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NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 · SI-5

Security Alerts, Advisories, and Directives

US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) · cited in 17 of our lessons

Explanation

What it asks for. The organisation must receive security alerts, advisories and directives from defined external sources on an ongoing basis, generate internal alerts where needed, disseminate them to the right people and implement directives within set time frames or notify that it cannot.

In practice. Doing this well means subscribing to national CSIRT feeds, vendor advisories and threat intelligence relevant to your technology stack, with someone responsible for triaging them and driving action. Auditors expect the list of sources, triage records and evidence that critical advisories led to timely action. In Europe, national CSIRTs and ENISA are typical sources alongside vendors.

Common gaps. Advisories arrive in shared mailboxes that nobody reads, or are not matched to the asset inventory. Action on urgent advisories is rarely tracked to closure.

Open SP 800-53 at NIST
The official text
a. Receive system security alerts, advisories, and directives from [Assignment: organization-defined external organizations] on an ongoing basis; b. Generate internal security alerts, advisories, and directives as deemed necessary; c. Disseminate security alerts, advisories, and directives to: [Selection: {{ insert: param, si-05_odp.03 }} ; {{ insert: param, si-05_odp.04 }} ; {{ insert: param, si-05_odp.05 }} ] ; and d. Implement security directives in accordance with established time frames, or notify the issuing organization of the degree of noncompliance. Discussion: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) generates security alerts and advisories to maintain situational awareness throughout the Federal Government. Security directives are issued by OMB or other designated organizations with the responsibility and authority to issue such directives. Compliance with security directives is essential due to the critical nature of many of these directives and the potential (immediate) adverse effects on organizational operations and assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation should the directives not be implemented in a timely manner. External organizations include supply chain partners, external mission or business partners, external service providers, and other peer or supporting organizations.

From NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, a work of the US government in the public domain.

Lessons that cite it

Real incidents where this item mattered: the latest 12 of 17.