Control statement
- a.Plan the location or site of the facility where the system resides considering physical and environmental hazards; and
- b.For existing facilities, consider the physical and environmental hazards in the organizational risk management strategy.
Discussion
Physical and environmental hazards include floods, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorism, vandalism, an electromagnetic pulse, electrical interference, and other forms of incoming electromagnetic radiation. The location of system components within the facility is addressed in [PE-18](#pe-18).
From control text to operational evidence
Use Facility Location as a testable risk decision. Translate the official statement into accountable people, repeatable processes, configured technology, and evidence that demonstrates the outcome over time. In this family, pay particular attention to physical access, facility protection, environmental safeguards, and visitor accountability.
Implementation workflow
- Define the control boundary, responsible owner, inherited portions, and systems or processes in scope.
- Resolve each organization-defined parameter before declaring the control implemented.
- Document how the implementation satisfies every clause of the official control statement.
- Collect evidence as a normal byproduct of operation rather than only before an assessment.
- Review exceptions, changes, and monitoring results on a risk-based cadence.
Evidence examples
- badge and visitor logs
- physical access reviews
- facility diagrams and sensor records
- environmental and power test results
Common failure patterns
- logical security assumptions invalidated by physical access
- tailgating and visitor exceptions normalized
- critical infrastructure not included in access reviews
- environmental alarms not integrated into response
Questions practitioners should ask
- What risk decision is this control intended to support in this system?
- Which parts are implemented locally, inherited, shared, or not applicable—and what evidence supports that decision?
- Do the documented narrative, deployed configuration, operating process, and collected evidence agree?
- What event or threshold requires the implementation to be reviewed or changed?
Assessment objectives and methods
Show the assessment objective
- PE-23a.the location or site of the facility where the system resides is planned considering physical and environmental hazards;
- PE-23b.for existing facilities, physical and environmental hazards are considered in the organizational risk management strategy.
Examine
- Physical and environmental protection policy
- physical site planning documents
- organizational assessment of risk
- contingency plan
- risk mitigation strategy documentation
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Organizational personnel with site selection responsibilities for the facility housing the system
- organizational personnel with risk mitigation responsibilities
- organizational personnel with information security responsibilities
Test
- Organizational processes for site planning
Related controls
These relationships come from the official OSCAL catalog. They indicate useful dependencies or context, not automatic inheritance or equivalence.
Authoritative sources
Bare Metal Cyber is an independent educational publisher and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NIST. Official control requirements and interpretations remain with NIST and the responsible authorizing organization.