{"id":1698,"date":"2020-03-13T17:20:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T17:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/72.52.228.46\/~itegriti\/?p=1698"},"modified":"2021-04-12T05:28:46","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T05:28:46","slug":"evidence-request-tool-new-version-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itegriti.com\/kw022024\/2020\/compliance\/evidence-request-tool-new-version-4\/","title":{"rendered":"What is New in the Evidence Request Tool v4.0?"},"content":{"rendered":"

About the Evidence Request Tool (ERT)<\/strong><\/h3><\/h2><\/div>

Being compliant with the NERC CIP standards is vital for a secure and reliable electric grid. A critical component of performing a compliance audit is the gathering of evidence to support audit findings. The six regions, as delegates of NERC, perform compliance audits and exercise a degree of independence; historically, this meant each region issued a request for information prior to the audit and the Responsible Entity provided the requested information.<\/p>\n

In the course of developing the reliability standard audit worksheets (RSAWs), the RSAW Development Team met with industry representatives to develop a better set of RSAWs. Part of that discussion centered on what types of evidence would be requested to demonstrate compliance with the CIP Standards. Since the RSAWs could not provide that level of detail, the industry representatives sought more transparency in the evidence requests that the regions send to Responsible Entities as part of the audit process. Additionally, there was a request from the industry representatives to standardize the evidence requests across the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) \u2013 this was especially important to Responsible Entities operating in multiple regions.<\/p>\n

The CIP Evidence Request Tool (ERT) is a common request for information that will be available for use by all regions. The tool will help the ERO Enterprise be more consistent and transparent in its audit approach. It will also help Responsible Entities (especially those that operate in multiple regions) fulfill these requests more efficiently by understanding what types of evidence are useful in preparation for an audit.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Figure

Figure 1: Evidence Request Flow. Source: NERC CIP Evidence Request Tool User Guide v4.0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

Figure 1 above shows a summary of the evidence request flow. The ERT contains a Level 1 tab with the initial evidence needed to begin the evidence submission process. Level 1, in general, asks for two different types of evidence. The first type is the programs, processes, and procedures that an audit team will need to review to determine compliance. The second type is the detail tabs used to form populations for sample selection which will feed into Level 2. Level 2 asks for detailed information about individual items selected by the audit team.<\/p>\n

Each line of the Level 1 and Level 2 tabs contains a \u201cRequest ID,\u201d which uniquely identifies each request. These Request IDs follow the format CIP-sss-Rr-Lm-nn<\/em><\/strong>, where:<\/p>\n