What systems do security and availability audits cover? A fair question!

Well, the hard truth is that it is your responsibility to identify this as a system owner; and not the duty of an auditor. Don’t sit around waiting for auditors to show up and expect them to answer this question.

Simply put, everything and anything within your ecosystem that may interrupt business continuity should be part of the audit. This can easily include systems that do not even reside in your ‘PROD VPC’, or even be tagged as ‘Production’.

You’ll be surprised how many times it comes down to a small neglected server that sits in the corner and very few folk know about, yet holds a critical role in your supply chain processing, or mailing important notifications and updates to clients.

Do a true/practical risk assessment, identify your systems, minimize your exceptions, properly document your findings, and present them as the lay of the land; your auditors will be very thankful.