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CISO Assistant

CISO Assistant is an open-source GRC (Governance, Risk, Compliance) platform included in KubeAid. It helps teams manage compliance frameworks, risk assessments, and audit evidence in one place.

What It Does​

  • Maps controls to compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST, etc.)
  • Tracks risk assessments and treatment plans
  • Stores audit evidence with descriptions, file uploads, or links to external sources
  • Manages user roles and access control for compliance workflows

Deployment​

CISO Assistant is deployed via the ciso-assistant Helm chart in ArgoCD. See the chart README for full setup instructions, including:

  • Superuser creation - kubectl exec into the backend pod to run createsuperuser
  • Email / SMTP configuration - required for user invitations and password resets
  • User management - add users and assign roles via the web UI
  • Evidence storage - attach descriptions, files, or links at the requirement level

Quick Start​

After the chart is deployed and synced via ArgoCD:

  1. Create a superuser:

    kubectl exec -it <backend-pod-name> -n <namespace> -- \
      poetry run python manage.py createsuperuser

  2. Access the UI via the configured ingress and log in with the superuser credentials.

  3. Configure email (optional but recommended for invitations):

    ciso-assistant:
      backend:
        config:
          smtp:
            host: mail.system        # In-cluster relay, or your SMTP host
            port: 587
            defaultFrom: no-reply@your-domain.com

  4. Add users via Organisation → Users → Add user in the web UI.

Evidence Approach​

Evidence in CISO Assistant justifies a compliance requirement's status. Each piece of evidence supports a description, a file upload, or a link to an external source. If your controls already live in a Git repository, wiki, or ticketing system, link to them rather than duplicating content.

See Also​