Writing a Risk Acceptance Record the Accepting Executive Can Sign
SC Media, Saturday, October 17th, 2026
A risk acceptance record must let the signing executive explain the control gap and consequences, or it won't hold up.
The article describes a VP who cannot explain to an auditor what she accepted 18 months earlier because the record said only residual risk: medium.
It argues that a risk acceptance record is the instrument by which an accountable executive takes personal ownership of a known gap for a defined period, and that GRC owns preparing a record the signer can interrogate.
Citing NIST SP 800-37 Rev. 2, it stresses that acceptance must be an explicit act, not inferred from silence.
The piece walks through commonly miswritten fields, especially the gap statement.