Attachment 6 NIST.pdf

NIST Special Publication 800-53A Revision 4

Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information

Systems and Organizations Building Effective Assessment Plans

JOINT TASK FORCE

TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVE

This publication is available free of charge from:

http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-53Ar4

NIST Special Publication 800-53A Revision 4

Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information

Systems and Organizations Building Effective Assessment Plans

JOINT TASK FORCE

TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVE

This publication is available free of charge from:

December 2014

INCLUDES UPDATES AS OF 12-18-2014

U.S. Department of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Secretary

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Willie May, Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Acting Director

Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Revision 4 Federal Information Systems and Organizations

Authority

This publication has been developed by NIST to further its statutory responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Public Law (P.L.) 107-347. NIST is responsible for developing information security standards and guidelines, including minimum requirements for federal information systems, but such standards and guidelines shall not apply to national security systems without the express approval of appropriate federal officials exercising policy authority over such systems. This guideline is consistent with the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Section 8b(3), Securing Agency Information Systems, as analyzed in Circular A-130, Appendix IV: Analysis of Key Sections.

Supplemental information is provided in Circular A-130, Appendix III, Security of Federal Automated Information Resources.

Nothing in this publication should be taken to contradict the standards and guidelines made mandatory and binding on federal agencies by the Secretary of Commerce under statutory authority. Nor should these guidelines be interpreted as altering or superseding the existing authorities of the Secretary of Commerce, Director of the OMB, or any other federal official.

This publication may be used by nongovernmental organizations on a voluntary basis and is not subject to copyright in the United States. Attribution would, however, be appreciated by NIST.

National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-53A, Revision 4 487 pages (December 2014)

CODEN: NSPUE2

This publication is available free of charge from: http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-53Ar4

Comments on this publication may be submitted to:

National Institute of Standards and Technology Attn: Computer Security Division, Information Technology Laboratory

100 Bureau Drive (Mail Stop 8930) Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930 Electronic Mail: sec-cert@nist.gov

Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by NIST, nor is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose.

There may be references in this publication to other publications currently under development by NIST in accordance with its assigned statutory responsibilities. The information in this publication, including concepts, practices, and methodologies, may be used by federal agencies even before the completion of such companion publications. Thus, until each publication is completed, current requirements, guidelines, and procedures, where they exist, remain operative. For planning and transition purposes, federal agencies may wish to closely follow the development of these new publications by NIST.

Organizations are encouraged to review draft publications during the designated public comment periods and provide feedback to NIST. Computer Security Division publications are available at http://csrc.nist.gov/publications.

PAGE ii mailto:sec-cert@nist.gov http://csrc.nist.gov/publications

Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

Reports on Computer Systems Technology

The Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) promotes the U.S. economy and public welfare by providing technical leadership for the nation’s measurement and standards infrastructure. ITL develops tests, test methods, reference data, proof of concept implementations, and technical analyses to advance the development and productive use of information technology. ITL’s responsibilities include the development of management, administrative, technical, and physical standards and guidelines for the cost-effective security and privacy of other than national security-related information in federal information systems. The Special Publication 800-series reports on ITL’s research, guidelines, and outreach efforts in information system security, and its collaborative activities with industry, government, and academic organizations.

Abstract

This publication provides a set of procedures for conducting assessments of security controls and privacy controls employed within federal information systems and organizations. The assessment procedures, executed at various phases of the system development life cycle, are consistent with the security and privacy controls in NIST Special Publication 800-53, Revision 4. The procedures are customizable and can be easily tailored to provide organizations with the needed flexibility to conduct security control assessments and privacy control assessments that support organizational risk management processes and that are aligned with the stated risk tolerance of the organization.

Information on building effective security assessment plans and privacy assessment plans is also provided along with guidance on analyzing assessment results.

Keywords

Assessment; assurance; E-Government Act; FISMA; Privacy Act; privacy controls; privacy requirements; Risk Management Framework; security controls; security requirements.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

Acknowledgements

This publication was developed by the Joint Task Force Transformation Initiative Working Group with representatives from the Civilian, Defense, and Intelligence Communities to produce a unified information security framework for the federal government. We wish to acknowledge and thank the senior leaders from the Departments of Commerce and Defense, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Committee on National Security Systems, and the members of the interagency technical working group whose dedicated efforts contributed significantly to the publication. The senior leaders, interagency working group members, and their organizational affiliations include:

U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Director of National Intelligence Terry Halvorsen Adolpho Tarasiuk Jr.

