You have deployed your infrastructure, written your policies, trained your employees, and collected your evidence. Now comes the part that makes most vendors nervous: the actual audit. Understanding exactly what happens during a CCC assessment -- who conducts it, what they look for, how long it takes, and where vendors typically stumble -- eliminates surprises and dramatically increases your chances of passing on the first attempt. This guide walks you through the entire audit process from start to finish.

Who Conducts the Audit

CCC audits are conducted exclusively by authorized audit firms approved by Aramco's Cybersecurity Compliance Department. You cannot self-certify, and you cannot use a generic cybersecurity consultant. The audit firm must be on Aramco's approved list.

Key point: Choosing the right audit firm matters. Some firms are more experienced with specific vendor types (IT companies, construction firms, logistics providers). MassiveGRID maintains partnerships with authorized audit firms and can connect you with assessors who understand infrastructure-centric vendors.

The audit firm assigns one or more assessors who are trained on the SACS-002 standard. They evaluate your organization against the applicable TPC controls and produce a report that Aramco uses to issue (or deny) the certificate.

CCC vs CCC+ Assessment: What is Different

Aramco issues two types of certificates, and the assessment process differs significantly between them:

Aspect CCC (Standard) CCC+ (Enhanced)
Vendor type Vendors without remote/network access to Aramco systems Vendors with remote or network access to Aramco systems
TPC controls assessed Subset of TPC controls (governance, email, basic security) Full set of TPC controls (all governance + technical controls)
Technical depth Policy review + basic technical verification Deep technical assessment including network scans, configuration review, penetration testing
Assessment duration 1-3 days typically 3-7 days depending on scope
On-site component May be remote-only for smaller vendors Typically includes on-site inspection of facilities and systems
Validity period 2 years 2 years

Most vendors working with MassiveGRID's infrastructure package are pursuing the standard CCC certificate. If your contract with Aramco requires remote access to their systems, you will need CCC+ and should plan for a more extensive assessment. For a detailed comparison, see our CCC vs CCC+ guide.

The Audit Process: Step by Step

Phase 1: Engagement and Scoping

The process begins when you engage an authorized audit firm. During the scoping phase:

This phase typically takes 1-2 weeks. Use this time to gather your evidence and conduct an internal pre-assessment.

Phase 2: Document Review

Before any technical testing, the assessor reviews your governance documentation. This is where the majority of first-time failures occur -- not in technical controls, but in missing or inadequate policies.

The assessor will request and review:

The assessor will check for completeness (all sections present), currency (reviewed within 12 months), coverage (all employees included), and specificity (policies address SACS-002 requirements, not generic IT governance).

Phase 3: Technical Assessment

With governance documentation reviewed, the assessor moves to technical verification. This phase confirms that your documented policies are actually implemented:

Infrastructure Verification

Evidence Collection

For each technical control, the assessor collects evidence -- typically screenshots, configuration exports, or live demonstrations. This is where pre-prepared evidence packages save enormous time. If you need to log into 5 different systems and navigate to configuration pages during the assessment, you will burn hours of audit time.

Phase 4: Findings and Remediation

After the assessment, the audit firm produces a report categorizing each TPC control as:

If you have non-compliant findings, you will receive a remediation period (typically 30-90 days depending on the severity) to address the gaps. After remediation, the auditor re-assesses only the failed controls.

First-attempt pass rate: Vendors using a turnkey infrastructure package with pre-configured controls and ready-made policy templates have a significantly higher first-attempt pass rate than vendors who self-implement. The most common failures are governance gaps (missing policies, incomplete acknowledgments) rather than technical controls.

Phase 5: Certification

Once all controls are assessed as compliant, the audit firm submits its report to Aramco's Cybersecurity Compliance Department. Aramco reviews the report and, if satisfied, issues the CCC or CCC+ certificate. The certificate is valid for 2 years, after which you must undergo a renewal assessment.

Common Day-of Audit Mistakes

  1. Key personnel unavailable: The IT administrator who manages the firewall is on vacation. The assessor cannot verify firewall rules and must reschedule, adding weeks to the timeline.
  2. Evidence not pre-organized: The assessor asks for password policy configuration. The IT team spends 30 minutes searching for the right admin panel and cannot find the exact setting. Disorganized evidence wastes audit time and creates a poor impression.
  3. Stale contact information in IRP: The assessor asks to see the Incident Response Plan. The Aramco contact phone number listed is from 2 years ago. The assessor flags this as a TPC-23 gap -- the IRP has not been maintained.
  4. Employee training gaps: The assessor cross-references the employee roster with training records and finds 3 employees hired in the last 4 months who never completed security awareness training. Incomplete TPC-7 compliance.
  5. Test accounts still active: The assessor reviews the user accounts list and finds accounts belonging to former employees or test accounts with weak passwords. Access management failure.
  6. Mismatched policy dates: The AUP says "Last reviewed: January 2025" but the employee acknowledgments are from 2024. The assessor concludes the policy was updated but employees never re-acknowledged the new version.

Pre-Audit Checklist

Complete this checklist in the 2 weeks before your audit date:

Category Action Items
Governance Verify all policies have current review dates, all employees have signed acknowledgments, training records are 100% complete
People Ensure key personnel are available on audit day, brief employees on the assessment process, verify IRP contact information is current
Technical Run internal checks on all TPC controls (DNS records, firewall rules, password policies, MFA enrollment, patch status, backup logs)
Access Review user accounts list, disable/remove inactive accounts, verify no departed employees retain access, confirm MFA is enrolled for all users
Evidence Pre-capture screenshots of all technical configurations, organize in a folder structure matching TPC controls, prepare a master evidence index
Logistics Confirm audit dates with the audit firm, prepare meeting room or video conference, ensure admin access to all systems for live demonstrations

After the Audit: Renewal and Ongoing Compliance

CCC certificates are valid for 2 years. Plan your renewal assessment at least 3 months before expiration to account for scheduling, assessment time, and any remediation needed. Between audits:

For more details on the renewal process, see our CCC renewal guide.

How MassiveGRID Simplifies Your Audit

The biggest advantage of a turnkey CCC infrastructure package is that audit evidence is built into the platform. MassiveGRID's CCC-Compliant Infrastructure Package provides:

The result: vendors using the full package typically complete their assessment in 1-2 days with minimal remediation findings, compared to 3-5 days with multiple remediation rounds for vendors who self-implement.

Get Audit-Ready with the Full CCC Package

The MassiveGRID Aramco CCC-Compliant Infrastructure Package covers all 30+ TPC controls across 10 infrastructure components and 6 governance templates, with direct access to authorized audit firm partners. From deployment to certification, the entire process is designed to get you CCC-certified on the first attempt.

Explore the full CCC-compliant infrastructure package →