Security requirement
Respond to findings from security assessments, monitoring, and audits.
Discussion
This requirement addresses the need to determine an appropriate response to risk before generating a plan of action and milestones (POAM) entry. It may be possible to mitigate the risk immediately so that a POAM entry is not needed. However, a POAM entry is generated if the risk response is to mitigate the identified risk and the mitigation cannot be completed immediately.
Implementation perspective
Treat Risk Response as a CUI protection outcome that must be reflected in the system boundary, documented implementation, operational behavior, and assessment evidence. Pay particular attention to threat, vulnerability, likelihood, impact, criticality, and risk-response decisions for the CUI environment.
- Confirm the requirement is in scope for the CUI system components, services, users, and external connections being assessed.
- Resolve every organization-defined parameter through an approved governance and tailoring process.
- Map each clause of the requirement to an accountable owner, implementation mechanism, and evidence source.
- Verify that inherited and shared implementations are supported by current provider evidence and responsibility boundaries.
- Collect evidence during normal operation and review changes, exceptions, and deficiencies on a risk-based cadence.
Questions to ask
- Which CUI assets, data flows, users, and services are protected by this requirement?
- Which portions are implemented locally, inherited, shared, or not applicable, and what evidence supports that determination?
- Do the system security plan, deployed configuration, operating process, and assessment evidence tell the same story?
- What change, incident, or threshold should trigger reassessment?
Evidence and validation
- risk assessments and threat models
- vulnerability findings and prioritization records
- supply-chain risk assessments
- risk response and acceptance decisions
Common failure patterns
- risk registers detached from technical evidence
- vulnerability severity treated as business impact
- assessments not updated after material change
- accepted risks without owners or expiration
Assessment objectives and methods
Assessment objectives (3)
- SR-03.11.4.
findings from security assessments are responded to.
- SR-03.11.4.
findings from security monitoring are responded to.
- SR-03.11.4.
findings from security audits are responded to.
Examine
- risk assessment policy
- assessment reports
- system audit records
- event logs
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- personnel with assessment and auditing responsibilities
- system administrators
- personnel with security responsibilities
Test
- processes for assessments and audits
- mechanisms and tools supporting or implementing assessments and auditing
Source NIST SP 800-53 controls
These controls are referenced by the official SP 800-171 Rev. 3 OSCAL record. Open the corresponding control pages for complete control text, enhancements, D3FEND mappings, and related learning.
Authoritative sources
- NIST SP 800-171 Revision 3 official publication ↗
- NIST SP 800-171A Revision 3 official publication ↗
- NIST OSCAL Content release used for this import ↗
Bare Metal Cyber is an independent educational publisher and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NIST. The official publications, the responsible federal agency, and the governing contract or agreement determine applicability, tailoring, assessment depth, and required implementation.