DOD Chief Information Officer (Acting) Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer

David De Vries Alan Royal Principal Deputy DOD Chief Information Officer (Acting) IC Deputy Chief Information Officer

Richard Hale Susan Dorr Deputy Chief Information Officer for Cybersecurity Director, Information Assurance and IC Chief Information Security Officer

Dominic Cussatt Robert Drake Director, Cybersecurity Strategy and Policy Acting Chief, Risk Management and Compliance

Services

National Institute of Standards and Technology Committee on National Security Systems Charles H. Romine Terry Halvorsen Director, Information Technology Laboratory Chair, CNSS

Donna Dodson Sherrill Nicely Cyber Security Advisor, Information Technology Laboratory CNSS Co-Chair

Matthew Scholl Dominic Cussatt, Jeffrey Wilk, Daniel Dister Chief, Computer Security Division CNSS Subcommittee Tri-Chairs

Ron Ross FISMA Implementation Project and Joint Task Force Leader

Joint Task Force Transformation Initiative Interagency Working Group Ron Ross Karen Quigg Kelley Dempsey Patricia Toth NIST The MITRE Corporation NIST NIST

Esten Porter Christian Enloe Bennett Hodge Kevin Stine The MITRE Corporation NIST Booz Allen Hamilton NIST

We wish to express our sincere appreciation to Elizabeth Lennon and Peggy Himes for their superb technical editing and administrative support as well to Harold Booth for developing the XML schema and for his help in correcting many difficult-to-find formatting errors. The authors also wish to recognize the following individuals for their significant contributions in helping to develop the initial content of this publication and refine its content during subsequent revisions:

Claire Barrett; Lindy Burkhart; Jonathan Cantor; Mitali Chatterjee; Jonathan Chiu; Sharon Ehlers; Jennifer Fabius; Peter Gouldmann; James Govekar; Terrance Hazelwood; Austin Hershey; Laurie Hestor; Arnold Johnson; Mary Kitson; Martha Landesberg; Naomi Lefkovitz;

Jason Mackanick; Timothy Potter; Jennifer Puma; Roanne Shaddox; Terry Sherald; Gary Stoneburner; Julie Trei; Gail Tryon; Ricki Vanetesse; Cynthia Whitmer; and Peter Williams.

Finally, the authors gratefully acknowledge and appreciate the significant contributions from individuals and organizations in the public and private sectors, whose thoughtful and constructive comments improved the overall quality and usefulness of this publication.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES FOR PRIVACY CONTROLS

Appendix J, Privacy Assessment Procedures, is a new addition to NIST Special Publication 800- 53A. The appendix, when completed, will provide a complete set of assessment procedures for the privacy controls in NIST Special Publication 800-53, Appendix J. The new privacy control assessment procedures are under development and will be added to the appendix after a thorough public review and vetting process. The terminology throughout this publication has been updated to include references to privacy in all aspects of the assessment process to include mirroring the artifacts that are essential inputs to the current security authorization process. Each organization employing these guidelines has the flexibility to address the privacy assessment process and the integration of privacy-related artifacts into the organization’s risk management processes in the manner that best supports the organizational missions and business objectives consist with Office of Management and Budget policies.

Standardized assessment procedures for privacy controls provide a more disciplined and structured approach for determining compliance to federal privacy requirements and also promote more cost-effective methods to determine such compliance. There will be a strong similarity in the structure of the assessment procedures for privacy controls in Appendix J and the assessment procedures for security controls in Appendix F. This similarity will promote closer cooperation between privacy and security officials within the federal government to help achieve the objectives of senior leaders/executives in enforcing the requirements in federal privacy legislation, directives, policies, regulations, standards, and guidance.

Finally, it should be noted that as the assessment procedures for privacy controls are added to Appendix J, certain terminology traditionally associated with security controls and security control assessments contained in earlier versions of this publication is being modified where appropriate, to include references to privacy. However, there are some security-related terms (e.g., security categorization, security control baseline, tailored security control baseline) that are unique to security controls and do not have direct analogs in the privacy arena. In such cases, the equivalent privacy-related terminology has not been added to the publication.

