CA-7: Continuous Monitoring
Control Family:
CSF v1.1 References:
Next Version:
- NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 5:
- CA-7: Continuous Monitoring
Control Statement
The organization develops a continuous monitoring strategy and implements a continuous monitoring program that includes:
- Establishment of [Assignment: organization-defined metrics] to be monitored;
- Establishment of [Assignment: organization-defined frequencies] for monitoring and [Assignment: organization-defined frequencies] for assessments supporting such monitoring;
- Ongoing security control assessments in accordance with the organizational continuous monitoring strategy;
- Ongoing security status monitoring of organization-defined metrics in accordance with the organizational continuous monitoring strategy;
- Correlation and analysis of security-related information generated by assessments and monitoring;
- Response actions to address results of the analysis of security-related information; and
- Reporting the security status of organization and the information system to [Assignment: organization-defined personnel or roles] [Assignment: organization-defined frequency].
Supplemental Guidance
Continuous monitoring programs facilitate ongoing awareness of threats, vulnerabilities, and information security to support organizational risk management decisions. The terms continuous and ongoing imply that organizations assess/analyze security controls and information security-related risks at a frequency sufficient to support organizational risk-based decisions. The results of continuous monitoring programs generate appropriate risk response actions by organizations. Continuous monitoring programs also allow organizations to maintain the security authorizations of information systems and common controls over time in highly dynamic environments of operation with changing mission/business needs, threats, vulnerabilities, and technologies. Having access to security-related information on a continuing basis through reports/dashboards gives organizational officials the capability to make more effective and timely risk management decisions, including ongoing security authorization decisions. Automation supports more frequent updates to security authorization packages, hardware/software/firmware inventories, and other system information. Effectiveness is further enhanced when continuous monitoring outputs are formatted to provide information that is specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and timely. Continuous monitoring activities are scaled in accordance with the security categories of information systems.
Control Enhancements
CA-7(1): Independent Assessment
Baseline(s):
- Moderate
- High
The organization employs assessors or assessment teams with [Assignment: organization-defined level of independence] to monitor the security controls in the information system on an ongoing basis.
CA-7(3): Trend Analyses
Baseline(s):
The organization employs trend analyses to determine if security control implementations, the frequency of continuous monitoring activities, and/or the types of activities used in the continuous monitoring process need to be modified based on empirical data.