Topic

Outsourced cloud services

Applicable to

Secret, Top Secret

History

Priority

Must

Dec 2021

Only community or private clouds are used for outsourced SECRET and TOP SECRET cloud services.

Miscellaneous changes were made to rationale and security controls throughout the publication. This included:

• A review from the Using the Information Security Manual chapter through to the Guidelines for Media chapter.

• Security controls suitable for all audiences have been identified with the ‘All’ applicability marking while additional security controls suitable for just government audiences have been identified with the O, P, S and TS applicability markings.

• Security controls suitable for specific classifications have been amended to include their classification(s) in the wording of the security controls to reduce the reliance on applicability markings to confer suitability.

• Tables in security controls have been converted into prose to allow for inclusion in the SSP annex template and the XML list of security controls.

• The use of ‘official’ and ‘highly classified’ terminology has been replaced with specific classifications to remove ambiguity.

• Security controls relating to high assurance ICT equipment have had their applicability narrowed to ‘S, TS’ reflecting that they are intended for the protection of SECRET and TOP SECRET systems and data.

Jul 2020

Only community or private clouds are used for outsourced cloud services.

Security control 1529 was amended to focus on what types of cloud services can be used for highly classified information.

Jun 2020

If using outsourced cloud services for highly classified information, public clouds are not used.

Nov 2018

If using outsourced cloud services for highly classified information, public clouds are not used.

Added to address a gap in guidance on the use of highly classified outsourced cloud services.