Privacy officials, at their discretion, may choose to adopt any or all of the security-related terms in this publication in support of privacy control assessments.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE FORMATTING

A new format for assessment procedures is introduced in this revision to Special Publication 800-53A. The format reflects the decomposition of assessment objectives into more granular determination statements wherever possible—thus providing the capability to identify and assess specific parts of security and privacy controls. The changes have been initiated to: (i) help improve the readability of assessment procedures; (ii) provide a better format and structure for automated tools when assessment information is imported into such tools; (iii) provide greater flexibility in conducting assessments by giving organizations the capability to target certain aspects of security controls and privacy controls (highlighting the particular weaknesses and/or deficiencies in controls); (iv) improve the efficiency of security and privacy assessments; and (v) support continuous monitoring and ongoing authorization programs by providing a greater number of component parts of security and privacy controls that can be assessed at organization-defined frequencies and degrees of rigor. Having the ability to apply assessment and monitoring resources in a targeted and precise manner and simultaneously maximize the use of automation technologies, can result in more timely and cost-effective assessment processes for organizations.

Note: Special Publication 800-53 will be updated accordingly to ensure that the numbering scheme for all security and privacy controls is consistent with the new format introduced in this publication.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

ALIGNING REVISION NUMBERS

WHAT HAPPENED TO SPECIAL PUBLICATION 800-53A REVISIONS 2 AND 3?

Revision numbers between NIST Special Publications 800-53 and 800-53A were misaligned from the start because the initial publication of SP 800-53A did not occur until after the publication of SP 800-53, Revision 2. When SP 800-53, Revision 3 was published, SP 800-53A was updated to Revision 1 for consistency with the updates to SP 800-53. This revision number mismatch created ongoing uncertainty and confusion regarding which revision of SP 800-53 was consistent with which revision of SP 800-53A. To reduce this uncertainty going forward, revision numbers 2 and 3 have been skipped for SP 800-53A, and this version of SP 800-53A has been given revision number 4 since this version is consistent with the updates to SP 800- 53, Revision 4. Future revisions of SPs 800-53 and 800-53A will maintain the revision number consistency.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

DEVELOPING COMMON INFORMATION SECURITY FOUNDATIONS

COLLABORATION AMONG PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR ENTITIES

In developing standards and guidelines required by FISMA, NIST consults with other federal agencies and offices as well as the private sector entities to improve information security, avoid unnecessary and costly duplication of effort, and ensure that NIST publications are complementary with the standards and guidelines employed for the protection of national security systems. In addition to its comprehensive public review and vetting process, NIST is collaborating with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) to establish a unified framework and common foundation for information security across the federal government. A common foundation and framework for information security will provide the Intelligence, Defense, and Civilian sectors of the federal government and their contractors, more uniform and consistent ways to manage the risk to organizational operations and assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation that results from the operation and use of information systems. A common foundation and framework will also provide a strong basis for reciprocal acceptance of security authorization decisions and facilitate information sharing. NIST is also working with public and private sector entities to establish specific mappings and relationships between the security standards and guidelines developed by NIST and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 PURPOSE AND APPLICABILITY

