NIST SP 800-53A Revision 5: Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Information Systems and Organizations

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued the NIST SP 800-53A Revision 5 “Assessing Security and Privacy Controls in Information Systems and Organizations.”

NIST released the updated Special Publication (SP) 800-53A Revision 5 on January 25, 2022 to correspond with the security and privacy controls in SP 800-53 Revision 5. The new publication provides a “methodology and set of assessment procedures to verify that the controls are implemented, meet stated control objectives, and achieve the desired security and privacy outcomes.”

“The revision includes new assessment procedures that address newly added and updated privacy and supply chain risk management controls in SP 800-53 Revision 5. SP 800-53A also introduces a new structure for assessment procedures to better support the use of automated tools, improve the efficiency of control assessments for assessors and organizations, and support continuous monitoring and ongoing authorization programs,” NIST stated in the news release.

SP 800-53A is a companion guideline to SP 800-53 Revision 5 Security and Privacy Controls for Systems and Organizations.

Readers can also download the full PDF version of SP 800-53A Revision 5.