EvidenceSheet

MP-8 Media Downgrading

a. Establish organization-defined system media downgrading process that includes employing downgrading mechanisms with strength and integrity commensurate with the security category or classification of the information; b. Verify that the system media downgrading process is commensurate with the security category and/or classification level of the information to be removed and the access authorizations of the potential recipients of the downgraded information; c. Identify organization-defined system media requiring downgrading; and d. Downgrade the identified system media using the established process.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, MP-8. 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.

8
artefacts
0
held by a system
3
at each review
hard
to go live
Policy repository / GRC workspace
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

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Records of media downgrading · Data governance / DLP tooling
  • Audit records · Data governance / DLP tooling
  • Test of Organizational processes for media downgrading; mechanisms supporting and/or implementing media downgrading · Data governance / DLP tooling

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • System media protection policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Procedures addressing media downgrading · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System categorization documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • List of media requiring downgrading · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

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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MP-7(2) Media Use | Prohibit Use of Sanitization-resistant Media · MP-8(1) Media Downgrading | Documentation of Process