Security requirement
Provide for the recovery and reconstitution of the system to a known state within [Organization-defined: organization-defined time period consistent with recovery time and recovery point objectives] after a disruption, compromise, or failure.
Discussion
Recovery is executing contingency plan activities to restore organizational mission and business functions. Reconstitution occurs following recovery operations and includes activities for returning systems to fully operational states. Recovery and reconstitution operations reflect mission and business priorities; recovery point, recovery time, and reconstitution objectives; and organizational metrics consistent with contingency plan requirements. Reconstitution includes the deactivation of interim system capabilities that may have been needed during recovery operations. Reconstitution also includes assessments of fully restored system capabilities, the reestablishment of continuous monitoring activities, and activities to prepare the system and organization for future disruptions, breaches, compromises, or failures. Recovery and reconstitution capabilities can include automated mechanisms and manual procedures. Organizations establish recovery time and recovery point objectives as part of contingency planning. This requirement does not enhance a specific requirement in SP 800-171 but can be used to strengthen the protection of CUI associated with critical programs or high value assets.
Tailoring decisions required
Resolve these values through the governing organization’s approved tailoring and risk-management process before declaring the requirement implemented.
Protection strategies supported
These classifications are carried from the official SP 800-172 OSCAL record and help explain the enhanced requirement’s defensive purpose.
Implementation perspective
Treat System Recovery and Reconstitution as an enhanced CUI protection outcome for elevated threat conditions that must be reflected in the system boundary, documented implementation, operational behavior, and assessment evidence. Pay particular attention to CUI media accountability, access, marking, storage, transport, sanitization, and disposal.
- Confirm the federal agency selected this enhanced requirement for the critical program or high-value asset and identify the CUI system components, services, users, and external connections in scope.
- 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 critical-program or high-value-asset CUI, data flows, users, and services are protected by this enhanced 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
- media inventories and chain-of-custody records
- sanitization certificates
- transport and storage procedures
- removable-media control logs
Common failure patterns
- cloud snapshots and virtual media excluded
- sanitization method not matched to media type
- untracked removable media
- disposal vendors accepted without verification
Assessment objectives and methods
Assessment objectives (2)
the recovery of the system to a known state is provided within [Organization-defined: time period] after a disruption, compromise, or failure.
the reconstitution of the system to a known state is provided within [Organization-defined: time period] after a disruption, compromise, or failure.
Examine
- Contingency planning policy
- procedures addressing system backup
- contingency plan
- system backup test results
- contingency plan test results
- contingency plan test documentation
- redundant secondary system for system backups
- locations of redundant secondary backup systems
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Organizational personnel with contingency planning, recovery, and/or reconstitution responsibilities
- organizational personnel with information security responsibilities
Test
- Organizational processes implementing system recovery and reconstitution operations
- mechanisms supporting and/or implementing system recovery and reconstitution operations
Source NIST SP 800-53 controls
These controls are referenced by the official SP 800-172 Rev. 3 OSCAL record. Open the corresponding control pages for complete control text, enhancements, D3FEND mappings, and related learning.
Authoritative sources
- NIST SP 800-172 Revision 3 official publication ↗
- NIST SP 800-172A 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.