# NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CP-11 — Alternate Communications Protocols - Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/cp-11-alternate-communications-protocols - Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5) › CP — Contingency Planning - Last updated: 2026-06-05 - Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com) **NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5**·Control `CP-11`·medium·Component: **Contingency Planning** ## What this control requires > Employ alternative communications protocols to maintain continuity, integrating into contingency plans and testing for resilience, assessing impacts. This control supports the Network Protocol Switch capability within the Contingency Planning family. > > — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Control CP-11 ### In plain English Employ alternative communications protocols to maintain continuity, integrating into contingency plans and testing for resilience, assessing impacts. In practice, this means you can prove you security 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 **Contingency Planning**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control CP-11) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles. ## How to implement #### Cloud Posture **CSPM.** Run Wiz / Prisma / Defender for Cloud / Security Command Center over every account; auto-ticket findings above your accepted-risk threshold. #### Configuration Management **Policy-as-code.** Codify the control as Service Control Policies (AWS), Azure Policy initiatives, or Organisation Policy (GCP) so the platform enforces what the document promises. **IaC.** Gate Terraform / Pulumi / CloudFormation changes with Checkov / tfsec / OPA so misconfigurations never reach production. **Drift.** Run a CSPM (Wiz / Prisma / Defender for Cloud / Security Command Center) over every account and route findings to a single risk register. #### Network Security **AWS.** VPC Flow Logs to S3, default-deny security groups, AWS Network Firewall for north-south, and Transit Gateway for hub-and-spoke segmentation. **Azure.** NSGs with deny-by-default, Azure Firewall Premium with TLS inspection, Private Endpoints for PaaS, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud's secure score for drift. **GCP.** VPC Service Controls perimeters around sensitive APIs, Cloud NGFW Enterprise for L7 inspection, Private Service Connect for managed services. ### Operational checklist - **Security.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Configuration.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Network.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Control.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Testing,.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Scope:** management, configuration, capability, communications protocols, security, configuration management. ## Evidence to collect - **Infra Scan.** Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings. Infrastructure posture tooling (AWS Config, Azure Policy, Nessus) verifies platform hardening. Focus: Alternate Communications Protocols. ## Common pitfalls - Treating CSPM findings as a backlog instead of a hot queue: findings older than the policy SLA accumulate until the auditor asks why. - Manual cloud-console changes that never make it back to Terraform — drift accumulates until the next outage forces a reconciliation. - Default-allow egress rules; East-West traffic with no segmentation; jump hosts on the public internet with password auth. - DR plans that have never been tested in earnest, or that depend on an MFA token only one person can produce. ## 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 800-171 Rev. 3 3.13.6** — Network Communications - Deny by Default - Allow by Exception](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-13-6-network-communications-deny-by-default-allow-by-exception) - [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.22** — Segregation of networks](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-22-segregation-of-networks) - [**BSI C5:2020 COS-04** — Cross-network access](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/cos-04-cross-network-access) - [**CIS Controls v8 13.4** — Perform Traffic Filtering Between Network Segments](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/13-4-perform-traffic-filtering-between-network-segments) ## Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 - [**Control CP-6(2)** — Recovery Time And Recovery Point Objectives](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/cp-6-2-recovery-time-and-recovery-point-objectives) - [**Control CP-6(1)** — Separation From Primary Site](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/cp-6-1-separation-from-primary-site) - [**Control AC-18(4)** — Restrict Configurations By Users](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ac-18-4-restrict-configurations-by-users) - [**Control CM-2(2)** — Automation Support For Accuracy And Currency](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/cm-2-2-automation-support-for-accuracy-and-currency) - [**Control CP-6** — Alternate Storage Site](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/cp-6-alternate-storage-site) - [**Control AC-17(3)** — Managed Access Control Points](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ac-17-3-managed-access-control-points) ## References - [NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5](https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/risk-management/sp800-53-controls) - Catalogue identifier: `Control CP-11` Topics: network securitybusiness continuitycloud postureconfiguration management ## Related compliance guidance - [NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: a practical implementation guide for cloud teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5): Start with the full NIST SP 800-53 implementation guide — scope, roadmap, evidence and how the assessment runs. - [NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC: a practical guide to protecting CUI in the cloud](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3): If your obligation is protecting CUI in your own systems for a federal or defence contract, this derived subset — not the full catalogue — is the requirement. - [SOC 2 compliance: a practical implementation guide for cloud-native SaaS teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria): Most commercial SaaS already hold a SOC 2 Type 2, and FedRAMP 20x Class A is designed for providers that have one.