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Working Group

Consensus Assessments

This group is focused on providing industry-accepted ways to provide security control transparency by documenting which security controls exist. This group has been merged with the CCM working group.
Cloud Controls Matrix and CAIQ v4
Cloud Controls Matrix and CAIQ v4

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Consensus Assessments
This group has been merged with the CCM Working Group.

Lack of security control transparency is a leading inhibitor to the adoption of cloud services. The CSA Consensus Assessments (CAIQ) working group was launched to perform research, create tools and create industry partnerships to enable cloud computing assessments. 

The CAIQ is used by CSPs to submit to the CSA STAR Registry.

The Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire (CAIQ) v3.1. offers an industry-accepted way to document which security controls exist in IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS services, providing security control transparency. It provides a set of Yes/No questions a cloud consumer and cloud auditor may wish to ask of a cloud provider to ascertain their compliance to the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM). It helps cloud customers to gauge the security posture of prospective cloud service providers and determine if their cloud services are suitably secure. The CAIQ is used by CSPs to submit to the CSA STAR Registry.


Working Group Leadership

Laura Posey
Laura Posey

Laura Posey

Sean Cordero
Sean Cordero

Sean Cordero

Sean Cordero brings more than 15 years of information security and IT experience to his current role as director, information security at Optiv. Cordero provides executive level advisement for the company’s Fortune 50 clients. Cordero’s prior leadership roles included: President of Cloud Watchmen, CSO for EdFund, CSO for ECMC West, Director of Security and Compliance for Charlotte Russe.

Cordero is a thought-leader and serves as chair...

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Evelyn de Souza
Evelyn de Souza

Evelyn de Souza

Senior Security Strategist at Cisco

Evelyn is responsible for championing holistic security solutions that address emerging industry trends such as cloud, data center SDN and mobile. She is a strong proponent of building automated, repeatable processes that enable organizations to sustain compliance while optimizing security posture and reducing costs. To this end, Evelyn co-chairs the Cloud Security Alliance Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) which harmonizes regulations and indust...

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Publications in ReviewOpen Until
Zero Trust Automation & Orchestration and Visibility & Analytics Overview - Implementing Needed Cross-Cutting CapabilitiesApr 18, 2025
Dynamic Process Landscape: A Strategic Guide to Successful AI ImplementationApr 18, 2025
Zero Trust Guidance for IoTApr 18, 2025
MLOps OverviewApr 18, 2025
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Who can join?

Anyone can join a working group, whether you have years of experience or want to just participate as a fly on the wall.

What is the time commitment?

The time commitment for this group varies depending on the project. You can spend a 15 minutes helping review a publication that's nearly finished or help author a publication from start to finish.

Open Peer Reviews

Peer reviews allow security professionals from around the world to provide feedback on CSA research before it is published.

Learn how to participate in a peer review here.

Zero Trust Automation & Orchestration and Visibility & Analytics Overview - Implementing Needed Cross-Cutting Capabilities

Open Until: 04/18/2025

Visibility & Analytics and Automation & Orchestration are foundational, cross-cutting capabilities within the Zero ...

Dynamic Process Landscape: A Strategic Guide to Successful AI Implementation

Open Until: 04/18/2025

AI adoption in business and manufacturing is failing more often than it succeeds. Why? Because companies are trying to inte...

Zero Trust Guidance for IoT

Open Until: 04/18/2025

Adopting Internet of Things (IoT) technologies introduces security challenges that require an effective strategy for ensuri...

MLOps Overview

Open Until: 04/18/2025

The practice of DevSecOps has evolved significantly since the start of the CSA DevSecOps Working Group in 2019. We have tak...