What is the CAIQ? 

As dependence on the cloud has continued to increase throughout the new century, the CSA recognized that this burgeoning technology could introduce major security flaws if implemented without any form of regulation. The CSA took it upon themselves to create and share documentation of commonly accepted industry standards and security controls for cloud-based services (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS). The CAIQ provides organizations with essential transparency into the tactics, technologies, and policies that are used by cloud vendors to protect sensitive data and manage risk.

The CAIQ is essentially a survey. Version 3.1 (the most updated version available) consists of 295 yes/no questions directed at cloud providers. These questions are designed to give cloud consumers and cloud auditors insight into how well the provider complies with established regulations and best practices. Another version, referred to as CAIQ-Lite, provides an easier, slightly less-thorough assessment using ~70 questions, designed for cybersecurity professionals and cloud-procurement models.

Simply put, vendor risk management teams, by using a standardized questionnaire, can reduce costs while increasing efficiencies. The CAIQ helps protect cloud-adopters from becoming exposed to unnecessary cybersecurity risk. CAIQ provides an essential service to cloud providers, as well. Vendors can use CAIQ to inform their security, and effectively showcase those offerings to customers using a standardized set of terms and concepts.

Working with third-party cloud vendors always entails some risk. In trusting vital data and processes to groups outside of the controlled environment of the business organization, cloud users lose the ability to directly ensure adequate security implementation. Even the most-trusted cloud providers may fail in certain areas, and organizations need to understand where those failings are likely to occur, and what weaknesses might be inherent in the vendor’s cloud solutions.

CAIQ assesses the security of cloud providers, and aims to create common and accepted industry standards for documentation. This offers a way for organizations to understand and evaluate cloud providers, and their security posture, before entering a business agreement.

Security, Trust, Assurance, and Risk (STAR) is a registry accessible to the public that documents privacy controls and security cloud computing programs. It encompasses the principles of auditing, harmonization, and transparency of standards as outlined in CAIQ and CCM.

Organizations show customers, both current and potential, their compliance and security postures and their adherence to regulations, standards, and frameworks. Ultimately, this reduces complexities and alleviates the need to fill out multiple questionnaires.