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3.14.3Act on advisories

Someone reads security alerts and does something about them.

The requirement, verbatim

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2 · 3.14.3

Monitor system security alerts and advisories and take action in response.

Requirement 3.14.3, practice name in the CMMC assessment guide: Security Alerts & Advisories.

NIST's discussion

There are many publicly available sources of system security alerts and advisories. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) generates security alerts and advisories to maintain situational awareness across the federal government and in nonfederal organizations. Software vendors, subscription services, and relevant industry information sharing and analysis centers (ISACs) may also provide security alerts and advisories. Examples of response actions include notifying relevant external organizations, for example, external mission/business partners, supply chain partners, external service providers, and peer or supporting organizations.

NIST SP 800-161 provides guidance on supply chain risk management.

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2, discussion under 3.14.3. Whitespace normalised; wording unchanged.

Assessment objectives

An assessor decides each of these separately. The requirement is met only when every objective is.

  1. [a] system security alerts and advisories are monitored
  2. [b] actions in response to system security alerts and advisories are taken

NIST SP 800-171A, determination statements for 3.14.3.

For assessors: examine, interview, test

NIST SP 800-171A names what an assessor may examine, whom they may interview, and what they may test for this requirement. Assessors select from these lists; they are not a checklist of everything you must produce.

Examine
  • System and information integrity policy
  • procedures addressing security alerts, advisories, and directives
  • system security plan
  • records of security alerts and advisories
  • other relevant documents or records
Interview
  • Personnel with security alert and advisory responsibilities
  • personnel implementing, operating, maintaining, and using the system
  • personnel, organizational elements, and external organizations to whom alerts, advisories, and directives are to be disseminated
  • system or network administrators
  • personnel with information security responsibilities
Test
  • Organizational processes for defining, receiving, generating, disseminating, and complying with security alerts, advisories, and directives
  • mechanisms supporting or implementing definition, receipt, generation, and dissemination of security alerts, advisories, and directives
  • mechanisms supporting or implementing security directives

NIST SP 800-171A, potential assessment methods and objects for 3.14.3.

Evidence

No evidence examples are published for this requirement yet. The objectives above are what an assessor checks; evidence is whatever shows each one is true in your environment, dated and kept with your system security plan.

Scoring weight

Worth 5 points. Not meeting this requirement subtracts 5 from your 110-point SPRS score. These are the requirements with the largest effect on your posture.

DoD NIST SP 800-171 Assessment Methodology v1.2.1 weighting, as carried in the Bedrock scoring table. The score starts at 110 and subtracts the weight of every requirement not met.

In Rev. 3

Rev. 2 is what your contract requires today. A standing DoD class deviation keeps Rev. 2 in force; NIST has published Rev. 3, but it is not adopted for contracts. In Rev. 3 this requirement is reworded: 03.14.03 Security Alerts, Advisories, and Directives.

See the Rev. 2 and Rev. 3 wording word by word, or start with the status page.

Where this page's facts come from
Requirement text
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/004_reference_requirements.sql#Requirement.basicRequirement@rev2
Discussion
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/004_reference_requirements.sql#Requirement.discussion@rev2
Practice name
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/004_reference_requirements.sql#Requirement.title@rev2 (CMMC Assessment Guide practice name)
Objectives
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/005_reference_objectives.sql#AssessmentObjective.description@rev2
Examine, interview, test
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/005_reference_objectives.sql#AssessmentObjective.description@rev2 ({examineGuidance, interviewGuidance, testGuidance})
Level
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:migrations/021_fix_level1_requirements.sql#Requirement.cmmcLevel@rev2
Weight
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:internal/cmmc/requirement_values.go#requirementValues (DoD AM v1.2.1 / eMASS L2 template v3.8)
Rev. 3 mapping
bedrock-cmmc-api@89b8e8e:docs/reference/nist-800-171-rev3/normalized/r2_r3_transition_map.json#r2_to_r3
Plain-language title and summary
editorial/CMMC Navigator.dc.html#RAW (Foxx Cyber editorial)