“CM-SEC assessments provide evidence-based findings, remediation guidance, and documentation that supports regulatory and audit expectations. We align scope to your program needs and deliver artifacts auditors can review.”

Compliance audits are usually triggered by one of three forces

1. Regulators & laws
   Some industries have requirements tied to how you handle data, payments, or sensitive operations (health, finance, education, government contracting, etc.). Audits become the mechanism to prove controls exist and are operating.

2. Customer and partner requirements (trust at scale)
   Even when the law doesn’t require it, customers often do. If you’re selling B2B—especially into larger organizations—security questionnaires, third-party risk reviews, and “show me evidence” requests are normal. Audits (or audit-like evidence) are how you keep deals moving.

3. Risk management: insurance, board oversight, and reality
   Cyber insurers increasingly want proof that controls are real. Leadership teams also want visibility: not “we think we’re secure,” but “we tested it and here’s what happened.”

Common “oh we need compliance now” moments

• You’re closing bigger customers and security reviews are blocking contracts

• You’re handling payments, health data, or other regulated data types

• You’re going through M&A / fundraising / vendor onboarding (due diligence)

• You had an incident (or near miss) and leadership wants measurable improvement

• Insurance renewal time hits and they demand evidence

• You’re standardizing security across multiple sites/teams and need a baseline

CM-SEC isn’t an auditor and doesn’t “certify compliance.” What we do is produce independent, evidence-backed testing results that help you support the controls you claim exist.

Think of it like this:

• Your program says: “We have controls.”

• Your auditor says: “Prove it.”

• CM-SEC provides: “Here’s a realistic test of the control, what happened, and how to fix gaps—documented in an audit-friendly trail.”

That’s why our deliverables are built as an “audit package”: defined scope/boundaries, signed authorization/ROE when required, a final report with evidence and remediation guidance, optional retesting, and an optional completion/attestation letter confirming services performed (not compliance).

Physical Penetration Testing: Validates real-world access controls, visitor handling, challenge culture, and restricted area protections under clear authorization and safety constraints.

OSINT Footprinting: Shows what an attacker can learn from public exposure and provides a prioritized fix plan to reduce targeting and impersonation risk.

Most clients use CM-SEC deliverables in one (or more) of these ways

• As evidence of control testing (independent validation)

• As risk documentation (findings + severity + business impact narrative)

• As remediation proof (prioritized plan + retest summary)

• As audit file support (completion/attestation letter with dates, scope boundaries, and deliverables issued)

Do you certify compliance?
No. CM-SEC does not “certify” an organization as compliant and we do not provide legal opinions. We perform security testing and deliver evidence-based findings, remediation guidance, and documentation that supports audit and compliance programs. Final compliance determinations remain the responsibility of the organization and its auditor.

What do you do vs. what don’t you do?
We do: scope to relevant sites/systems/users and document boundaries, perform testing and risk validation, provide reports/remediation/evidence packages, provide completion/attestation letters for audit evidence (when requested), and offer retesting to validate remediation.
We don’t: provide legal opinions or guarantee compliance outcomes.

What does “audit-ready” documentation mean?
It means deliverables are structured for third-party review: clear scope and boundaries, a defensible testing narrative tied to findings, severity ratings, evidence references, and remediation steps that can be tracked to closure.

What engagement artifacts do you provide (the audit trail)?
As applicable to scope, we can provide: Proposal / Statement of Work (SOW), signed authorization and Rules of Engagement (ROE) (where required), high-level test plan and schedule (as applicable), final report (executive + technical), sanitized evidence package (as appropriate), prioritized remediation plan, debrief/readout summary, retest summary (optional), and attestation/completion letter (optional).

What do executives receive?
An executive summary with risk explained in plain language, a prioritized remediation roadmap, and a business impact narrative (why it matters operationally and financially).

What does the technical team receive?
Findings with severity ratings, evidence references and attack paths (how issues were validated), and clear reproduction notes to confirm issues and validate remediation.

Do you provide remediation guidance, or just findings?
We provide fix guidance and prioritization. The goal is to make remediation practical: what to fix first, why it matters, and what “fixed” looks like.

Do you retest after remediation?
Yes. Retesting is available as an add-on or bundled option. After fixes are implemented, we can validate remediation and provide a brief retest summary noting what was retested, outcomes, and any remaining risk.

Can you provide an attestation / completion letter for our audit file?
Yes. Upon request, we can provide an attestation/completion letter on company letterhead confirming services performed, dates, high-level scope boundaries (in-scope/out-of-scope), and deliverables issued (report version/date, remediation plan, and retest summary if applicable). The letter confirms work performed and deliverables provided—it is not a compliance certification.

Can you tailor the report to our auditor’s format or control framework?
Yes. We can align reporting structure and language to your audit needs (for example: mapping findings to your framework, adding scope/boundary statements, and organizing evidence in a way that’s easy for auditors to review). We confirm required format and references during scoping.

Can you support audit Q&A with our auditor, customer risk team, or procurement/security reviewers?
Yes. We can support reasonable Q&A sessions to clarify scope, methods, boundaries, and deliverables so third parties can review the engagement efficiently.

How do you handle sensitive findings and evidence?
We apply least-privilege handling and need-to-know distribution. We document enough detail to remediate without unnecessarily exposing sensitive information. Evidence is sanitized/redacted as appropriate, and exceptionally sensitive items can be handled with restricted distribution and reviewed live during a debrief.

What is your redaction approach?
We redact or sanitize details when it reduces risk without reducing usefulness—for example masking personal data, internal identifiers, or unnecessary sensitive context—while preserving enough proof for remediation and audit review.

How do you store and deliver engagement data and reports?
Engagement data is treated as sensitive: encrypted at rest, protected in transit, and access-restricted. Deliverables are provided through agreed secure channels aligned to your internal requirements.

What is your data retention policy?
Retention is defined in the SOW (shorter/longer options available by request). By default, we retain encrypted engagement data only as long as needed to support reporting, debrief, and any agreed retest window, then securely delete it. Deletion confirmation can be provided upon request.

Who receives the report and how is distribution controlled?
You define the distribution list. We can support restricted distribution (executive-only, security-only, role-based) and can split deliverables (executive report vs technical appendix, or a restricted evidence addendum) based on your internal requirements and risk tolerance.

Can you align an engagement to our audit deadline?
Yes. If you share your audit date and required deliverables, we can scope milestones, testing windows, and reporting outputs to match your timeline.

What do you need from us to scope correctly for audit support?
We typically need what’s in scope and out of scope, business constraints (hours, blackout windows, no-disruption rules), stakeholder approvals (security/legal/facilities/HR as applicable), your preferred reporting format, and deadlines.

Have more questions? See the full list of FAQs https://www.cm-sec.com/faqs/

For further information please contact or reach out to info@cm-sec.com