March 2023 Release Notes

Say Goodbye to Surprises – Say Hello to Draft Samples

• Never be surprised by the addition of Sample Requests again. A-SCEND now has the “Draft Sample.” Here’s how it works: 

• • The “Open” column on the Requests board was renamed to “Open/Drafts.”  
  • Draft Samples are listed below the open requests and are in an inactive state. 

• • A note in the Draft Sample informs you that “This Sample Request will remain in Draft status until the Population has been accepted by a consultant and a Sample Set has been assigned.” 
  • As soon your consultant creates the Sample Request, it will replace the draft. 
  • “Draft” is a filterable status. 
  • Drafts are incorporated into all request counts on the Requests board, table view and Engagement Dashboard. 

• Note that multi-location audits will not have a Draft Sample for each location due to complexity and variation of how evidence is collected for multiple locations. 

Additional AWS Compliance Monitoring Tests 

• Additional tests are available in Compliance Monitoring that validate whether a connected AWS account’s logging and monitoring configurations are set according to CIS Benchmark best practices – and alerts the client if they are not. 
• We now have a total of 52 tests to help clients’ AWS environments stay in compliance across 5 categories: 

• • Identity and Access Management 

• • Logging 
  • Monitoring 
  • Networking 
  • Storage  

• Contact your Account Manager to learn more about this feature. 
   

Delete Users – Client Company Admins and Engagement Admins can now delete users in A-SCEND. A quick run-down of the rules and features: 

• Admins cannot delete themselves or the last admin. A new admin must first be created. 
• Users assigned to engagements or readiness assessments cannot be deleted until no longer assigned, however, the user interface easily allows for re-assignment. 
• User comments will be retained. 
• When users are deleted from engagements in Report Creation or Complete status, the following will be true: 

• • All historic data associated with the deleted user will be maintained. 
  • The user will continue to show assigned to services and requests. 
  • Evidence uploaded by the user will remain. 
  • Comments and history added by the user will remain. 
     

In addition: 

• 3 Readiness Assessment bugs fixed 
• 1 Security role issue fixed 
• 1 Service Review bug fixed