1.2 TARGET AUDIENCE

1.3 RELATED PUBLICATIONS AND ASSESSMENT PROCESSES

1.4 ORGANIZATION OF THIS SPECIAL PUBLICATION

CHAPTER TWO THE FUNDAMENTALS

2.1 ASSESSMENTS WITHIN THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE

2.2 STRATEGY FOR CONDUCTING CONTROL ASSESSMENTS

2.3 BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE ASSURANCE CASE

2.4 ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES

CHAPTER THREE THE PROCESS

3.1 PREPARING FOR SECURITY AND PRIVACY CONTROL ASSESSMENTS

3.2 DEVELOPING SECURITY AND PRIVACY ASSESSMENT PLANS

3.3 CONDUCTING SECURITY AND PRIVACY CONTROL ASSESSMENTS

3.4 ANALYZING ASSESSMENT REPORT RESULTS

3.5 ASSESSING SECURITY AND PRIVACY CAPABILITIES

APPENDIX A REFERENCES ............................................................................................ A-1 APPENDIX B GLOSSARY ................................................................................................ B-1 APPENDIX C ACRONYMS ............................................................................................... C-1 APPENDIX D ASSESSMENT METHOD DESCRIPTIONS ........................................................ D-1 APPENDIX E PENETRATION TESTING .............................................................................. E-1 APPENDIX F SECURITY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES ........................................................ F-1 APPENDIX G ASSESSMENT REPORTS .............................................................................. G-1 APPENDIX H ASSESSMENT CASES .................................................................................. H-1 APPENDIX I ONGOING ASSESSMENT AND AUTOMATION ..................................................... I-1 APPENDIX J PRIVACY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES ........................................................... J-1

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

Prologue

“…Through the process of risk management, leaders must consider risk to U.S. interests from adversaries using cyberspace to their advantage and from our own efforts to employ the global nature of cyberspace to achieve objectives in military, intelligence, and business operations… “

“…For operational plans development, the combination of threats, vulnerabilities, and impacts must be evaluated in order to identify important trends and decide where effort should be applied to eliminate or reduce threat capabilities; eliminate or reduce vulnerabilities; and assess, coordinate, and deconflict all cyberspace operations…”

“…Leaders at all levels are accountable for ensuring readiness and security to the same degree as in any other domain…"

-- THE NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR CYBERSPACE OPERATIONS

OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

Foreword

Security control assessments and privacy control assessments are not about checklists, simple pass-fail results, or generating paperwork to pass inspections or audits—rather, such assessments are the principal vehicle used to verify that implemented security controls and privacy controls are meeting their stated goals and objectives. Special Publication 800-53A, Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems and Organizations, is written to facilitate security control assessments and privacy control assessments conducted within an effective risk management framework. The control assessment results provide organizational officials with:

• Evidence about the effectiveness of implemented controls;

• An indication of the quality of the risk management processes employed within the organization; and

• Information about the strengths and weaknesses of information systems which are supporting organizational missions and business functions in a global environment of sophisticated and changing threats.

The findings produced by assessors are used to determine the overall effectiveness of security and privacy controls associated with information systems (including system-specific, common, and hybrid controls) and their environments of operation and to provide credible and meaningful inputs to the organization’s risk management process. A well-executed assessment helps to: (i) determine the validity of the controls contained in the organization’s security plans and privacy plans and subsequently employed in organizational information systems and environments of operation; and (ii) facilitate a cost-effective approach to correcting weaknesses or deficiencies in systems in an orderly and disciplined manner consistent with organizational mission/business needs.

Special Publication 800-53A is a companion guideline to Special Publication 800-53, Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations. Each publication provides guidance for implementing specific steps in the Risk Management Framework (RMF).1 Special Publication 800-53 covers Step 2 in the RMF, security and privacy control selection (i.e., determining what controls are needed to manage risks to organizational operations and assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation). Special Publication 800-53A covers RMF Step 4, Assess, and RMF Step 6, Monitor, and provides guidance on the security assessment and privacy assessment processes. This guidance includes how to build effective assessment plans and how to analyze and manage assessment results.

Special Publication 800-53A allows organizations to tailor the basic assessment procedures provided. The concepts of tailoring used in this document are similar to the concepts described in Special Publication 800-53. Tailoring involves customizing the assessment procedures to more closely match the characteristics of the information system and its environment of operation. The tailoring process gives organizations the flexibility needed to avoid assessment approaches that are unnecessarily complex or costly while simultaneously meeting the assessment requirements established by applying the fundamental concepts in the RMF. Tailoring can also include adding assessment procedures or assessment details to adequately meet the risk management needs of the organization (e.g., adding system/platform-specific information for selected controls). Tailoring decisions are left to the discretion of the organization in order to maximize the flexibility in

1 Special Publication 800-37 provides guidance on applying the RMF to federal information systems.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans developing assessment plans—applying the results of risk assessments to determine the extent, rigor, and level of intensity of the assessments. While flexibility continues to be an important factor in developing security assessment plans and privacy assessment plans, consistency of assessments is also an important consideration. A major design objective for Special Publication 800-53A is to provide an assessment framework and initial starting point for assessment procedures that are essential for achieving such consistency.

