What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on MP-6 Media Sanitization?

SSP MP-6 statement stating NIST SP 800-88 sanitisation methods per media type before disposal, release or reuse; Sanitisation or destruction certificates for disposed media, with provider attestations for cloud storage; Media transport chain of custody logs; Encryption configuration for portable storage devices; Media protection policy covering electronic and physical media; Media inventory and labelling scheme by data classification.

What is the most common gap auditors find on MP-6?

Decommissioned drives stored unencrypted while awaiting destruction

FedRAMP Moderate (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline) · MP - Media Protection

`MP-6` Media Sanitization

Sanitize media prior to disposal, release, or reuse using FedRAMP-defined methods (NIST SP 800-88).

Source: FedRAMP Moderate (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline), MP-6. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open FedRAMP Moderate (NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 baseline) in the compliance library.

A FedRAMP baseline is a subset of NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, enhancements included.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

moderate

to go live

SIEM / log platform

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Media transport chain of custody logs · SIEM / log platform
Encryption configuration for portable storage devices · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Sanitisation or destruction certificates for disposed media, with provider attestations for cloud storage · Cloud console / configuration management

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

SSP MP-6 statement stating NIST SP 800-88 sanitisation methods per media type before disposal, release or reuse · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Media protection policy covering electronic and physical media · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Media inventory and labelling scheme by data classification · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Start with the 2 of 6 artefacts that already live in a system (SIEM / log platform); keep the periodic reviews but log each one as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Decommissioned drives stored unencrypted while awaiting destruction
USB usage permitted without DLP inspection or encryption
Destruction certificates lack serial numbers tying back to inventory

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

MP-5 Media Transport · MP-7 Media Use