What is NIST SP 800-53?
Definition
NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 5 is a comprehensive catalog of security and privacy controls published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It contains over 1,000 controls organized into 20 families, serving as the foundation for federal information system security under FISMA and the control baseline for FedRAMP cloud authorizations.
In Depth
NIST SP 800-53 is the most comprehensive security and privacy control catalog published by any standards organization, providing detailed requirements that organizations can select based on risk assessment and system impact level. Revision 5, published in September 2020, made several significant changes: controls became outcome-based and applicable to any system (not just federal), a new Supply Chain Risk Management (SR) family was added, privacy controls were integrated throughout the catalog (previously in Appendix J), and control baselines were moved to a separate publication (SP 800-53B). The 20 control families cover Access Control (AC), Awareness and Training (AT), Audit and Accountability (AU), Assessment, Authorization, and Monitoring (CA), Configuration Management (CM), Contingency Planning (CP), Identification and Authentication (IA), Incident Response (IR), Maintenance (MA), Media Protection (MP), Physical and Environmental Protection (PE), Planning (PL), Program Management (PM), Personnel Security (PS), PII Processing and Transparency (PT), Risk Assessment (RA), System and Services Acquisition (SA), System and Communications Protection (SC), System and Information Integrity (SI), and Supply Chain Risk Management (SR). Controls are selected using predefined baselines corresponding to system impact levels: Low (approximately 130 controls), Moderate (approximately 260 controls), and High (approximately 340 controls). FedRAMP adds specific parameter values and additional requirements on top of these baselines. NIST 800-53 maps extensively to other frameworks including NIST CSF, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and CIS Controls, making it valuable for multi-framework compliance programs.
Related Frameworks
Related Terms
FedRAMP
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) is a U.S. government program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services used by federal agencies. FedRAMP uses NIST SP 800-53 controls as its baseline and requires independent third-party assessment.
Risk Assessment
Risk assessment is the systematic process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating information security risks to an organization. It involves determining the likelihood and impact of threats exploiting vulnerabilities, then prioritizing risks for treatment through mitigation, transfer, avoidance, or acceptance.
Access Control
Access control encompasses the policies, procedures, and technical mechanisms that regulate who can view or use resources within a computing environment. It ensures that only authorized individuals can access specific systems, data, or physical locations based on their role and need.
NIST Framework
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) is a voluntary framework developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology for managing cybersecurity risk. It organizes security activities into six core functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
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