NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.2.1 — Literacy Training and Awareness

What this control requires

This control requires the provision of security literacy training to all system users, including initial training for new users and periodic updates thereafter. Training covers recognizing and reporting indicators of insider threats, social engineering, and social mining. It also ensures that the content is regularly updated to stay relevant, based on organizational needs and events like security incidents, system changes, or regulatory updates. This control supports the Security Awareness Program capability within the Awareness and Training (3.2) family.

In plain English

This control requires the provision of security literacy training to all system users, including initial training for new users and periodic updates thereafter. In practice, this means you can prove you literacy management-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

DoD contractors and their subcontractors must implement all 100 SP 800-171 requirements to keep CUI handling contracts. Gaps are scored against the SPRS scoring methodology; below a 110-point starting score, each unmet requirement deducts points and a below-threshold score can disqualify a bid.

This control is rated high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

What an auditor looks for

A C3PAO conducting a CMMC Level 2 assessment uses NIST SP 800-171A objectives. They expect a System Security Plan (SSP), Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) for any gaps, and objective evidence (configurations, ticket records, training records) for every requirement.

Within Awareness and Training, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Requirement 3.2.1) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Incident Response

Runbook. Maintain a runbook keyed by incident type with named roles (IC, comms, scribe), an out-of-band comms channel, and a 72-hour timeline for external notification.

Tabletop. Run a quarterly tabletop exercise (ransomware, insider, supply-chain) and feed gaps back into the runbook.

Operational checklist

• Literacy. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Response. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• System. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Incident. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management, periodic updates thereafter, content, security, response.

Evidence to collect

• Ticketing Workflow. ticketing_workflow evidence

Workflow metrics (ServiceNow, Jira) show approvals and remediation. Focus: Literacy Training and Awareness.

Common pitfalls

• Runbooks that name a role but no person, or list a paging channel that no longer exists.

How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 AT-2 — Literacy Training And Awareness
• SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC7.4 — Incident Response
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.27 — Learning from information security incidents
• BSI C5:2020 HR-03 — Security training and awareness programme
• CIS Controls v8 17.6 — Define Mechanisms for Communicating During Incident Response

Related controls in NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3

• Requirement 3.6.4 — Incident Response Training
• Requirement 3.6.2 — Incident Monitoring, Reporting, and Response Assistance
• Requirement 3.3.6 — Audit Record Reduction and Report Generation
• Requirement 3.2.2 — Role-Based Training
• Requirement 3.14.1 — Flaw Remediation
• Requirement 3.3.5 — Audit Record Review, Analysis, and Reporting

References

• NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3
• Catalogue identifier: Requirement 3.2.1

Topics: incident responseawareness trainingchange managementsecurity training