NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 PS-6(1) — Information Requiring Special Protection

What this control requires

Protect the confidentiality and integrity of information at rest using encryption and access controls. This control supports the Encryption Mechanism capability within the Personnel Security family.

In plain English

Protect the confidentiality and integrity of information at rest using encryption and access controls. 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 Personnel Security, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Control PS-6(1)) 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.
• Data. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Review. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management, information, personnel, encryption, controls, protection, identity, review.

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 Requiring Special Protection.

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) CC6.4 — Physical Access Controls
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.9.2 — Personnel Termination and Transfer
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.2 — Information security roles and responsibilities
• BSI C5:2020 IDM-08 — Confidentiality of authentication information
• CIS Controls v8 6.7 — Centralize Access Control

Related controls in NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5

• Control PS-6(3) — Post-Employment Requirements
• Control PS-6(2) — Classified Information Requiring Special Protection
• Control MP-5(1) — Protection Outside Of Controlled Areas
• Control PS-3(3) — Information Requiring Special Protection Measures
• Control CP-9(4) — Protection From Unauthorized Modification
• Control PS-4 — Personnel Termination

References

• NIST Computer Security Resource Center — NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5
• Catalogue identifier: Control PS-6(1)

Topics: identity accessdata protectionidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged accessapi security