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Compli.st Journal#CAIQ#CSA STAR#Cloud Security#Security Questionnaire

How to Answer a CAIQ (CSA STAR) Questionnaire in 1 Hour

Practical guide to answering the CAIQ (CSA STAR) questionnaire in 1 hour: structure, control domains, and AI automation.

CS

Compli.st Team

Security & compliance experts

Published
Reading time

3 min read

What Is the CAIQ?

The CAIQ (Consensus Assessment Initiative Questionnaire) is the Cloud Security Alliance's standardized questionnaire for evaluating cloud provider security. Part of the CSA STAR program, it covers 16 control domains and ~260 questions.

CSA STAR Levels

  1. Level 1 — Self-Assessment: fill out the CAIQ and publish on the CSA registry. Free.
  2. Level 2 — Third-Party Audit: combined with ISO 27001 or SOC 2.
  3. Level 3 — Continuous Monitoring.

The 16 Control Domains

Audit & Assurance, Application Security, Business Continuity, Change Control, Cryptography, Datacenter Security, Data Privacy, GRC, HR Security, IAM, Interoperability, Infrastructure Security, Logging, Incident Management, Supply Chain, Threat Management.

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Answer in 1 Hour: The Method

Preparation (15 min)

Download CAIQ v4, gather documents, upload to Compli.st.

AI Fill (30 min)

Import CAIQ, AI proposes sourced answers, flags gaps.

Review (15 min)

Review flagged items, adjust context-specific answers, export.

CAIQ ↔ ISO/SOC 2 Mapping

If you're already ISO 27001 or SOC 2, 70-80% of the CAIQ is already covered.

Complete your CAIQ in 1h with Compli.st →

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Hand-picked playbooks from the team

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Security Lead · B2B SaaS scale-up