In brief: The BSI C5 catalogue provides organizations with a standardized benchmark for evaluating cloud service providers according to security, verifiability, and transparency criteria.
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) provides with C5 a standardized catalogue that supports organizations in assessing cloud service providers according to defined security requirements.
The C5 criteria catalogue of the BSI is based on three pillars: clear security requirements, verifiable operational evidence, and binding transparency obligations towards customers. Thus, it offers a unified evaluation standard for cloud services that goes beyond general compliance standards.
For CISOs and security officers, the framework is relevant for systematically evaluating cloud service providers while ensuring the national security level. The catalogue addresses the growing dependence on cloud infrastructures and the associated risks from insufficient security measures by the provider.
CISOs can use C5 as a basis for vendor due diligence processes and thus structure negotiations with cloud service providers. The catalogue also enables security audits to be conducted according to uniform criteria and to align the organization’s own compliance requirements against provider capabilities.
Source: itwelt.at · Published 21 July 2026
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