NIST Cyber Risk Scoring (CRS)
Program Overview
February 2021
Agenda
• CRS Project Background
• Risk Profiling and Risk Scoring
• Information Security Continuous Monitoring (ISCM) & Ongoing Authorization (OA)
• Privacy Capabilities
• Management Dashboards
• Questions?
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Assessing, Understanding, and
Managing Security and Privacy Risks
NIST’s Cyber Risk Scoring (CRS) Solution enhances NIST’s security & privacy
Assessment & Authorization (A&A) processes by presenting real-time, contextualized
risk data to improve situational awareness and prioritize required actions.
Previous Process CRS Solution
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Benefits of CRS
• Integrated view of NIST risk posture across the enterprise with quantitative
metrics across systems and components
• More frequent, meaningful and actionable risk information to System Owners &
Authorizing Officials
• Improved efficiency through automating assessments of certain controls and
auto-generation of ATO documentation
• A data-driven basis for ongoing authorization decisions
• Present the organization’s overall security posture from different perspectives,
e.g., the Risk Management Framework (RMF) and Cyber Security Framework (CSF)
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CRS Capabilities
The CRS toolset provides end users the following capabilities:
Archer: Tableau:
• Prioritize security & privacy control assessments • View risk at multiple organizational levels
• Manage A&A and significant change schedules • Integrate vulnerability data into risk scoring
• Track Accepted Risks and POA&M milestones • Drill-down into specific assets and their current
• Generate security and privacy documentation vulnerability exposures
• Provide compliance and vulnerabilities scan results in • Respond to data calls quickly with details
near-real time (e.g. CVEs and affected assets)
• Analyze risks against the CSF
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CRS Inputs
These data are ingested into Archer and analyzed for presentation in Tableau.
Automated
Data Types / Asset Data Automated
Risk Profile
Vulnerability
Questionnaire
Data
Responses
Common ISCM
Control
Descriptions A&A Results
System & POA&Ms and
Component Archer Accepted
Descriptions Risks
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CRS Outputs
After analysis users can generate ATO documentation on-demand & view metric-based risk management dashboards.
CIO and
Executive
Dashboards
Go-Live CSF
Dashboards Dashboard
Archer
and
Tableau
System
NIST Asset
Security and
Management
Privacy
Dashboard
Dashboards
Security &
Privacy
documents
(SAP, SAR,
PAR, PTA, &
PIA)
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Risk Profiling and Scoring
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Risk Profiling Overview
• Risk Profiling is a process that allows NIST to determine the importance of a system to the organization’s mission.
• By first understanding the business and technical characteristics that impact system risk, an agency can identify and
align controls to a component based on the likelihood that a weakness will be exploited and the potential impact to
the organization.
1. Define 2. Develop Business 3. Determine Tailoring 4. Incorporate
5. Deploy Continuous
Organization’s Risk and Technical Logic & Apply Compliance and
Monitoring
Factors and Priorities Characteristics Common Controls Vulnerability Data
Organization’s Questionnaire is The Risk Profile Assessment, The Risk Profile
priorities and risk created to reflect leverages Common compliance, and makes it possible to
appetite is organization’s Control Providers vulnerability data is perform Continuous
determined by and scoping continuously Monitoring of all
business processes
receiving input from considerations to recorded in the Risk implemented security
stakeholders to and technical reduce the number of Profile to determine and privacy controls
customize a security environment. controls to be the risk posture of by using a risk-based
questionnaire that Likelihood and threat assessed, narrowing the information approach to
will best fit the factors tied to these the scope of work system. prioritize control
organization’s characteristics are while maintaining assessments.
security needs. quantified. security awareness.
Output: Applicable
Output: Risk Profile Output: Risk Profile Output: Total View of Output: Metric
Controls and Total
Methodology Multiplier Risk Reports
Potential Risk
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Risk Scoring Variables
Risk Scoring provides a foundation for quantitative risk-based analysis, assessment, and reporting of
organizational IT assets. By applying ratings to controls and generating scores for components, stakeholders have
a relative understanding of risk from one system compared to another.
The variables that can affect a control’s potential risk score is outlined below.
Variable Description Considerations
Control Baseline Risk Score Every control is assigned an initial weighting (1-10) • What is the potential security impact of
based on an analysis of its importance to the security this control to NIST?
and privacy posture.
Data Type Questionnaire Responses Initial CIA ratings (1-10) are assigned to controls, • What is the impact of Confidentiality (C),
based on criticality of the information type(s), upon Integrity (I), and Availability (A) to the
completion of the Data Type Questionnaire. types of information that are used within
this component?
Risk Profile Questionnaire Responses Additional adjustments are applied as indicated by • What assets or applications are part of
responses to the Risk Profile Questionnaire, including the component?
business risks. • What is potential security impact of this
component to the enterprise?
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Risk Calculation Overview
The following steps are completed in Archer for each system component to calculate potential risk.
Complete Questionnaires Generate Risk Profile Calculate Risk Score
• Data Type Questionnaire: • The Risk Profile outlines the controls • The sum of all Component potential
Determines an overall system that should be implemented. risk equals the System potential risk
security category for the component,
assigns the security control • Security controls are assigned ratings • Final scores include a multitude of
“baseline” (Low/Moderate/High), for Confidentiality, Integrity, and security inputs (e.g., manual inputs,
and calculates initial risk score Availability to quantify risks. vulnerabilities, compliance scans).
modifier.
• Components are assessed based on • Risk scores create the ability to make
• Risk Profile Questionnaire: Performs their implementation of these “apples-to-apples” comparisons
additional control scoping and controls. across the enterprise.
calculates final risk score modifiers for
the resulting set of applicable
controls.
