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.
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
Common gaps auditors find
- No media downgrading process with mechanisms commensurate with the information's classification has been established
- The downgrading process is not verified to make information unrecoverable before release
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 sheetMP-7(2) Media Use | Prohibit Use of Sanitization-resistant Media · MP-8(1) Media Downgrading | Documentation of Process