NIST initiated the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP)2 project that supports the approach for achieving consistent, cost-effective security control assessments. The primary purpose of SCAP is to standardize the format and nomenclature used for communicating information about configurations and security flaws. This standardization enables automated system configuration assessment, vulnerability assessment, patch checking, as well as report aggregation and interoperability between SCAP-enabled security products. As a result, SCAP enables organizations to identify and reduce vulnerabilities associated with products that are not patched or insecurely configured. SCAP also includes the Open Checklist Interactive Language (OCIL)3 specification that provides the capability to express the determination statements in the assessment procedures in Appendix F in a framework that will establish interoperability with the SCAP-enabled tools. Privacy control assessments are discussed separately in Appendix J to this publication.

2 Special Publication 800-126 provides guidance on the technical specification of SCAP. Additional details on the SCAP initiative, as well as freely available SCAP reference data, can be found at http://nvd.nist.gov.

3 OCIL is a framework for expressing security checks that cannot be evaluated without some human interaction or feedback. It is used to determine the state of a system by presenting one or more questionnaires to its intended users.

The language includes constructs for questions, instructions for guiding users towards an answer, responses to questions, artifacts, and evaluation results.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

Errata

The following changes have been incorporated into Special Publication 800-53A, Revision 4.

Errata updates include corrections, clarifications, or other minor changes in the publication that are either editorial or substantive in nature.

DATE TYPE CHANGE PAGE

12-18-2014 Editorial Changed “AT-4(b)[2][a]” to “AT-4(a)[2][a].” F-60 12-18-2014 Editorial Changed “AT-4(b)[2][b]” to “AT-4(a)[2][b].” F-60 12-18-2014 Editorial Changed “PL-8(c)[2]” to “PL-8(c)[3].” F-241 12-18-2014 Editorial Changed “SA-1(a)(2)[1]” to “SA-1(b)(2)[1].” F-269 12-18-2014 Editorial Changed “SI-1(b)(2)[1]” to “SI-1(b)(2)[2].” F-369

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

THE NEED TO ASSESS SECURITY AND PRIVACY CONTROL EFFECTIVENESS

oday’s information systems4 are complex assemblages of technology (i.e., hardware, software, and firmware), processes, and people, working together to provide organizations with the capability to process, store, and transmit information in a timely manner to support various missions and business functions. The degree to which organizations have come to depend upon these information systems to conduct routine, important, and critical missions and business functions means that the protection of the underlying systems and environments of operation is paramount to the success of the organization. The selection of appropriate security and privacy controls for an information system is an important task that can have significant implications on the operations and assets of an organization as well as the welfare of individuals.5 Security and privacy controls are the safeguards or countermeasures prescribed for an information system or an organization designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its information.

Once employed within an information system, security and privacy controls are assessed to provide the information necessary to determine their overall effectiveness, that is, the extent to which the controls are implemented correctly, operating as intended, and producing the desired outcome with respect to meeting the security and privacy requirements for the system and the organization. Understanding the overall effectiveness of implemented security and privacy controls is essential in determining the risk to the organization’s operations and assets, to individuals, to other organizations, and to the Nation resulting from the use of the system.

1.1 PURPOSE AND APPLICABILITY

The purpose of this publication is to provide: (i) guidelines for building effective security assessment plans and privacy assessment plans; and (ii) a comprehensive set of procedures for assessing the effectiveness of security controls and privacy controls employed in information systems and organizations supporting the executive agencies of the federal government. The guidelines apply to the security and privacy controls defined in Special Publication 800-53 (as amended), Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations.

The guidelines have been developed to help achieve more secure information systems within the federal government by:

• Enabling more consistent, comparable, and repeatable assessments of security controls and privacy controls with reproducible results;

• Promoting a better understanding of the risks to organizational operations, organizational assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation resulting from the operation and use of federal information systems;

4 An information system is a discrete set of information resources organized expressly for the collection, processing, maintenance, use, sharing, dissemination, or disposition of information.

5 When selecting security controls and privacy controls for an information system, the organization also considers potential impacts to other organizations and, in accordance with the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and Homeland Security Presidential Directives, potential national-level impacts.