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Information Security Continuous Monitoring
and
Ongoing Authorization
Approach
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ISCM and OA Overview
ISCM promotes more frequent and targeted monitoring of system security and privacy posture to
enable risk-based Ongoing Authorization (OA) decisions.
Through CRS, NIST implements ISCM and OA by:
• Prioritizing the set of controls to be evaluated for each assessment
• Providing on-demand reporting of security and privacy metrics (SARs, SAPs, PAPs, and PARs) and
management dashboard summaries
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NIST System ATO Schedule
• NIST has 46 operational systems + Common Controls
• NIST System ATOs are on a semi-annual ATO Cycle
• ATO status is managed in Cyber Risk Scoring solution (Archer)
ATOs Expirations ~9/30 ATOs Expirations ~4/1
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ISCM Schedule for Security Controls
Security control assessments are prioritized based on importance to the organization (DoC Volatile
Controls and Common Controls) and number of potential risk points.
Sample Assessment Schedule
Automated Assessment Type Scan Frequency
Assessments Vulnerabilities Weekly
Compliance Scans Monthly
Web Applications Annually and as needed
Controls Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
Manual Assessments*
DoC Volatile Controls
Full control set assessed
Common Controls
annually
Half of the control set is
assessed each year High Risk Controls*
One third of the control set is Moderate Risk
assessed each year Controls*
One sixth of the control set is Low Risk Controls*
assessed each year
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*Risk score ranges were determined by calculating baseline risk score multipliers
Assessment Process
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System Level Data
Archer captures system information that supports ongoing assessment and authorization efforts.
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Tailored Control Set
Upon completion of the questionnaires, each component is provided with a tailored set of controls.
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Control Assessment Input
Assessors can document assessment results and supporting details in this interactive form.
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SAP/SAR Generation
The images below show the Security Assessment Plan (SAP) and Security Assessment Report (SAR) Assessors
complete in Archer. Upon completion of assessments, the documentation is generated directly from Archer.
Security Assessment Plan Security Assessment Report
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Sample Assessor & Management Dashboards
In Archer, role-based dashboards display task prioritization and management of A&A activities.
Assessor Dashboard
Management Dashboard
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ISCM Status Tracker
In Tableau, the Annual Assessment Progress report displays status of ISCM assessments by system.
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Ongoing Authorization
Historical data was evaluated to create initial risk thresholds in support of Ongoing Authorization
decisions.
• Current threshold: NIST-wide Accepted Risk Average (all time)
• SOs and AOs can review a system’s current security posture and risk trend:
o Risk scores at or below the NIST average threshold could result in automatic reauthorization
o Risk scores that exceed the threshold may require further review and discussion
Sample Data
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Privacy
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Aligning Privacy with CRS
Privacy capabilities have been integrated into the CRS Solution to standardize security and privacy
processes across NIST.
End users can complete the following privacy activities in CRS:
• Automate control assignments (NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 4, Appendix J.) for systems that contain PII
• Complete and generate on-demand DOC-required forms such as Privacy Threshold Analysis (PTA),
Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA), and Annual Recertification
• Perform privacy control assessments and generate required documentation on-demand (Privacy
Assessment Report and Privacy Assessment Plan)
• Quantify privacy risk based on CRS’s scoring methodology
Privacy objectives (Predictability, Manageability, and Disassociability) scores are
added together to calculate the Total Potential Risk for a single privacy control.
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Integrating CRS with Privacy
The following steps are completed in Archer for each system component to maintain privacy
documentation and allocate applicable controls.
Generate Annual PIA
Complete PTA Complete PIA
Recertification Form
• A PTA is required for every system • The PIA collects information about • The PIA recertification form is
the types of privacy data which is generated annually for ongoing
stored and processed, why it is authorization
• The PTA determines if a PIA is
required collected, and how it is handled
• It also ensures that any changes to
the Systems, Components, or
• CRS incorporates the current DOC • Privacy controls are allocated as
privacy risks are identified and
PTA template determined by the PIA
mitigated
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PTA/PIA Generation
The images below show the PTA and PIA Questionnaires ISSOs complete in Archer. Upon completion of the
questionnaires, the PIA, PTA, and PIA Recertification forms are generated from Archer.
PTA and PIA Questionnaires PIA, PTA, and PIA Recertification forms
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Enterprise Management Dashboards
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Enterprise System Security Dashboard
The Tableau dashboards supports NIST in maintaining ongoing awareness of information security and
privacy to support organizational risk management decisions.
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Sample Data
Enterprise Vulnerability Trending Dashboard
The dashboard below summarizes the organization’s active vulnerability trends over the past year.
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Sample Data
Enterprise Vulnerabilities Dashboard
The dashboard below summarizes vulnerability scan results by system and categorizes vulnerabilities
by severity exposure.
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Sample Data
Enterprise Secure Configuration Dashboard
The dashboard below summarizes secure configuration scan results by system and categorizes
findings by severity and exposure.
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Sample Data
Enterprise Web Vulnerability Dashboard
The dashboard below summarizes WebInspect scan results by system and indicates web application
vulnerabilities by risk posture and severity.
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Sample Data
Enterprise Asset Management Dashboard
The dashboard below displays the total number of assets within the organization and allows end
users to search by CVE number to identify assets impacted by specific vulnerabilities.
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Sample Data
System Privacy Dashboard
The dashboard below summarizes privacy risk metrics for system stakeholders.
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Sample Data
Cybersecurity Framework Dashboard
The dashboard below represents the organization’s performance against each function and category
within the CSF.
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Questions?
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POCs
Chris Enloe
[Link]@[Link]
Sheldon Pratt
[Link]@[Link]
Santi Kiran
[Link]@[Link]
John Cascio
[Link]@[Link]
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