EvidenceSheet
NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · PE - Physical and Environmental Protection

PE-8 Visitor Access Records

a. Maintain visitor access records to the facility where the system resides for organization-defined time period; b. Review visitor access records organization-defined frequency; and c. Report anomalies in visitor access records to organization-defined personnel.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, PE-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.

9
artefacts
2
held by a system
3
at each review
hard
to go live
Physical access / facilities
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

  • Procedures addressing visitor access records · Physical access / facilities
  • Visitor access control logs or records · Physical access / facilities

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Visitor access record or log reviews · Physical access / facilities
  • Privacy impact assessment · Physical access / facilities
  • Test of Organizational processes for maintaining and reviewing visitor access records; mechanisms supporting and/or implementing the maintenance and review of visitor access records · Physical access / facilities

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Physical and environmental protection policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Privacy plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Privacy risk assessment documentation · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 2 system-held artefacts from your Physical access / facilities on a schedule; put the documents under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a dated record with a named reviewer.

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.

Build my evidence sheet

PE-6(4) Monitoring Physical Access | Monitoring Physical Access to Systems · PE-8(1) Visitor Access Records | Automated Records Maintenance and Review