NIST 800-53 Control Assessment Questions

Assessment questions for NIST 800-53 controls are designed to verify whether your organization meets the intent and implementation of each control across the various control families. Drawing on established best practices, including insights from CyberSaint, these questions focus on the effectiveness, consistency, and evidence of your cybersecurity program. They are typically organized by control family and control objectives.

Compliance isn’t meant to be a headache, but if you’re still conducting compliance with manual evidence hunts and spreadsheets, it will be. NIST 800-53 is one of the most comprehensive control frameworks, and CyberStrong can help you streamline alignment with this cybersecurity framework with unprecedented automation. But first, let’s examine the key questions to consider within this framework. 

NIST 800-53 Control Assessment Questions to Consider

Here are representative assessment questions you might use, tailored for several common NIST 800-53 control families:

Access Control (AC)

• Do you have formal policies detailing who can access what assets and at what authorization levels?
• Are user accounts periodically reviewed and deactivated/removed when users leave the organization or change roles?
• Is multi-factor authentication enabled for privileged accounts?
• How do you log and review remote access sessions to critical systems?

Audit and Accountability (AU)

• Are security-relevant events recorded in audit logs?
• How do you ensure the integrity of audit logs against unauthorized access or modification?
• How often are logs reviewed for signs of unusual or unauthorized activities?
• Is there a process for reporting and responding to audit findings?

Awareness and Training (AT)

• How do you ensure all employees receive regular security awareness training?
• Are training materials updated to reflect new threats and organizational changes?
• Is the completion of security training documented and tracked?

Configuration Management (CM)

• Do you maintain a current baseline configuration for all IT systems?
• How are changes to system configurations documented, reviewed, and approved?
• Are there technical controls in place to prevent unauthorized configuration changes?

Contingency Planning (CP)

• Is there an up-to-date, documented contingency plan for system outages and cyber incidents?
• How often is your contingency plan tested and revised?
• Are backups regularly created and tested for data restoration capability?

Identification and Authentication (IA)

• How is user identity verified before granting system access?
• What is your process for issuing, managing, and revoking user credentials?
• Are strong password and authentication policies enforced?

Incident Response (IR)

• Is an incident response plan in place and regularly updated?
• How do you track and document responses to security incidents?
• Have key staff been trained on incident response procedures and participated in drills?

Here are eight NIST Controls to focus on before, during, and after a cybersecurity incident. 

Risk Assessment (RA)

• When was your last organization-wide risk assessment conducted?
• What criteria are used to identify and prioritize cyber risks?
• How is risk assessment documentation maintained and made available for review?

System and Communications Protection (SC)

• Are network boundaries defined and protected by technical controls (e.g., firewalls, segmentation)?
• Is data encrypted when transmitted across public or untrusted networks?
• How is unauthorized network traffic detected and blocked?

System and Information Integrity (SI)

• Are there processes and tools in place to detect, report, and remediate security flaws?
• How do you monitor for malicious code and software vulnerabilities in IT systems?
• What is your process for providing and verifying the installation of security patches?

General NIST 800-53 Assessment Approach:

• Review policies, procedures, and technical evidence for each control.
• Interview key personnel responsible for implementing controls.
• Test systems and processes to validate implementation and effectiveness.
• Ensure that continuous control monitoring is in place to maintain ongoing compliance.

These types of questions help organizations operationalize the intent behind each NIST 800-53 control, facilitating readiness for audits and ongoing compliance. 

CyberStrong delivers continuous compliance automation within its comprehensive solution that connects controls to risk in real-time. CyberStrong streamlines the assessment process with intelligent framework mappings for any industry framework and custom frameworks, helping you automate over 50% of control scoring. CyberStrong also offers 1-click control integrations to align seamlessly with your tech stack. Transition from point-in-time to real-time without burning out your team or depleting your resources.