T

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

• Facilitating more cost-effective assessments of security controls and privacy controls contributing to the determination of overall control effectiveness; and

• Creating more complete, reliable, and trustworthy information for organizational officials to support risk management decisions, reciprocity of assessment results, information sharing, and compliance to federal laws, Executive Orders, directives, regulations, and policies.

This publication satisfies the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and meets or exceeds the information security and privacy requirements established for executive agencies6 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Circular A-130, Appendix I, Federal Agency Responsibilities for Maintaining Records About Individuals, and Appendix III, Security of Federal Automated Information Resources. The security guidelines in this publication are applicable to federal information systems other than those systems designated as national security systems as defined in 44 U.S.C., Section 3542. The guidelines have been broadly developed from a technical perspective to complement similar guidelines for national security systems and may be used for such systems with the approval of appropriate federal officials exercising policy authority over such systems. The guidelines in Appendix J may have broader applicability, depending upon organizational authorities and missions. State, local, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations are encouraged to consider using these guidelines, as appropriate.7

Organizations use this publication in conjunction with approved security plans and privacy plans in developing viable assessment plans for producing and compiling the information necessary to determine the effectiveness of the security and privacy controls employed in the information system and organization. This publication has been developed with the intention of enabling organizations to tailor the basic assessment procedures provided. The assessment procedures are used as a starting point for and as input to the assessment plan. In developing effective security assessment plans and privacy assessment plans, organizations take into consideration existing information about the controls to be assessed (e.g., results from organizational assessments of risk, platform-specific dependencies in the hardware, software, or firmware, and any assessment procedures needed as a result of organization-specific controls not included in Special Publication 800-53).8

The selection of appropriate assessment procedures and the rigor, intensity, and scope of the assessment depend on three factors:

6 An executive agency is: (i) an executive department specified in 5 U.S.C., Section 101; (ii) a military department specified in 5 U.S.C., Section 102; (iii) an independent establishment as defined in 5 U.S.C., Section 104(1); and (iv) a wholly owned government corporation fully subject to the provisions of 31 U.S.C., Chapter 91. In this publication, the term executive agency is synonymous with the term federal agency.

7 In accordance with the provisions of FISMA and OMB policy, whenever the interconnection of federal information systems to information systems operated by state/local/tribal governments, contractors, or grantees involves the processing, storage, or transmission of federal information, the information security standards and guidelines described in this publication apply. Specific information security requirements and the terms and conditions of the system interconnections, are expressed in the Memoranda of Understanding and Interconnection Security Agreements established by participating organizations.

8 For example, detailed test scripts may need to be developed for the specific operating system, network component, middleware, or application employed within the information system to adequately assess certain characteristics of a particular security or privacy control. Such test scripts are at a lower level of detail than provided by the assessment procedures contained in Appendices F and J and are therefore beyond the scope of this publication. Additional details for assessments are provided in the supporting assessment cases described in Appendix H.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

• The security categorization of the information system;9

• The assurance requirements that the organization intends to meet in determining the overall effectiveness of the security and privacy controls; and

• The security and privacy controls from Special Publication 800-53 as identified in the approved security plans and privacy plans.10

The assessment process is an information-gathering activity, not a security- or privacy-producing activity. Organizations determine the most cost-effective implementation of this key element in the organization’s information security and privacy programs by applying the results of risk assessments, considering the maturity and quality level of the organization’s risk management processes, and taking advantage of the flexibility in the concepts described in this publication.

The use of Special Publication 800-53A as a starting point in the process of defining procedures for assessing the security and privacy controls in information systems and organizations, promotes a consistent level of security and privacy and offers the needed flexibility to customize the assessment based on organizational policies and requirements, known threat and vulnerability information, operational considerations, information system and platform dependencies, and tolerance for risk.11 The information produced during control assessments can be used by an organization to:

• Identify potential problems or shortfalls in the organization’s implementation of the Risk Management Framework;

• Identify security- and privacy-related weaknesses and deficiencies in the information system and in the environment in which the system operates;

• Prioritize risk mitigation decisions and associated risk mitigation activities;

• Confirm that identified security- and privacy-related weaknesses and deficiencies in the information system and in the environment of operation have been addressed;

• Support monitoring activities and information security and privacy situational awareness;

• Facilitate security authorization decisions, privacy authorization decisions, and ongoing authorization decisions; and

• Inform budgetary decisions and the capital investment process.

