CA-2(3) Leveraging Results from External Organizations

Organizations may rely on control assessments of organizational systems by other (external) organizations. Using such assessments and reusing existing assessment evidence can decrease the time and resources required for assessments by limiting the independent assessment activities that organizations need to perform. The factors that organizations consider in determining whether to accept assessment results from external organizations can vary. Such factors include the organization’s past experience with the organization that conducted the assessment, the reputation of the assessment organization, the level of detail of supporting assessment evidence provided, and mandates imposed by applicable laws, executive orders, directives, regulations, policies, standards, and guidelines. Accredited testing laboratories that support the Common Criteria Program [ISO 15408-1](#6afc1b04-c9d6-4023-adbc-f8fbe33a3c73) , the NIST Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP), or the NIST Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP) can provide independent assessment results that organizations can leverage.