Active

Continuous Improvement

The organization shall establish a continuous improvement process for Zero Trust architecture, driving ongoing enhancement of Zero Trust effectiveness and maturity. The process shall include mechanisms for identifying improvement opportunities, implementing changes, and measuring results, drawing inputs from Zero Trust reviews, incident analysis, and best practice benchmarking.

Requirement ID
ARC-006-R010
Parent Control
Domain Code

Requirement Details & Guidance

ARC-006-R010 · ARC-006
Why This Requirement Exists

This requirement exists to systematically improve architecture effectiveness and maturity using reviews, incidents, threat intelligence, and benchmarking and to ensure security architecture decisions are consistent, risk-informed, and traceable.

Implementation Guidance

Establish a documented process for systematically improve architecture effectiveness and maturity using reviews, incidents, threat intelligence, and benchmarking. Define accountable roles, required inputs and outputs, approval or validation points, criteria, review frequency, exception handling, monitoring, and evidence requirements. Integrate the activity with architecture governance, risk management, security requirements, engineering, and change processes as applicable. Retain records sufficient to demonstrate that the control operates.

Practical Application & Audit Readiness

ARC-006-R010 · Field Guidance

Business Examples

    Common Audit Findings

      Common Mistakes

        Best Practices & Ownership

        ARC-006 · Recommended Approach

        Recommended Practices

          Typical Owner

          Cross-Mapped Regulatory Frameworks

          Harmonized Control Mappings
          FRAMEWORK CODE FRAMEWORK NAME & DETAILS FAMILY / CATEGORY VERSION ACTION
          ISO27001 ISO/IEC 27001 ISO/IEC 27001 specifies auditable requirements for... Clause: 10.1 – Continual improvement
          ISO
          Standard
          v2022 View →
          RBI-CSF RBI Cyber Security Framework / Master Directions RBI cyber-security requirements and directions set... Clause: 8) User Access Control / Management – 8.3 No admin rights on end-user devices; need-to-know and time-bound access; 8) User Access Control / Management – 8.4 Centralised authentication/authorization, strong passwords, MFA, least privilege and segregation of duties; 4) Network Management and Security – 4.10 Layered boundary defences, firewalls/proxies/DMZ/IPS/IDS and traffic filtering
          India
          Regulation
          vLatest View →
          SEBI-CSCRF SEBI Cyber Security & Cyber Resilience Framework SEBI’s Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framewor... Clause: 3.1 PR.AA: Identity Management, Authentication, and Access Control
          India
          Regulation
          vLatest View →
          DORA Digital Operational Resilience Act The EU Digital Operational Resilience Act establis... Clause: Article 9(4)(c) – Logical/physical access limitation and access-rights administration Article 9(4)(d) – Strong authentication, cryptographic keys and encryption
          EU
          Regulation
          vCurrent View →
          NIS2 NIS2 Directive The NIS2 Directive establishes EU-wide cybersecuri... Clause: Article 21(2)(i) – Human resources security, access control policies and asset management Article 21(2)(j) – MFA/continuous authentication, secured voice/video/text communications and secured emergency communications
          EU
          Directive
          vCurrent View →
          NIST-CSF NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) The NIST Cybersecurity Framework provides high-lev... Clause: ID.IM – Improvement | ID.IM-03 – Improvements are identified from execution of operational processes, procedures, and activities
          NIST
          Framework
          v2 View →
          NIST80053 NIST SP 800-53 NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 presents control families, i... Clause: 3.1 – ACCESS CONTROL; AC-3 – ACCESS ENFORCEMENT, AC-6 – LEAST PRIVILEGE
          NIST
          Control Catalog
          vRev. 5 View →
          SOC2 SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria SOC 2 is an independent examination and reporting... Clause: CC6.1 – Logical and Physical Access Controls – The entity implements logical access security software, infrastructure, and architectures over protected information assets to protect them from security events to meet the entity's objectives. CC6.3 – Logical and Physical Access Controls – The entity authorizes, modifies, or removes access to data, software, functions, and other protected information assets based on roles, responsibilities, or the system design and changes, giving consideration to the concepts of least privilege and segregation of duties, to meet the entity’s objectives. CC6.6 – Logical and Physical Access Controls – The entity implements logical access security measures to protect against threats from sources outside its system boundaries. CC4.1 – Monitoring of Controls – COSO Principle 16: The entity selects, develops, and performs ongoing and/or separate evaluations to ascertain whether the components of internal control are present and functioning. CC4.2 – Monitoring of Controls – COSO Principle 17: The entity evaluates and communicates internal control deficiencies in a timely manner to those parties responsible for taking corrective action, including senior management and the board of directors, as appropriate.
          AICPA
          Audit Framework
          vLatest View →

          Parent Domain Context

          Governance Domain Baseline
          Domain Name:
          Security Architecture (ARC)
          Purpose:
          To design secure systems and ensure security is built into the architecture.
          Scope:
          Enterprise

          Parent Control Context

          Control Baseline
          Control Name:
          Zero Trust Architecture (ARC-006)
          Summary:
          Establishes Zero Trust Architecture including identity-centric security, least privilege enforcement, micro-segmentation, continuous verification, device trust, monitoring, reporting, review, and continuous improvement.
          Business Description:
          Establish and maintain a Zero Trust Architecture based on continuous verification, least privilege, segmentation, identity-centric security, and continuous risk evaluation.