CA-7 - Continuous Monitoring
Control requirements
CA-7 (a)
Develop a system-level continuous monitoring strategy and implement continuous monitoring in accordance with the organization-level continuous monitoring strategy that includes: Establishing the following system-level metrics to be monitored: [Assignment: organization-defined system-level metrics].
CA-7 (b)
Develop a system-level continuous monitoring strategy and implement continuous monitoring in accordance with the organization-level continuous monitoring strategy that includes: Establishing [Assignment: organization-defined frequencies] for monitoring and [Assignment: organization-defined frequencies] for assessment of control effectiveness.
CA-7 (c)
Develop a system-level continuous monitoring strategy and implement continuous monitoring in accordance with the organization-level continuous monitoring strategy that includes: Ongoing control assessments in accordance with the continuous monitoring strategy.
CA-7 (d)
Develop a system-level continuous monitoring strategy and implement continuous monitoring in accordance with the organization-level continuous monitoring strategy that includes: Ongoing monitoring of system and organization-defined metrics in accordance with the continuous monitoring strategy.
CA-7 (e)
Develop a system-level continuous monitoring strategy and implement continuous monitoring in accordance with the organization-level continuous monitoring strategy that includes: Correlation and analysis of information generated by control assessments and monitoring.
CA-7 (f)
Develop a system-level continuous monitoring strategy and implement continuous monitoring in accordance with the organization-level continuous monitoring strategy that includes: Response actions to address results of the analysis of control assessment and monitoring information.
CA-7 (g)
Develop a system-level continuous monitoring strategy and implement continuous monitoring in accordance with the organization-level continuous monitoring strategy that includes: Reporting the security and privacy status of the system to [IBM Assignment: to meet customer requirements] [IBM Assignment: monthly].
Additional IBM Cloud for Financial Services specifications
The customer has the right to request and review organization processes, procedures, and documentation (e.g. architecture diagrams, security and control environment, data management, incident management, etc.) in order to validate customer's policy, standards, outsourcing risk management framework, and regulatory requirements are being met by the organization.
Implementation guidance
See the resources that follow to learn more about how to implement this control.
NIST supplemental guidance
Continuous monitoring at the system level facilitates ongoing awareness of the system security and privacy posture to support organizational risk management decisions. The terms “continuous” and “ongoing” imply that organizations assess and monitor their controls and risks at a frequency sufficient to support risk-based decisions. Different types of controls may require different monitoring frequencies. The results of continuous monitoring generate risk response actions by organizations. When monitoring the effectiveness of multiple controls that have been grouped into capabilities, a root-cause analysis may be needed to determine the specific control that has failed. Continuous monitoring programs allow organizations to maintain the authorizations of systems and common controls in highly dynamic environments of operation with changing mission and business needs, threats, vulnerabilities, and technologies. Having access to security and privacy information on a continuing basis through reports and dashboards gives organizational officials the ability to make effective and timely risk management decisions, including ongoing authorization decisions. Automation supports more frequent updates to hardware, software, and firmware inventories, authorization packages, and other system information. Effectiveness is further enhanced when continuous monitoring outputs are formatted to provide information that is specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and timely. Continuous monitoring activities are scaled in accordance with the security categories of systems. Monitoring requirements, including the need for specific monitoring, may be referenced in other controls and control enhancements, such as AC-2g, AC-2(7), AC-2(12)(a), AC-2(7)(b), AC-2(7)(c), AC-17(1), AT-4a, AU-13, AU-13(1), AU-13(2), CM-3f, CM-6d, CM-11c, IR-5, MA-2b, MA-3a, MA-4a, PE-3d, PE-6, PE-14b, PE-16, PE-20, PM-6, PM-23, PM-31, PS-7e, SA-9c, SR-4, SC-5(3)(b), SC-7a, SC-7(24)(b), SC-18c, SC-43b, and SI-4.