NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 AT-6 — Training Feedback

What this control requires

Provides feedback on training results to designated personnel periodically, supporting evaluation and updates to training programs. This control supports the Feedback Management System capability within the Awareness and Training family.

In plain English

Provides feedback on training results to designated personnel periodically, supporting evaluation and updates to training programs. In practice, this means you can prove you policy management-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

SP 800-53 is the catalogue every U.S. federal authorisation (FedRAMP, FISMA, CMMC) and most regulated industries point at. A missing control surfaces as a Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) item that an Authorizing Official must approve before the Authority To Operate is granted or renewed.

What an auditor looks for

A 3PAO (FedRAMP) or Independent Assessor (NIST RMF) tests against NIST SP 800-53A assessment procedures. For each control they expect a documented implementation that addresses every assessment objective (Examine, Interview, Test) and an implementation summary in the System Security Plan.

Within Awareness and Training, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control AT-6) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Policy Management

Docs. Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.

Operational checklist

• Policy. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• System. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Control. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Updates. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management, system, personnel, feedback, updates, capability, policy, security.

Evidence to collect

• Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.

Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Training Feedback.

Common pitfalls

• Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.

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.

• HIPAA (45 CFR Part 164) 164.308(a)(5)(ii)(A) — Security Awareness and Training - Security Reminders
• BSI C5:2020 SP-01 — Documentation, communication and provision of policies and instructions
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.3.5 — Audit Record Review, Analysis, and Reporting
• India DPDP Act 2023 SE-005 — Information Security Governance, Training & Audit
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.1 — Policies for information security

Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5

• Control AT-1 — Policy And Procedures
• Control SA-19(1) — Anti-Counterfeit Training
• Control AC-12(3) — Timeout Warning Message
• Control IR-2(3) — Breach
• Control PS-6 — Access Agreements
• Control SA-21(1) — Validation Of Screening

References

• NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5
• Catalogue identifier: Control AT-6

Topics: governance riskawareness trainingpolicy managementsecurity training