CM-12(1) Information Location | Automated Tools to Support Information Location
Use automated tools to identify organization-defined information by information type on organization-defined system components to ensure controls are in place to protect organizational information and individual privacy.
Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, CM-12(1). 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 NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 in the compliance library.
Base controls and their enhancements. Which apply follows the baseline you are assessed against (for example FedRAMP Moderate or High, or the low, moderate and high baselines of SP 800-53B). Text in square brackets is a parameter your organisation sets.
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
- Change control records · Cloud console / configuration management
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Test of Organizational processes governing information location; automated mechanisms enforcing policies and methods for governing information location; automated tools used to identify information on system components · Cloud console / configuration management
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Configuration management policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Procedures addressing identification and documentation of information location · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Configuration management plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- System design documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- PII inventory documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Data mapping documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- System component inventory · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- No automated tools are used to identify defined information types on the defined system components
- Automated discovery scans cover only some defined components, so information held elsewhere lacks identified protections
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.
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