# NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 PL-5 — Privacy Impact Assessment - Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/pl-5-privacy-impact-assessment - 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) › PL — Planning - Last updated: 2026-06-05 - Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com) **NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5**·Control `PL-5`·high·Component: **Planning** ## What this control requires > Conduct and document privacy impact assessments to identify and mitigate risks to personally identifiable information. This control supports the Privacy Impact Assessment Report capability within the Planning family. > > — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Control PL-5 ### In plain English Conduct and document privacy impact assessments to identify and mitigate risks to personally identifiable information. In practice, this means you can prove you information 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 **Planning**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control PL-5) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles. ## How to implement #### Secure Development **Pipeline.** Require code review, SAST (Semgrep / Snyk Code), SCA (Dependabot / Renovate), secret-scanning and IaC scanning in the merge pipeline. **Branch protection.** Protected branches enforce reviews, signed commits and passing CI before merge; document the protection rules as the control evidence. #### Code Review Testing **Pipeline.** Require at least one human reviewer plus passing CI (lint, type, unit, security scan) before merge — protected branches enforce this. ### Operational checklist - **Information.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Review.** 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. - **Impact.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence. - **Scope:** management, information, privacy, mitigate risks, personally identifiable information, assessments, assessment, review. ## Evidence to collect - **Code Repo Scan.** Source-control evidence — branch protection, required reviewers, CI status, SCA / SAST reports. Source control pipelines (GitHub, GitLab) enforce SDLC guardrails. Focus: Privacy Impact Assessment. ## Common pitfalls - CI security checks set to warn-only; the merge button is faster than the security feedback. ## Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 - [**Control SI-19(6)** — Differential Privacy](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/si-19-6-differential-privacy) - [**Control SA-12(7)** — Assessments Prior To Selection / Acceptance / Update](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-12-7-assessments-prior-to-selection-acceptance-update) - [**Control RA-4** — Risk Assessment Update](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ra-4-risk-assessment-update) - [**Control CA-7** — Continuous Monitoring](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ca-7-continuous-monitoring) - [**Control PM-25** — Minimization Of Personally Identifiable Information Used In Testing, Training, And Research](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/pm-25-minimization-of-personally-identifiable-information-used-in-testing-training-and) - [**Control PM-6** — Measures Of Performance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/pm-6-measures-of-performance) ## 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 PL-5` Topics: governance risksecure developmentcode review testingdevsecopsprivacy 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.