Control statement
- a.Receive system security alerts, advisories, and directives from [Organization-defined: external organizations] on an ongoing basis;
- b.Generate internal security alerts, advisories, and directives as deemed necessary;
- c.Disseminate security alerts, advisories, and directives to: [Organization-defined: si-05_odp.02] ; and
- d.Implement security directives in accordance with established time frames, or notify the issuing organization of the degree of noncompliance.
Discussion
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) generates security alerts and advisories to maintain situational awareness throughout the Federal Government. Security directives are issued by OMB or other designated organizations with the responsibility and authority to issue such directives. Compliance with security directives is essential due to the critical nature of many of these directives and the potential (immediate) adverse effects on organizational operations and assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation should the directives not be implemented in a timely manner. External organizations include supply chain partners, external mission or business partners, external service providers, and other peer or supporting organizations.
Organization-defined parameters
These values must be resolved through the organization’s tailoring and governance process. Bracketed parameter references in the control text identify where a decision is required.
From control text to operational evidence
Use Security Alerts, Advisories, and Directives 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 flaw remediation, malicious-code protection, monitoring, integrity, and trustworthy information handling.
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
- patch and remediation records
- malware protection configuration
- monitoring alerts and response records
- integrity validation and exception reports
Common failure patterns
- patch compliance hides unsupported assets
- alerts generated without response ownership
- exceptions never expire
- integrity monitoring excludes critical configurations
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
- SI-05a.system security alerts, advisories, and directives are received from [Organization-defined: external organizations] on an ongoing basis;
- SI-05b.internal security alerts, advisories, and directives are generated as deemed necessary;
- SI-05c.security alerts, advisories, and directives are disseminated to [Organization-defined: si-05_odp.02];
- SI-05d.security directives are implemented in accordance with established time frames or if the issuing organization is notified of the degree of noncompliance.
Examine
- System and information integrity policy
- system and information integrity procedures
- procedures addressing security alerts, advisories, and directives
- records of security alerts and advisories
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Organizational personnel with security alert and advisory responsibilities
- organizational personnel implementing, operating, maintaining, and using the system
- organizational personnel, organizational elements, and/or external organizations to whom alerts, advisories, and directives are to be disseminated
- system/network administrators
- organizational personnel with information security responsibilities
Test
- Organizational processes for defining, receiving, generating, disseminating, and complying with security alerts, advisories, and directives
- mechanisms supporting and/or implementing the definition, receipt, generation, and dissemination of security alerts, advisories, and directives
- mechanisms supporting and/or implementing security directives
Related controls
These relationships come from the official OSCAL catalog. They indicate useful dependencies or context, not automatic inheritance or equivalence.
Control enhancements
Enhancements add specificity, strength, or scope to the base control. Baseline badges show explicit selections in the official SP 800-53B OSCAL profiles.
SI-5(1) — Automated Alerts and Advisories
Broadcast security alert and advisory information throughout the organization using [Organization-defined: automated mechanisms].
Official discussion
The significant number of changes to organizational systems and environments of operation requires the dissemination of security-related information to a variety of organizational entities that have a direct interest in the success of organizational mission and business functions. Based on information provided by security alerts and advisories, changes may be required at one or more of the three levels related to the management of risk, including the governance level, mission and business process level, and the information system level.
Organization-defined parameters (1)
Assessment objectives and methods
[Organization-defined: automated mechanisms] are used to broadcast security alert and advisory information throughout the organization.
Examine
- System and information integrity policy
- system and information integrity procedures
- procedures addressing security alerts, advisories, and directives
- system design documentation
- system configuration settings and associated documentation
- automated mechanisms supporting the distribution of security alert and advisory information
- records of security alerts and advisories
- system audit records
- system security plan
- other relevant documents or records
Interview
- Organizational personnel with security alert and advisory responsibilities
- organizational personnel implementing, operating, maintaining, and using the system
- organizational personnel, organizational elements, and/or external organizations to whom alerts and advisories are to be disseminated
- system/network administrators
- organizational personnel with information security responsibilities
Test
- Organizational processes for defining, receiving, generating, and disseminating security alerts and advisories
- automated mechanisms supporting and/or implementing the dissemination of security alerts and advisories
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.