CA-7

CA-7 CONTINUOUS MONITORING

Overview

Number	Title	Impact	Priority	Subject Area
CA-7	Continuous Monitoring	LOW	P2	Security Assessment And Authorization

Instructions
The organization develops a continuous monitoring strategy and implements a continuous monitoring program that includes: CA-7a. Establishment of Assignment: organization-defined metrics to be monitored; CA-7b. Establishment of Assignment: organization-defined frequencies for monitoring and Assignment: organization-defined frequencies for assessments supporting such monitoring; CA-7c. Ongoing security control assessments in accordance with the organizational continuous monitoring strategy; CA-7d. Ongoing security status monitoring of organization-defined metrics in accordance with the organizational continuous monitoring strategy; CA-7e. Correlation and analysis of security-related information generated by assessments and monitoring; CA-7f. Response actions to address results of the analysis of security-related information; and CA-7g. Reporting the security status of organization and the information system to Assignment: organization-defined personnel or roles Assignment: organization-defined frequency.

Instructions

The organization develops a continuous monitoring strategy and implements a continuous monitoring program that includes:

CA-7a.

Establishment of Assignment: organization-defined metrics to be monitored;

CA-7b.

Establishment of Assignment: organization-defined frequencies for monitoring and Assignment: organization-defined frequencies for assessments supporting such monitoring;

CA-7c.

Ongoing security control assessments in accordance with the organizational continuous monitoring strategy;

CA-7d.

Ongoing security status monitoring of organization-defined metrics in accordance with the organizational continuous monitoring strategy;

CA-7e.

Correlation and analysis of security-related information generated by assessments and monitoring;

CA-7f.

Response actions to address results of the analysis of security-related information; and

CA-7g.

Reporting the security status of organization and the information system to Assignment: organization-defined personnel or roles Assignment: organization-defined frequency.

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.

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.

Enhancements

CA-7 (1) Independent Assessment

MODERATE

Organizations can maximize the value of assessments of security controls during the continuous monitoring process by requiring that such assessments be conducted by assessors or assessment teams with appropriate levels of independence based on continuous monitoring strategies. Assessor independence provides a degree of impartiality to the monitoring process. To achieve such impartiality, assessors should not: (i) create a mutual or conflicting interest with the organizations where the assessments are being conducted; (ii) assess their own work; (iii) act as management or employees of the organizations they are serving; or (iv) place themselves in advocacy positions for the organizations acquiring their services.

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 (2) Types Of Assessments

Withdrawn: Incorporated into CA-2.

CA-7 (3) Trend Analyses

Trend analyses can include, for example, examining recent threat information regarding the types of threat events that have occurred within the organization or across the federal government, success rates of certain types of cyber attacks, emerging vulnerabilities in information technologies, evolving social engineering techniques, results from multiple security control assessments, the effectiveness of configuration settings, and findings from Inspectors General or auditors.

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.