# NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 PM-2 — Information Security Program Leadership Role

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/pm-2-information-security-program-leadership-role
- 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) › PM — Program Management
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5**·Control `PM-2`·critical·Component: **Program Management**

## What this control requires

> Appoint a senior agency information security officer with the authority and resources to coordinate, develop, implement, and maintain an organization-wide information security program. This control supports the enior Information Security Officer (SISO) capability within the Program Management family.
> 
> — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Control PM-2

### In plain English

Appoint a senior agency information security officer with the authority and resources to coordinate, develop, implement, and maintain an organization-wide information security program. 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 **critical** in the source catalogue. Treat gaps here as production incidents in the risk register, not housekeeping.

## 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 **Program Management**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control PM-2) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

1.  Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
2.  Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
3.  Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
4.  Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

### Operational checklist

-   **Access.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Information.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Security.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Review.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Identity.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** management, information, organization, identity, review, capability, implement, security program leadership role.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Identity Scan.** IAM / IdP exports — Entra ID, Okta, IAM Identity Center, Workspace directory — showing accounts, roles, MFA state and last sign-in.

Identity analytics (Okta, SailPoint, Access Analyzer) demonstrates least-privilege. Focus: Information Security Program Leadership Role.

## 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.

-   [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.2** — Information security roles and responsibilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-2-information-security-roles-and-responsibilities)
-   [**CIS Controls v8 9.2** — Use DNS Filtering Services](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/9-2-use-dns-filtering-services)
-   [**NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.9.1** — Personnel Screening](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-9-1-personnel-screening)
-   [**ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.8** — Identity management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-8-identity-management)
-   [**SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC1.5** — Accountability for Internal Control Responsibilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc1-5-accountability-for-internal-control-responsibilities)

## Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5

-   [**Control PM-19** — Privacy Program Leadership Role](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/pm-19-privacy-program-leadership-role)
-   [**Control PM-20** — Dissemination Of Privacy Program Information](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/pm-20-dissemination-of-privacy-program-information)
-   [**Control PM-1** — Information Security Program Plan](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/pm-1-information-security-program-plan)
-   [**Control AU-10(1)** — Association Of Identities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/au-10-1-association-of-identities)
-   [**Control PS-6(3)** — Post-Employment Requirements](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ps-6-3-post-employment-requirements)
-   [**Control IA-5(13)** — Expiration Of Cached Authenticators](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ia-5-13-expiration-of-cached-authenticators)

## 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 PM-2`

Topics: identity accessidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged access

## 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.
