation or screenshots.

Defined terms: FedRAMP Practices, Validation

Assessors MUST supply the provider with a high-level summary of their assessment process and findings for each FedRAMP Practice; this summary will be included by the provider in the FedRAMP Security Decision Record for the cloud service offering.

Note

FedRAMP does not require a separate Security Assessment Plan or Security Assessment Report for FedRAMP 20x or FedRAMP Rev5 Certifications; this information is expected to be included in the Security Decision Record by the cloud service provider.

Defined terms: Cloud Service Offering, FedRAMP Practices, Security Decision Record (SDR)

Assessors MUST supply the provider with an overall summary of the verification and validation assessment results, including any resulting failures or areas of dispute; this summary will be included by the provider in the FedRAMP Certification Package Overview for the cloud service offering.

Note

FedRAMP does not supply a template for this summary and encourages independent assessment services to optimize for the best customer experience in the creation of these materials.

Defined terms: Certification Package, Cloud Service Offering, Validation, Verification

Assessors MUST verify that information supplied during a FedRAMP independent assessment is included in the FedRAMP Certification Package by the provider without inappropriate modification.

Note

This rule is related to IVV-CSO-ICP (Inclusion in Certification Package).

Related rules: IVV-CSO-ICP

Defined terms: Certification Package, FedRAMP Independent Assessment, Verification

Assessors SHOULD engage provider experts in discussion to understand the decisions made by the provider and inform expert qualitative assessment, and SHOULD perform independent research to test such information as part of the expert qualitative assessment process.

Assessors MAY share advice with providers they are assessing about techniques and procedures that will improve the provider's security posture or the effectiveness, clarity, and accuracy of their verification, validation and reporting procedures, UNLESS doing so is likely to compromise the objectivity and integrity of the assessment.

Defined terms: Likely, Validation, Verification