# NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 MA-5(4) — Foreign Nationals - Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ma-5-4-foreign-nationals - 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) › MA — Maintenance - Last updated: 2026-06-05 - Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com) **NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5**·Control `MA-5(4)`·high·Component: **Maintenance** ## What this control requires > Allow foreign nationals with clearances to perform Maintenance on classified systems only if jointly owned/operated by U.S. and allied governments or solely by allied governments, with documented approvals in Memoranda of Agreements. This control supports the Foreign National Access capability within the Maintenance family. > > — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Control MA-5(4) ### In plain English Allow foreign nationals with clearances to perform Maintenance on classified systems only if jointly owned/operated by U.S. In practice, this means you can prove you access 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. 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 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 **Maintenance**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control MA-5(4)) 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 - **Access.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Maintenance.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Response.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Control.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Change.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Scope:** management, only, maintenance, capability, nationals, systems, agreements, response. ## Evidence to collect - **Ticketing Workflow.** `ticketing_workflow` evidence Workflow metrics (ServiceNow, Jira) show approvals and remediation. Focus: Foreign Nationals. ## 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. - [**SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC7.4** — Incident Response](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc7-4-incident-response) - [**CIS Controls v8 5.3** — Disable Dormant Accounts](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/5-3-disable-dormant-accounts) - [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.8** — Information security in project management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-8-information-security-in-project-management) - [**NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.3.6** — Audit Record Reduction and Report Generation](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-3-6-audit-record-reduction-and-report-generation) ## Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 - [**Control MA-4(5)** — Approvals And Notifications](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ma-4-5-approvals-and-notifications) - [**Control MA-7** — Field Maintenance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ma-7-field-maintenance) - [**Control MA-3(2)** — Inspect Media](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ma-3-2-inspect-media) - [**Control MA-6(3)** — Automated Support For Predictive Maintenance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ma-6-3-automated-support-for-predictive-maintenance) - [**Control SC-18(3)** — Prevent Downloading And Execution](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sc-18-3-prevent-downloading-and-execution) - [**Control IR-4(15)** — Public Relations And Reputation Repair](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ir-4-15-public-relations-and-reputation-repair) ## 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 MA-5(4)` Topics: governance riskchange managementincident response ## 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.