NIST SP 800-53 is a publication developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that establishes security and privacy control baselines for federal information systems and organizations. Although mandated for federal use, the guidelines, and controls within NIST SP 800-53B, which draws its controls from NIST SP 800-53, can be implemented by any organization, public or private, that handles sensitive information.
Through our Software Compliance Testing service for NIST SP 800-53 (LOW), we assess and test vendors’ software solutions to ensure they support NIST SP 800-53 (LOW) control baseline. After a thorough evaluation, we feature these solutions on our website.
Compliance Testing for NIST SP 800-53 (LOW) relies on credible, objective testing controls based on the intent of NIST SP 800-53 (LOW) control baseline. This approach incorporates insights from consultants’ perspective, and various specialists, including affected software vendors, developers, users, and industry groups, to align with organizational needs. NIST SP 800-53 (LOW) compliance testing controls cover the following software controls categories:
While not explicitly labeled “DevOps,” several controls in NIST SP 800-53B touch upon aspects relevant to application and DevOps security. For instance:
SA-4, System Development Life Cycle: This control family focuses on integrating security and privacy considerations throughout the system development lifecycle, a core principle of DevOps.
SA-8, Security and Privacy Engineering Principles: This control encourages incorporating security principles like least privilege, secure defaults, and modularity into system design and development, aligning with secure coding practices in DevOps.
SA-10, Developer Configuration Management: This speaks to maintaining integrity and security configurations within development environments, a crucial practice in DevOps.
CM-8, System Component Inventory: This control emphasizes maintaining accurate and up-to-date inventories of system components, crucial for asset management.
PM-5, System Inventory: This control, implemented at the organizational level, mandates maintaining an inventory of systems, directly supporting asset management practices.
AT-1, AT-2, AT-3, AT-4: The Awareness and Training Family of controls in NIST SP 800-53B directly addresses the need for security and privacy awareness training programs.
CP-10, Information System Backup: This control focuses on establishing and implementing backup and restoration processes for organizational systems.
AU Family of Controls: The entire Audit and Accountability (AU) family of controls focuses on creating, protecting, and managing audit information within systems.
CA-7, Continuous Monitoring: This control promotes ongoing security assessment activities, contributing to a strong compliance posture.
AC-4, Information Flow Enforcement: This control focuses on managing how information flows within systems, an essential aspect of data security.
SC-28, Protection of Information at Rest: This control emphasizes safeguarding data stored on various media, crucial for data security.
SI-12, Information Management and Retention: This control addresses proper management and retention of information, contributing to overall data security practices.
AC-19, Access Control for Mobile Devices: This control specifically addresses security considerations for mobile devices.
MP Family of Controls: The Media Protection (MP) family deals with handling various storage media, many of which are relevant to endpoint protection.
AC Family of Controls: The Access Control (AC) family forms the core of identity and access management, covering aspects like access control policies, least privilege, and user access reviews.
IA Family of Controls: The Identification and Authentication (IA) family complements access control by addressing secure authentication mechanisms.
IR Family of Controls: The Incident Response (IR) family directly aligns with incident response processes, encompassing incident handling, reporting, and planning.
AU Family of Controls: Audit logs are essential for threat detection, making the Audit and Accountability (AU) family relevant.
SI-4, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): This control highlights the use of SIEM systems, which are fundamental for log aggregation and threat detection.
SC Family of Controls: The System and Communications Protection (SC) family covers a broad spectrum of network security controls, including firewalls, intrusion detection, and secure communications.
CA-7, Continuous Monitoring: Continuous monitoring is key for maintaining an accurate understanding of security posture.
RA-5, Vulnerability Scanning: This control encourages regular vulnerability scanning, which is crucial for vulnerability management.
RA Family of Controls: The Risk Assessment (RA) family provides the foundation for risk management processes, guiding organizations to identify, assess, and respond to risks.
While NIST SP 800-53B doesn’t explicitly mention SBOMs, SA-20, Software and Firmware Integrity, alludes to the concepts by addressing the integrity of software and firmware components throughout the supply chain. SBOMs play a critical role in this by providing visibility into software components and their origin.
NIST SP 800-53B does not explicitly discuss Zero Trust. However, Zero Trust principles are reflected in controls like SC-7 (Boundary Protection) and AC-17 (Remote Access). Zero Trust aligns with these controls by promoting network segmentation, strong authentication, and access based on least privilege, irrespective of user location.
Compliance Labs has developed the compliance continuous testing process as a fundamental aspect of the NIST SP 800-53 (LOW) compliance testing controls. The continuous evaluation process will monitor new cybersecurity regulations and standards compliance controls or frameworks best practices and update testing criteria to drive software compliance effectiveness and quality over the long term.
