Beyond CMMC Level 1
The free web app covers the 17 CMMC Level 1 practices. This requirement is part of the full NIST 800-171 set — get the desktop app to work on all 110 requirements with SPRS scoring. Previously saved data is shown read-only below, and your data always remains exportable in full.
Get the desktop appSecurity Requirements for 03.14.03 Security Alerts & Advisories
There are many publicly available sources of system security alerts and advisories. For example, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) generates security alerts and advisories to maintain situational awareness across the federal government and in nonfederal organizations. Software vendors, subscription services, and industry information sharing and analysis centers (ISACs) may also provide security alerts and advisories. Examples of response actions include notifying relevant external organizations, for example, external mission/business partners, supply chain partners, external service providers, and peer or supporting organizations[SP 800-161] provides guidance on supply chain risk management.
Assessment GuidanceExamine 0/5
How an assessor determines this requirement is met. Source: CMMC Assessment Guide – Level 2, Version 2.13 (NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2).
Discussion
Solicit and receive security alerts, advisories, and directives from reputable external organizations. Identify sources relevant to the industry and technology used by your company. Methods to receive alerts and advisories may include:
signing up for email distributions; subscribing to RSS feeds; and attending meetings.
Review alerts and advisories for applicability as they are received. The frequency of the reviews should be based on the frequency of the alerts and advisories to ensure you have the most up-to-date information.
External alerts and advisories may prompt you to generate internal security alerts, advisories, or directives, and share these with all personnel with a need-to-know. The individuals should assess the risk related to a given alert and act to respond as appropriate. Sometimes it may require a configuration update. Other times, the information may also require adjusting system architecture in order to thwart a threat described in an advisory.
Examples
- Example 1
You monitor security advisories each week. You review the alert emails and online subscription service alerts to determine which ones apply [b]. You create a list of the applicable alerts and research what steps you need to take to address them. Next, you generate a plan that you review with your change management group so that the work can be scheduled [c].
Assessment Methods
Not all of the evidence listed is required to meet this requirement — check the items your organization has collected.
- Personnel with security alert and advisory responsibilities
- Personnel implementing, operating, maintaining, and using the system
- Personnel, organizational elements, and external organizations to whom alerts, advisories, and directives are to be disseminated
- System or network administrators
- Personnel with information security responsibilities
- Organizational processes for defining, receiving, generating, disseminating, and complying with security alerts, advisories, and directives
- Mechanisms supporting or implementing definition, receipt, generation, and dissemination of security alerts, advisories, and directives
- Mechanisms supporting or implementing security directives
Potential Assessment Considerations
- Are the responses to system security alerts and advisories identified in relation to the assessed severity of potential flaws (e.g., communicating with responsible personnel, initiating vulnerability scans, initiating system flaw remediation activities) [a]?
- Are system security alerts and advisories addressed (e.g., assessing potential severity or likelihood, communicating with responsible personnel, initiating vulnerability scans, initiating system flaw remediation activities) [a, c]?