Organizations are not expected to employ all of the assessment methods and assessment objects contained within the assessment procedures identified in this publication for the associated security and privacy controls deployed within or inherited by organizational information systems.

Rather, organizations have the inherent flexibility to determine the level of effort needed and the assurance required for a particular assessment (e.g., which assessment methods and assessment objects are deemed to be the most useful in obtaining the desired results). This determination is

9 For national security systems, security categorization is accomplished in accordance with CNSS Instruction 1253.

For other than national security systems, security categorization is accomplished in accordance with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 199 and NIST Special Publication 800-60.

10 The security and privacy controls for the information system and organization are documented in the security plans and privacy plans after the initial selection and tailoring of the controls as described in NIST Special Publication 800- 53 and CNSS Instruction 1253.

11 In this publication, the term risk is used to mean risk to organizational operations (i.e., mission, functions, image, and reputation), organizational assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans made on the basis of what will accomplish the assessment objectives in the most cost-effective manner and with sufficient confidence to support the subsequent determination of the resulting mission or business risk. Organizations should balance the resources expended on the deployment of security and privacy controls (i.e., safeguards and countermeasures implemented for security and privacy protection) versus the resources expended to determine overall control effectiveness, both initially and on an ongoing basis through continuous monitoring programs.

1.2 TARGET AUDIENCE

This publication is intended to serve a diverse group of information system, information security, and privacy professionals including:

• Individuals with information system development responsibilities (e.g., program managers, system designers and developers, systems integrators, information security engineers);

• Individuals with information security assessment and monitoring responsibilities (e.g., Inspectors General, system evaluators, assessors, independent verifiers/validators, auditors, analysts, information system owners, common control providers);

• Individuals with information system, security, privacy, and risk management and oversight responsibilities (e.g., authorizing officials, chief information officers, senior information security officers,12 senior agency officials for privacy/chief privacy officers, information system managers, information security managers); and

• Individuals with information security implementation and operational responsibilities (e.g., information system owners, common control providers, information owners/stewards, mission/business owners, systems administrators, information system security officers).

1.3 RELATED PUBLICATIONS AND ASSESSMENT PROCESSES

Special Publication 800-53A is designed to support Special Publication 800-37, Guide for Applying the Risk Management Framework to Federal Information Systems: A Security Life Cycle Approach. In particular, the assessment procedures contained in this publication and the guidelines provided for developing security and privacy assessment plans for organizational information systems directly support the assessment and monitoring activities that are integral to the risk management process. This includes providing near real-time security- and privacy-related information to organizational officials regarding the ongoing security and privacy state of their systems and organizations.

Organizations are encouraged, whenever possible, to take advantage of the assessment results and associated assessment documentation and evidence available on information system components from previous assessments including independent third-party testing, evaluation, and validation.13 Product testing, evaluation, and validation may be conducted on cryptographic modules and general-purpose information technology products such as operating systems, database systems, firewalls, intrusion detection devices, Web browsers, Web applications, smart cards, biometrics

12 At the agency level, this position is known as the Senior Agency Information Security Officer. Organizations may also refer to this position as the Senior Information Security Officer or the Chief Information Security Officer.

13 Assessment results can be obtained from many activities that occur routinely during the system development life cycle. For example, assessment results are produced during the testing and evaluation of new information system components during system upgrades or system integration activities. Organizations can take advantage of previous assessment results whenever possible, to reduce the overall cost of assessments and to make the assessment process more efficient.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans devices, personal identity verification devices, network devices, and hardware platforms using national and international standards. If an information system component product is identified as providing support for the implementation of a particular security or privacy control in Special Publication 800-53, then evidence produced during the product testing, evaluation, and validation processes (e.g., security specifications, analyses and test results, validation reports, and validation certificates)14 is used to the extent that it is applicable. This evidence can be combined with the assessment-related evidence obtained from the application of the assessment procedures in this publication, to cost-effectively produce the information necessary to determine whether the security and privacy controls are effective in their application.

