PS-5 Personnel Transfer
a. Review and confirm ongoing operational need for current logical and physical access authorizations to systems and facilities when individuals are reassigned or transferred to other positions within the organization; b. Initiate organization-defined transfer or reassignment actions within organization-defined time period following the formal transfer action; c. Modify access authorization as needed to correspond with any changes in operational need due to reassignment or transfer; and d. Notify organization-defined personnel or roles within organization-defined time period.
Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, PS-5. 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 personnel transfer actions · Document repository
- Test of Organizational processes for personnel transfer; mechanisms supporting and/or implementing personnel transfer notifications; mechanisms for disabling system access/revoking authenticators · Document repository
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Personnel security policy · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Procedures addressing personnel transfer · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- List of system and facility access authorizations · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- System security plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Access authorizations are not reviewed when staff transfer, so they accumulate rights from previous positions
- Transfer actions and notifications to defined personnel are not initiated within the organization-defined time period
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 sheetPS-4(2) Personnel Termination | Automated Actions · PS-6 Access Agreements