Understanding and Optimizing Control Guidance for Accurate AI Results

This guide explains how to optimize a control’s required evidence and test procedures for better accuracy of responses.

Introduction

Ensuring the accuracy of operating effectiveness results is crucial for maintaining a strong compliance posture. Trustero’s platform relies on required evidence and test procedures to determine whether controls are functioning as intended. These fields play a critical role in Trustero’s AI Control Checks, which proactively identifies compliance gaps before auditors do.

This guide explains how to optimize these fields for better accuracy, ensuring that:

• Your compliance program is continuously validated against industry standards.
• Trustero’s AI provides meaningful insights into control effectiveness.
• Control checks detect issues early, reducing last-minute surprises during audits.
• Security safeguards remain in place to mitigate risks associated with control failures.

Understanding Required Evidence and Test Procedures

What Are These Fields?

Required evidence and test procedures define how a control is evaluated for operating effectiveness:

• Required Evidence: Specifies the artifacts needed to verify that a control is functioning correctly.
• Test Procedures: Detail how the evidence will be examined to confirm compliance and control effectiveness.

These fields are critical for both Trustero’s AI Control Checks and manual evaluations, ensuring that auditors and internal stakeholders can confidently determine control effectiveness.

Where Do the Suggestions in the Trustero Platform Come From?

Trustero provides AI-powered recommendations for these fields, sourced from compliance experts and aligned with audit best practices. These recommendations apply to both Trustero-provided and custom controls, helping organizations meet SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and HITRUST requirements effectively.

Editing Required Evidence and Test Procedures

Why and When to Edit

While Trustero’s AI provides strong baseline suggestions, organizations may need to customize these fields based on their unique control implementations. However, modifications should be made cautiously, as they directly impact:

• How Trustero’s control checks evaluate control effectiveness.
• The clarity and accuracy of compliance reporting.
• The ease with which auditors can verify compliance.

If changes are needed, Trustero’s Customer Success and GRC teams are available to assist.

Best Practices for Editing Required Evidence and Test Procedures

To ensure the most accurate results, follow these guidelines:

Finding the "Sweet Spot"

• Be specific, but not too rigid. Avoid overly vague descriptions that make it unclear whether a control is passing or failing. However, don’t be so specific that minor procedural updates require unnecessary maintenance.
• Ensure adequate coverage. Every control needs at least one piece of required evidence and one test procedure. More than four test procedures can lead to complexity without added value.

Optimizing Required Evidence

• Focus on evidence categories rather than naming specific systems (e.g., “Data Storage” instead of “AWS S3”).
• Ensure evidence aligns with policy objectives and risk mitigation goals.

Structuring Test Procedures

Test procedures should follow a consistent, structured format:

[Title of Test]: [Examine/Validate/Confirm/Verify/Check] [piece of evidence] [where/how] [contains/includes/is or isn’t/are] [what to test/look for].

Examples

• Inventory Completeness Validation: Verify that each laptop entry in the inventory includes all necessary details: device identifiers (e.g., device name, serial number) and device owner information (e.g., user name, email address).
• Encryption Status Verification: Check each laptop in the inventory to confirm that encryption is enabled. Flag and document any laptops where encryption is not enabled.

By following these best practices, organizations can increase the accuracy of Trustero AI control check results, ensuring effective risk management and a smoother audit experience.