1.4 ORGANIZATION OF THIS SPECIAL PUBLICATION

The remainder of this special publication is organized as follows:

• Chapter Two describes the fundamental concepts associated with security and privacy control assessments including: (i) the integration of assessments into the system development life cycle; (ii) the importance of an organization-wide strategy for conducting security and privacy control assessments; (iii) the development of effective assurance cases to help increase the grounds for confidence in the effectiveness of the security and privacy controls being assessed; and (iv) the format and content of assessment procedures.

• Chapter Three describes the process of assessing the security and privacy controls in organizational information systems and their environments of operation including: (i) the activities carried out by organizations and assessors to prepare for security and privacy control assessments; (ii) the development of security assessment plans; (iii) the conduct of security and privacy control assessments and the analysis, documentation, and reporting of assessment results; and (iv) the post-assessment report analysis and follow-on activities carried out by organizations.

• Supporting appendices provide detailed assessment-related information including: (i) general references; (ii) definitions and terms; (iii) acronyms; (iv) a description of assessment methods; (v) penetration testing guidelines; (vi) a catalog of assessment procedures that can be used to develop plans for assessing security controls; (vii) content of security assessment reports; (viii) the definition, format, and use of assessment cases; (ix) automation support for ongoing assessments; and (x) a catalog of assessment procedures that can be used to develop plans for assessing privacy controls.

14 Organizations review the available information from component information technology products to determine: (i) what security and privacy controls are implemented by the product; (ii) if those security and privacy controls meet the intended control requirements of the information system under assessment; (iii) if the configuration of the product and the environment in which the product operates are consistent with the environmental and product configuration stated by the vendor and/or developer; and (iv) if the assurance requirements stated in the developer/vendor specification satisfy the assurance requirements for assessing those controls. Meeting the above criteria provides a sound rationale that the product is suitable and meets the intended security and privacy control requirements of the information system under assessment.

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Special Publication 800-53A Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Federal Information Systems Revision 4 and Organizations — Building Effective Assessment Plans

CHAPTER TWO

THE FUNDAMENTALS

BASIC CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH SECURITY AND PRIVACY CONTROL ASSESSMENTS

his chapter describes the basic concepts associated with assessing the security and privacy controls in organizational information systems and the environments in which those systems operate including: (i) the integration of assessments into the system development life cycle; (ii) the importance of an organization-wide strategy for conducting assessments; (iii) the development of effective assurance cases to help increase the grounds for confidence in the effectiveness of security and privacy controls; and (iv) the format and content of assessment procedures. While flexibility continues to be an important factor in developing assessment plans, consistency of assessments is also an important consideration. A fundamental design objective for Special Publication 800-53A is to provide an assessment framework and a starting point for assessment procedures that are essential for achieving such consistency.

2.1 ASSESSMENTS WITHIN THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE

Security and privacy assessments can be effectively carried out at various stages in the system development life cycle15 to increase the grounds for confidence that the security and privacy controls employed within or inherited by an information system are effective in their application.

This publication provides a comprehensive set of assessment procedures to support security and privacy assessment activities throughout the system development life cycle. For example, security assessments are routinely conducted by system developers and system integrators during the development/acquisition and implementation phases of the life cycle. Privacy assessments are conducted by senior agency officials for privacy/privacy officers and privacy staff in these early life cycle phases as well. This helps to ensure that the required security and privacy controls for the system are properly designed and developed, correctly implemented, and consistent with the established organizational information security architecture before the system enters the operations and maintenance phase. Security assessments in the initial system development life cycle phases include, for example, design and code reviews, application scanning, and regression testing. Privacy assessments include reviews to ensure that applicable privacy laws and policies are adhered to and that privacy protections are embedded in system design. Security-related and privacy-related weaknesses and deficiencies identified early in the system development life cycle can be resolved more quickly and in a much more cost-effective manner before proceeding to subsequent phases in the life cycle. The objective is to identify the security and privacy controls early in the life cycle to ensure that the system design and testing validate the implementation of these controls. The assessment procedures described in Appendices F and J support assessments carried out during the initial stages of the system development life cycle.

Security and privacy assessments are also conducted during the operations and maintenance phase of the life cycle to ensure that security and privacy controls continue to be effective in the operational environment and can protect against constantly evolving threats. Security assessments are typically conducted by information system owners, common control providers, information system security officers, independent assessors, auditors, and Inspectors General. Privacy assessments are typically conducted by senior agency officials for privacy/privacy officers and

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