# Audit and Accountability
**Entity class:** Assurance function
## Definition
**Audit and accountability** preserve evidence of actions and bind those actions to responsible identities, systems, authorizations, and time. In machine-mediated intelligence, useful audit records include access, queries, data movement, policy decisions, model and software actions, outputs, approvals, and administrative changes.
## Relationships
- **control family:** [[wiki/NIST SP 800-53|NIST SP 800-53]].
- **continuous input:** [[wiki/Continuous Monitoring|Continuous Monitoring]].
- **authorization context:** [[wiki/Authorization to Operate|Authorization to Operate]].
- **supports:** [[wiki/Machine-Readable Assurance|Machine-Readable Assurance]], [[wiki/Provenance|Provenance]], and [[wiki/Digital Signature Chain|Digital Signature Chain]].
## Sources / Provenance
- [NIST — SP 800-53 Rev. 5](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/53/r5/upd1/final)
- [ODNI — Intelligence Community Standard 500-27, Collection and Sharing of Audit Data](https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/FOIA/DF-2016-00213.pdf)