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
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 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
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...
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...
| Publications in Review | Open Until |
|---|---|
| Data Security within AI Environments | Aug 29, 2025 |
| AICM Auditing Guidelines | Sep 03, 2025 |
| A Practitioner’s Guide to Post-Quantum Cryptography | Sep 17, 2025 |
| Cloud Threat Modeling 2025 | Sep 19, 2025 |
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.